Everyone everywhere seems to be talking about “Everything Everywhere All at Once!” Whether it’s the buzz surrounding the 2022 fantasy film’s whopping 11 Oscar nominations (the most of any movie this year!) or the photograph of Jamie Lee Curtis cheering on costar Michelle Yeoh’s recent Golden Globes win currently sweeping social media, the production is certainly reaching Zeitgeist status.
Billed as a “sci-fi action-adventure about family,” the flick centers around disgruntled middle-aged Chinese American laundromat owner Joy Wang (Yeoh), who learns during an IRS tax audit that she is the only person who can save the world from an Elvis-jump-suit-wearing villain named Jobu Tupaki (Stephanie Hsu) and is subsequently sprung into a mind-bending adventure spanning multiple universes and times.
Shot in Los Angeles in early 2020 on a scant $14 million budget, directors/screenwriters Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (collectively known as “the Daniels”) utilized practical locations instead of Hollywood soundstages and green screens to economically bring the story to life. As Curtis noted in an Instagram post, the film “cost less than the entire craft service budget on ‘Doctor Strange’ and/or any other Marvel movie.”
To accomplish the seemingly-impossible feat, the production team stuck to shooting at only a handful of spots, with the vast majority of footage captured at a rather nondescript building abutting the 118 Freeway in Ventura County. Formerly serving as corporate offices for both Bank of America and the now defunct Countrywide Financial, the two-story, 290,000-square-foot structure located at 400 National Way in Simi Valley (which also portrayed the PlayTronics headquarters in the 1992 thriller “Sneakers”) was vacant at the time of the shoot and, therefore able to be used extensively, with the Daniels transforming it into a veritable production facility. Kwan told Screen Daily, “We basically recreated our version of a studio. That’s really what we did in this random building, for much cheaper and within our own process. It felt so efficient, so fun. Everyone got to interact and hang out.”
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Image Credit: A24 The Daniels made use of every square inch of the structure, including the cubicles, the lobby and the stunning atrium, a grand space featuring a glass stairwell, a fountain and a plethora of foliage. Many of the film’s sets were even created on the premises. Scheinert details, “We didn’t want to spend all our time traveling around. In one room, they’d be building the apartment set. In one room, the stunt team would be rehearsing a fight. In one room, the lighting team would be pre-lighting. And in another room, we’d be shooting.”
Sadly, the unique glass and stuccoed building was thoroughly gutted and transformed into an Amazon warehouse following the shoot, with most of the areas seen onscreen, including the glorious atrium, lost to the wrecking ball.
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Image Credit: Lindsay Blake for Dirt Another of the film’s most prominent spots, thankfully, still stands, though. Jobu Tupaki’s lair, where the villain creates an everything bagel portal (yes, an everything bagel portal), is actually Vibiana, a former Catholic church turned special events venue located at 214 S. Main St. in downtown Los Angeles.
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Image Credit: Lindsay Blake for Dirt The historic Baroque-style sanctuary was initially erected in 1876 as the Cathedral of Saint Vibiana, designed by architects W.J. Mathews and Ezra F. Kysor. Outfitted with an 83-foot bell tower capped by a 3,500-pound cupola and boasting seating for 1,200 (which at the time was one-tenth of the city’s population!), the site “served not just Los Angeles but the entire diocese from San Diego to Monterey,” according to “An Architectural Guidebook to Los Angeles.”
In 1922, nearly five decades after its inception, architect John C. Austin, who also designed such celebrated buildings as L.A.’s City Hall, the Griffith Observatory and the Shrine Auditorium, was employed to refashion the church with a gorgeous façade composed of bright Indiana limestone.
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Image Credit: Lindsay Blake for Dirt St. Vibiana enjoyed a long stint as Los Angeles’ premier Catholic church, even serving as a home base for Pope John Paul II during his much-heralded visit to the city in 1987. But everything changed in 1994 when the Northridge Earthquake struck and significantly damaged the structure, along with countless others in the area. By that time, the archdiocese had outgrown the cathedral and, as such, set sights on demolishing it to build a larger sanctuary in its place.
