Michelle Yeoh says this daily ritual 'bonded' the 'Everything Everywhere' cast as 'family'

Making the Oscar-nominated movie “Everything Everywhere All at Once” was a true team effort.

Michelle Yeoh, who earned a best actress Oscar nod for her work in the movie, said the cast and crew “bonded” while making the film.

“This was quite an incredible shoot,” she said March 1 on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” while noting it took 38 days and that their final night of filming was the day people went into lockdown due to the pandemic.

“We were bonded. We started off as cast and crew, but we ended up as family because we had to do this together.”

Yeoh, whose work in the movie earned her a Screen Actors Guild Award and a Golden Globe Award, said directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert also had a "lovely ritual” each morning.

“Everybody would gather. And being an indie film, every minute costs money,” she said.

“But we took the time to look at each other in the eyes. We looked at each other. We saw each other. Everyone knew that we were there together. We were family. There was no hierarchy. We were all equals pouring our love into this little gem and we were just polishing it. So, for 15 minutes, we would do warmup exercises.

“We would take turns in leading the warmup. Of course, Jamie Lee’s is the humping pelvis,” she said, drawing laughter.

“And I did the dragon dance,” she continued, mimicking the moves she made.

“All the crew normally that you don’t see because they are busy, very busy doing the props and things like that, they would come out and for 15 minutes we looked at each other’s eyes and (said), ‘Come on. We’re in this together. We are going to give it our heart and soul because we believe in it and we love it.’ We embraced each other, like the everything bagel.”

Whatever the cast and crew did, it seems to have worked. “Everything Everywhere All at Once” leads all movies with 11 Oscar nominations. Viewers will learn if the film takes home any hardware when the Academy Awards take place Sunday, March 12.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com