Stephanie Hsu: ‘Laid,’ ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once,’ and More
The Last Laugh
The Daily Beast
4.6 • 661 Ratings
🗓️ 8 January 2025
⏱️ 47 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Stephanie Hsu broke through—and landed her first Oscar nomination—three years ago in Best Picture winner ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once.’ That film had some oddball laughs for sure, but if you had only seen her in the dual roles of the diminutive Joy Wang and villainous Jobu Tupaki, you would have no idea she was capable of playing a classic rom-com lead like she does in the new Peacock series ‘Laid.’ In this episode, Hsu talks about how a background in comedy helped prepare her to portray a deeply flawed character who discovers that all of the men she has slept with are dying and why getting cast in the show felt like a “huge step” in the fight for representation on TV. She also gets into the wild journey from her audition for ‘Everything Everywhere’ to the Oscars, explains why she turned down the chance to possibly play Glinda in John M. Chu’s ‘Wicked,’ and teases her upcoming buddy comedy with ‘Abbott Elementary’s’ Quinta Brunson.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is the Last Laugh. |
| 0:06.6 | I'm Matt Wilstein from The Daily Beast. |
| 0:08.9 | My guest on this week's show might be best known for singing |
| 0:11.8 | one of the strangest lines of dialogue to appear in any movie, |
| 0:16.2 | let alone a best picture winner at the Academy Awards. |
| 0:20.0 | Sucked into a bagel. |
| 0:30.7 | Yes, today on the show, we have Stephanie Shue, |
| 0:34.0 | who also landed her first Oscar nomination for playing Joy, |
| 0:38.4 | as well as her supervillain counterpart Jobu Tupacchi, in the 2022 Juggernaut, Everything Everywhere, all at |
| 0:44.0 | once. |
| 0:44.7 | But as I learned in this conversation with Stephanie, she actually started her career in the comedy |
| 0:49.2 | world, something that is very apparent in her latest project, a not quite as weird but still pretty |
| 0:55.0 | out there rom-com on Peacock called Laid. |
| 0:58.7 | Stephanie plays Ruby, a young single woman looking for love who starts to realize that |
| 1:04.2 | everyone she's ever had sex with is dying in the order she slept with them. |
| 1:09.1 | It's a bizarre premise that ends up delivering a very funny and even moving at times |
| 1:14.4 | eight-episode series. |
| 1:16.0 | And there really is no one who could have played this role quite as convincingly as Stephanie. |
| 1:20.6 | Before we get into our conversation, which also covers her wild, everything everywhere |
| 1:25.0 | experience, why she turned down the chance to audition for the role |
| 1:28.1 | of Glinda in John M. Chu's Wicked, her upcoming collaboration with Abbott Elementary's Quinta Brunson, |
| 1:34.0 | and more. Let's listen to a clip from Laid. Her character Ruby has decided that she needs to warn her |
... |
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