Michelle Yeoh is one of the actresses of the moment. Her skills with her martial arts are well known in the world, as well as the admiration that one of the most famous directors in Hollywood has for her: Quentin Tarantino. Knowing this, the question is clear: Why did Tarantino not take the opportunity to work with the actress in ‘Kill Bill’? Yeoh clears it up for us.
Yeoh vs. Kiddo?
Michelle Yeoh is not a newcomer to cinema: she has been making films since 1984 but was ‘Tiger and Dragon’ the movie that put her on the international map as an action heroine, in addition to his participation in the 007 saga with ‘Tomorrow never dies’. The actress has numerous martial arts productions to her credit and performs (without resorting to stunt doubles) her own stunt scenes.
One of his biggest longtime fans is director Quentin Tarantino, who quoted ‘supercop’ (‘Police Story 2’) as one of his main references for the character of The Bride played by Uma Thurman in both volumes of ‘Kill Bill’. With this in mind, many (including Yeoh herself) wondered why he didn’t bring her in for what is her own love letter to the martial arts genre.
Yeoh recently confirmed in an interview what Tarantino told him when he asked him about it some time later:
He is very clever. He said to me, “Who would believe that Uma Thurman could kick your ass?”
Yeoh and Tarantino have been friends for a long time. In fact, it was the director who convinced her not to retire after the injury who suffered in the back on the set of ‘The Stunt Woman’. Tarantino visited her in the hospital during the filming of ‘Pulp Fiction’ and made her think that she “maybe she wasn’t ready to give up on this yet.”
The actress is going through a good working moment right nowafter starring in ‘Everything at the same time everywhere’, one of the indie surprises of 2022, lending his voice in ‘Minions: the origin of Gru’ and entering the Marvel universe through the front door with ‘Shang Chi’ (although already premiered before with a small role in ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2’).
With ‘Avatar: Sense of Water’ due to be released this year (plus all the ‘Avatar’ sequels on his agenda for the future) and Tarantino saying he wants to retire after his next movie, will we finally see a collaboration? Between both? Yeoh hope so.