After raking in a whole bunch of trophies at the Independent Spirit Awards and the SAG Awards, Everything Everywhere All At Once is on course to receive even more accolades at this weekend’s Oscars. And with that extra attention, an unassuming laundromat in San Fernando, Los Angeles is likely to become even busier than it has been over the last year.
Majers Coin Laundry has, according to a recent Los Angeles Times article, become a tourist destination that draws fans “from as close as Burbank and as far as Singapore” after its appearance as Evelyn and Waymond Wang’s family business in Everything Everywhere All At Once.
Fans “pose for selfies in front of the building’s recognizable green and red signage,” the article explains. “Some come in costume. Others simply gawk at the washing machines and dryers, attempting to relive shots from the movie.”
Its owners, Kenny and Irene Majers, have run the business, which was built by Kenny’s grandfather in 1983, since shortly after they met in Mexico City. Irene, a former jazz vocalist, has since started working as a registered nurse but she formerly “did much of the office work” (including the taxes) at the laundromat while Kenny was largely responsible for working on the washing and drying machines. The two, like the Wangs, have one daughter and Irene describes her and her husband’s personalities as fairly similar to Evelyn and Waymond’s.
The laundromat was turned into a film set for just under a week in March 2020 and is pretty faithfully represented on screen, aside from a superimposed second-floor apartment for exterior shots and the fact that the movie’s upstairs door is actually just the entrance to “a boiler room and supply closet.”
Despite the only on-site souvenirs from the shoot consisting of a “dented washer from a scene where Yeoh tees off with a baseball bat” and “signs written in Chinese advising customers not to overload the washing machines with clothes,” it keeps drawing Everything Everywhere All At Once fans. The article describes one who’s “seen the movie at least 25 times” and says visiting Majers “felt like a weird, nostalgic thing even though I’d never been there before.” Another couple mentioned in the article stopped by in costume on Halloween and says that a conversation after their tour “about their love for the film and life” is now a “super bittersweet, beautiful [moment]” that’s “attached to that laundromat.”
For Kenny and Irene, watching the movie being filmed and when finished in theaters was similarly emotional. Kenny remembers having to sit in his car and cry after seeing one scene being shot because it made him reflect on his life, which, like the Wangs, is tied to the laundromat.
For more on Majers Coin Laundry and the Majer family, read the full article over at the Los Angeles Times.
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