As the dismantling process began, local preservationists took note, ultimately stepping in to thwart the razing via a restraining order secured by the Los Angeles Conservancy. The organization’s then executive director, Linda Dishman (who is now president and CEO), told the L.A. Times, “They were stripping the interior. [Attorney] Jack [Rubens] got on the phone and found a judge and got a temporary restraining order. We stopped everything.” Following a prolonged and much-heated back and forth between concerned citizens, Los Angeles bureaucrats and the archdiocese, the city decided to give the latter a large piece of land just a few blocks away from St. Vibiana in exchange for ownership of the damaged church. The structure was then sold to Tom Gilmore and Jerri Perrone, longtime area developers fixated on restoring historic properties.
The duo revitalized and retrofitted the site to the tune of $8 million, transforming it into a special events venue/community arts center initially named Vibiana Place (later shortened to the simpler Vibiana), which opened its doors in 2005 with a large gala fundraiser benefiting the Conservancy. As detailed in a Los Angeles Times article chronicling the revamp, “With the pews and many of the religious items removed from the church, it had the appearance of being a clean slate, an airy space ready to be transformed by those who walked through its doors and onto the gleaming hardwood floors.” Everything from wrap parties to weddings to bar mitzvahs have been regularly hosted on the premises ever since.
In 2012, restaurateurs Neal Fraser and Amy Knoll took over the church’s former rectory, opening their flagship eatery, the Modern American-themed Redbird, in the glass-ceilinged space. It has gone on to become one of the city’s most celebrated dining rooms, even appearing on Wine Enthusiast’s “Top 100 Wine Restaurants in the United States” list.
And to think it all almost fell to the wrecking ball! As the Conservancy website reports, “The effort to save the Cathedral of St. Vibiana was a defining moment for Los Angeles preservation. Its creative adaptive reuse solution continues to serve as a model for projects across the region.”
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Image Credit: Lindsay Blake for Dirt The site’s glorious Main Hall appears several times throughout “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” with Joy facing a life-changing decision amongst the room’s cinematic Carrara marble walls, corinthian columns and towering barrel-vaulted ceiling in the movie’s climax.
The film is hardly the first to make use of the striking structure, though.
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Image Credit: Buena Vista Television Back in 2004, the former church played an important role in the season three episode of “Alias” titled “Full Disclosure,” popping up as the Patagonian headquarters of The Covenant where Sydney Bristow (Jennifer Garner) thwarts the group’s plan to fertilize her stolen eggs.
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Image Credit: Showtime Entertainment Hank Moody (David Duchovny) attempts to confess his sins there in a rather controversial dream sequence featured in the pilot episode of “Californication.” (Only the interior of Vibiana was utilized in the scene. Exteriors were filmed about six miles away at Hollywood Forever Cemetery.)
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Image Credit: MTV The locale is prominently showcased in a couple of episodes of “The Hills,” season three’s “Stress and the City” and “Young Hollywood,” as the spot where series stars Lauren Conrad and Whitney Port plan a party for Teen Vogue.
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Image Credit: Screen Gems Georgia (Julianne Hough) gets married there in the 2010 musical “Burlesque.”
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Image Credit: Paramount Marty Deeks (Eric Christian Olsen) and his team arrest a suspect in the parking lot outside of Vibiana in the season three episode of “NCIS: Los Angeles” titled “Sacrifice.”
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Image Credit: Focus Features The former church masquerades as a Jewish synagogue, where Aidan Bloom (Zach Braff) heads to meet with Rabbi Rosenberg (Alexander Chaplin), in the 2014 comedy “Wish I Was Here.”
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Image Credit: Disney+ Beyonce shot some scenes for her 2020 musical film/visual album “Black Is King” at the site.
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Image Credit: Universal Music Group And The Weeknd’s 2021 “Save Your Tears” music video was captured in its entirety at Vibiana.
It’s certainly quite a resume! You might even say the venue has been “everywhere” and appeared as “everything” onscreen!