She is the great favorite to win the Oscar for best actress this year (with permission from Cate Blanchett) and, although the face and name of Michelle Yeoh will not sound familiar to many, it is very likely that Everything at once everywhere may not be the first movie they’ve seen her work on. And it is that her extensive filmography includes hits such as Tiger and Dragon, Memoirs of a Geisha either Avatar. In fact, she was even a Bond girl in The tomorrow Never Die, when Pierce Brosnan played the famous agent 007.
Normally, for an actress, appearing in a film in this franchise is a boost for her career. There we have, for example, the case of Ana de Armas, Yeoh’s fellow nominee. However, for the interpreter of Malaysian origin, this led to a two-year break in which he stopped appearing in Hollywood films, until his triumphant return with the Oscar-winning Tiger and dragon.
However, the most curious thing of all is that it was a conscious decision by the actress, who did not want to sell out to industry stereotypes. She herself has explained it in an interview with the magazine People:
“The first film I made when I arrived in the United States was The tomorrow Never Die, with Pierce Brosnan,” Yeoh explains. “At the time, James Bond was a ‘macho’ and […] in the industry, no one cared if she was chinese, japanese or korean Or if he spoke English. They spoke to me loudly and very slowly,” she continues to explain.
Finally, he sentences: “I did not work for almost two years, until he arrived Tiger and dragonbecause I didn’t want to do the stereotypical roles that I was offered“. A risky decision that, luckily, turned out well for that newcomer to the mecca of cinema. As well as that this Sunday she could take home a first and well-deserved Academy Award.
Cover photo | A24
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