A24’s ‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’ is a highly-lauded spectacle for many reasons. In this film, a collision of sorts occurs; credit to directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, who ambitiously roped in a myriad of genres and tropes, all to have everything collapse onto a poignant metaphor. Michelle Yeoh is the main heroine, playing the stern, yet burdened woman of the house. Her character, Evelyn, tries to hold everything together in the many roles she plays—of a failing business owner, a wife and a mother to an estranged teenage daughter. That’s not all, shy of half hour into the film, everything is thrown on its axis when Evelyn is dragged into a multiverse mission—to only meet with more versions of herself, and then tasked to save the entire world from a villain from another universe, an iteration of her daughter, Joy (played by Stephanie Hsu).
The mind-bending film goes from 0-100 in an instant, where zany characters (from the likes of Jenny Slate to Harry Shum Jr.) are introduced one after another. Including the main protagonist, Joy’s evil universe twin, the transformative villain who takes on an onslaught of looks that veer from the bizarre to the outlandish. All of these were masterminded by department head of make-up, Michelle Chung, who’s based in Los Angeles and specialises in make-up on set for film and television.
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“It was truly a collaborative process coming up with the looks, between the costume designer Shirley Kurata, the hair department head Anissa Salazar and myself. I created mood boards for most of the looks, and would pull inspiration from everywhere I could. From artists, as well as editorial fashion, runway, Instagram, Pinterest, everywhere. I had my own ideas, and then would see the costume or hair inspiration. Sometimes it would align, and sometimes I would be inspired by them to move in another direction. We didn’t really have a lot of time, so many of the looks were inspired by trying to find the most amount of impact in a short amount of time,”explains Chung tells Vogue Singapore.
With 15 years under her belt, she’s no stranger to the intensity and effort it takes to do make-up on set; but ‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’s sheer amount of looks and variety is by far, the most she has had to do in the span of her career. “We really didn’t have a lot of time on this film, so some looks were a quick burst of colour to give maximum impact, and some were a little more involved. A lot of the looks were done in less than half an hour, to maximise shooting time with the actors. I tend to work fairly quickly, which really helped me on this film.”
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Her work on set translated on the visages of Joy as well as Evelyn, who too goes through a series of transformations, albeit in less dramatic fashion. “I would have conversations with both Michelle and Stephanie about the looks to see if they had ideas as well. We really were all on the same page, which was so great.”
Below, Chung tells us more about the inspiration, make-up products she used as well as her tips for older skin.
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On creating the barrage of looks for Joy
“Inspiration came from everywhere. I pulled a bunch of images I loved and put them all in a big folder. I pulled from K-beauty looks, editorial shoots, fashion photography, street kids, clown make-up, runway looks, art books, other films, other makeup artists, as well as going by the costumes and hair. Anywhere I could be inspired from really. And then I tried to narrow it down into different mood boards, depending on the costume. From there, I would pull elements and inspiration from all the images and create a new look.
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Make-up products that were used for the film
“I am a make-up junkie and love trying new things, so I have so many different products from different brands, and it was so fun to be able to use so many things that I don’t get to use a lot. The MAC acrylic paints and paintsticks were so great for the really crazy looks, and then I actually also used a lot of my go-to brands, like Armani and Koh Gen Do. I used Kosas tinted face oil for Stephanie’s skin, and Ilia makes some beautiful blushes.”
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Make-up products that were used for the film
“Sunnies Face has some beautiful lip colours that I used a lot and Anastasia Beverly Hills for brows. Pat Mcgrath‘s eye shadows are really amazing for some funkier colours and lip glitter, as well as Lime Crime for some crazy colours. I used so many brands that I love—I could go on and on. But skincare was key for me. I used Weleda and Tatcha.”
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On her favourite look of Joy's
“It’s hard to pick a favourite with Stephanie’s looks. She is so expressive with her face and actions, she really brought all the looks to life, and made them even more than just a painted face.
But I do love the look that was in the staircase fight sequence, which some people are calling the Picasso look and we called it the hodgepodge look. The make-up idea really came from a lot of editorial magazine shoots and the runway of some amazing designers, as well as some art inspiration, including Picasso. I was interested in creating a look that matched her costume, where pieces of all of her costumes throughout the movie were combined. So I tried to match the same feeling with her makeup, so that her eyes were both open and closed at the same time, and both smiling and frowning. For everything to be on her face at once—the culmination of all of her characters.”
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On working with Michelle Yeoh
“Working with Michelle Yeoh was a dream! She’s such a legend and so professional, and it was a joy to be with her every day. She had such an intense schedule, with so much physical work as well as emotional work, but she was always so easy to work with and we had such a fun time. She was always so happy to be there and willing to do what it takes to get things done.
Michelle’s everyday “Evelyn” look was really trying to make her look less beautiful because she’s so stunning with no makeup. So we really had to add texture and unevenness to her skin, and make her look more weathered and tired, and less glamorous. We had to add darkness under the eyes, and just make her look like the worst version of herself.”
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Movie star glam
“I did get to glam her up for the movie star universe, which was so fun. She is such a beauty, inside and out, so I’m glad I got to make her look beautiful for at least a short part of the movie. She’s already so naturally beautiful, so it was more about just letting her natural beauty shine through with this look.”
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On working with mature, older skin
“I try to add a lot of moisture and luminosity to the skin, and only powder when necessary.”
