Stephanie Hsu was the talk of Twitter this award season. Mainly because award shows were, for some reason, leaving her out of the Best Supporting Actress nominees. It was frustrating because she is easily one of the best performances from 2022 and is the heart and driving force of Everything Everywhere All At Once where she plays Joy Wang, the daughter of Evelyn (Michelle Yeoh) and Waymond (Ke Huy Quan).
Throughout this season, Yeoh, Quan, and the movie has been constantly up for awards with Yeoh and Quan taking home a great deal of them. (Both are also nominated this time along with Jamie Lee Curtis and the Daniels.) But Stephanie Hsu was seemingly left out each and every time to the anger of fans of the movie. Mainly because she’s just that good.
It became something that many on Twitter picked up on and were mad about. Because if anyone deserved the push, it was Hsu and her performance (and yet we saw a frustrating viral campaign towards the end for a movie that no one saw). Now though, many online are celebrating Hsu and the nomination she received (and should have been getting throughout this whole award season).
It’s just exciting for fans of Everything Everywhere All At Once to see how the brilliant cast is getting the recognition that they have always deserved. Because Yeoh, Quan, and Hsu are all first-time nominees and Hsu is part of history as the first time two Asian actresses were nominated in any acting category together (along with Hong Chau for The Whale) and if Yeoh takes the win (as she should) she’d be the first Asian actress to win Best Actress.
And it is incredible to see both Hsu and Chau up for their performances this year, both of whom deserve it so much. Both The Whale and Everything Everywhere All At Once work so well because of Chau and Hsu’s performances (respectively) in them. Seeing them both make history at the Oscars is incredible!
It just feels right to see Stephanie Hsu’s name among the nominees. She’s someone who brought such life and variation to Jobu Tupaki and compared to her performance as Joy in Evelyn’s main timeline, there are just so many levels to her performance and it felt wrong to see her left out of the conversation. Now, she’s always going to be labeled as, at least, Oscar Nominee Stephanie Hsu and we love to see it.
(featured image: A24)
