Since breaking into the Hong Kong movie industry in the 1980s, Michelle Yeoh has been making steady strides towards her historic Oscar win
A veritable shattering of the glass ceiling, Michelle Yeoh has become the first Malaysian to win an Oscar for Best Actress. On March 12, 2023, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, Yeoh also became the first Asian to win in this category in the Oscars’ 95-year history. “For all the little boys and girls who look like me tonight watching tonight, this is a beacon of hope and possibilities, " the visibly moved Yeoh said during her acceptance speech. “This is proof that dream big (sic) and dreams do come true.”
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Although she has been acting for nearly 40 years, Yeoh never wanted to be a movie star. Her dream was to be a dancer—she studied ballet at the Royal Academy of Dance in London—but that was dashed when she injured her back. Later, without her knowing, Yeoh’s mother signed her up for Miss World Malaysia in 1983, eventually winning the beauty pageant. “I did it to shut her up!” she said on The Graham Norton Show recently.
She then got a gig appearing in a Hong Kong watch commercial starring opposite Jackie Chan, playing the ‘girlfriend’ part. While she is now well known for being able to kick butt with the best of them on screen, including Chan and even James Bond, her first movie role was a damsel in distress in the comedy The Owl vs Bumbo.
(Also, did you know that Yeoh’s award-winning role in Everything Everywhere All at Once was originally offered to Chan? No shade to Chan, but aren’t you glad they made the change?)
As a self-confessed sporty person, Yeoh wanted to be able to do more, so much so that she asked the “boys” to let her do her own stunts. In spite of the obstacles before her, from misogyny to the risk of serious injury, Yeoh committed to this and has since thrilled audiences with her martial arts skill in numerous movies including Yes, Madam, Police Story 3: Super Cop, The Heroic Trio, Wing Chun, Reign of Assassins, and of course, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
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As famous as she is for her action roles, Yeoh was also given the opportunity to exercise her acting chops in, among others, The Soong Sisters (for which she was nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the Hong Kong Film Awards), The Lady (a biopic of Burmese activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi), Memoirs of A Geisha, and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (for which she was nominated for Best Actress at the BAFTAs, the Hong Kong Film Awards and the Golden Horse Awards).
Her debut foray into Hollywood was a prestige project opposite Pierce Brosnan, the 18th Bond film called Tomorrow Never Dies. Since then, she has been working steadily in East and West, building an impressive portfolio that eventually culminated in 2018’s groundbreaking Crazy Rich Asians, the first Hollywood movie with an all-Asian cast since The Joy Luck Club in 1993. She was memorable as Eleanor Young, the domineering mother to Henry Golding’s Nick.
