Everything Everywhere All at Once: Belonging & Acceptance Across the Multiverse

We all know that Hollywood has its issues and that its award shows are no exception. Every once in a while though, they get it right. This is true of the recent awards sweep by the 2022 film Everything Everywhere All at Once, which secured seven Academy Awards and six Golden Globes, and has captured, by some measures, more accolades than any other film in history. Written and directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (the “Daniels”), it has also garnered many firsts in Hollywood history, including the first movie with a queer female protagonist to win Best Picture, and the first Asian woman to win Best Actress. For anyone who has not yet seen the movie, I highly recommend watching it on the big screen at least once for the full cinematic experience.

We are all, both in and out of the workplace and across the multiverse, whole, authentic individuals in our own right — shaped, but not bound, by our identity, culture, background, and upbringing.

Despite all the action and multiple plotlines, when someone asks me what the movie is about, I tell them it focuses on the love and acceptance between parents and children, particularly between mothers and daughters. Because for me, at its core, that’s what the movie is all about. Even though it features a predominantly Asian and Asian American cast and plenty of nods to Chinese culture (trust me, the Chinglish Evelyn uses to communicate with her family is spot on and pretty much how I talk with my family), it’s not an Asian movie per se. And that’s why I love it so much. While it’s important to represent and celebrate all cultures, movies also need to be careful not to tokenize or exoticize them. Going too far in that direction only serves to “other” these cultures, which runs counter to engendering acceptance for and understanding of different viewpoints.

Organizations can run into similar issues if they aren’t careful. Some still utilize a “quota” hiring system, which seeks solely to fill a certain number of positions with new employees of a certain identity. While quota systems have been proven to be successful in achieving certain goals, this approach is problematic if organizations don’t meaningfully attend to other more significant cultural challenges. If there are no resources in place to ensure that all voices are heard and represented, then organizations are not truly solving for any of the systemic barriers to a more inclusive workplace. Worse, these “diversity hires” are often tokenized and treated as representatives of their entire group, rather than real, individual people and colleagues with their own goals, motivations, and needs. Many struggle to be seen as more than just an “employee of color” or “the new LGBTQ hire”, for instance, and quickly tire of others asking them questions about “their people”. A quota system is not a replacement for all employees being responsible for their own learning and growth, and it will not fix any deep-rooted issues in the organization that may still undermine certain groups’ access to opportunity. In fact, they often experience high turnover rates as new hires quickly run into the same old obstacles, and seek better, more equitable employment elsewhere.

EEAAO covers (multi)universal experiences like generational and cultural gaps, struggles with identity and expectations, and the implication that no matter what reality we’re in, we just want to be cherished and accepted by our families for who we are. These are themes that everyone can relate to, and I believe that is what makes the movie such a wide-ranging success. Anyone who watches can take something away from it, and that’s the true magic of the film. Similarly, we need to remember that we are all, both in and out of the workplace and across the multiverse, whole, authentic individuals in our own right—shaped, but not bound, by our identity, culture, background, and upbringing. These things definitely need to be cherished and shared across differences so we can truly connect and show up for each other, but we should never use them to define or tokenize someone. Instead, we should search for commonalities that allow us to share in universal experiences and emotions, which we can all explore together.