Everything Everywhere All At Once’s Stephanie Hsu remakes Australian romantic comedy, Laid

Stephanie Hsu has an affinity with Australia she can’t quite explain.

In late-2022, she was “commuting” to and from Sydney to shoot her role in the Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt action movie, The Fall Guy. Filming scenes in the harbourside neighbourhood of Miller’s Point, she was even photographed by paparazzi, along with scene partners Gosling and a pack of dogs.

Now, she’s the star and producer of the American remake of a 2011 Australian comedy, Laid.

“It’s funny, I had an astrology reading once and they said that I had very good geographical lines in Australia, and it does feel like I constantly return to Down Under,” she told The Nightly.

She was on a plane from Sydney to Los Angeles when she found she was nominated for an Oscar for her role on the phenomenal Everything Everywhere All At Once, which took home seven wins. Hsu only didn’t win for her performance as the sorcerer of pain-fuelled chaos because castmate Jamie Lee Curtis emerged victorious in their category.

It was a huge break-out for an actor who has been in the business for a decade, slugging away on shows such as The Path, Marvelous Mrs Maisel and Girl Code. Everything Everywhere All At Once changed everything.

Among the many projects that she was pitched in the aftermath was Laid, Nahnatchka Khan’s (Fresh Off the Boat, Don’t Trust the B in Apartment 23) adaptation of Laid.

“We hadn’t met before and I was in New York and she flew out to meet me and she took me to a fancy bagel restaurant, which I now know was her way of nodding to Everything Everywhere,” she recalled, referring to the pivotal “everything bagel” in the film.

Hsu loved the concept of Laid, a comedy about a thirty-something woman who discover all her ex-lovers are dying, and in the sequence in which she slept with them.

The original series was created by Marieke Hardy and Kirsty Fisher and starred Alison Bell in the role Hsu now plays, with Celia Pacquola as the friend who helps to unravel the mystery of this strange curse. The friend role is played by Zosia Mamet in the remake.

There had been whispers of a US remake as early as 2011 but it’s taken this long for it to eventuate. Once Hsu was attached, the series had an immediate green light from the network. It must be exciting to have a name that can make projects happen.

“It’s not always that way,” she said, laughing. “But it is cool when that does happen.”

There were a few reasons why Hsu wanted in on Laid. One was that she ran into Ali Wong on a flight and asked her opinion of Khan (Wong and Khan are frequent collaborators including Always Be My Maybe). Hsu said Wong had told her, “‘She’s one of my favourite people to work with’ and that sealed the deal for me”.

The other was that Hsu would get to be a producer.

“I made it very clear that if I attached, I would really want to be taken under their wing for that aspect. It was so much fun, and also an opportunity to make something and try something new and learn along the way.”

Working closely with Khan as a producer as well as an actor gave her fresh insight into the business. She said, “So is so kind and collaborative, and also very clear. So, when inevitably, when sh*t hits the fan, because it always does, she’s able to make clear, concise decisions with kindness.

“And that ability to trust your gut and make a choice, or pivot and come up with a new plan, is really admirable, and definitely something that I’ve been trying to take with me onto other projects.”

Hsu is not yet ready to produce things she’s not also acting in but that’s where she’s heading down the line. “One day, for sure, there are already projects that I’m ageing out of where I’m like, ‘Someone should make this,” but I’m not there yet.”

As a producer, she had greater input in protecting her character, which has been renamed as Ruby from Roo. She heard stories that the executives at the studio originally did not like Ruby, that they were worried the audience wouldn’t either.

“I didn’t even know this was a concern of theirs until we started filming – and they were relieved.

“I get that she’s a narcissist, I get that she’s selfish, but I have to play her so I have to understand her psychology and why she is the way she is, and find a way to love her.”

Hsu explained that what Ruby doesn’t have, which is root of some of her more caustic behaviour, is that she doesn’t understand when love is love. She added, “Her bad behaviour comes from a very honest, earnest question, which is, ‘How do you know when?’.

“When you’re a producer you have a say in being able to protect those parts of the story.

“Ruby is messy and a little bit lost, and I think there are so many people who could actually really relate to Ruby. That to me is really exciting. I like characters who feel like they could be you, your neighbour or your best friend.”

Hsu described the eight-part show as a “twisted rom-com” rather than a dark rom-com. But given the volume and creativity of deaths in the show (there’s one involving a baseball to a temple, a chandelier and an out-of-nowhere car crash, the latter was Hsu’s favourite), others have been less whimsical about it.

“Now that more people have seen it, everyone’s like ‘it’s kind of dark’ and I’m like, ‘OK, I guess I’m just sick!’.

“The show is not meant to be alienating, there is a lot of joy and big-heartedness in it, and it’s not self-serious in a way that I think is really refreshing.”

Laid is on Binge from December 19