The 2023 Oscars are not going to stop until they disqualify someone. If you already tried with the fabulous interpretation of Andrea Riseborough in ‘To Leslie’ (without success), now it’s Michelle Yeoh’s turn for an Instagram post that was deleted almost immediately after uploading it but that may have breached the basic rules of the Academy. Let’s see what exactly happened.
Everything, at once, in one post
It turns out that Yeoh, nominated for ‘Everything, at once, everywhere’, posted (or rather her team of networks) in parts a Vogue article titled ‘It’s been two decades since we’ve had a best actress winner who wasn’t white. Will this change in 2023?’ The problem is not the post itself, but one of the parts where it says the following.
Detractors would say Blanchett is the stronger performance – the veteran actress is unarguably amazing as prolific director Lydia Tár – but it should be noted that she already has two Oscars. A third party would perhaps confirm her status as an industry titan, but considering her incredible and expansive body of work, do we need further confirmation? For Yeoh, meanwhile, an Oscar would be life-changing: Her name would always be preceded by the phrase “Academy Award Winner,” and would result in better roles, after a criminally underused decade in Hollywood.
The post came out a few hours before the voting period closed. for the Academy… And the error is noted in the rules for the campaign: “Any tactic that talks about ‘the competition’ by name or titles is expressly prohibited”. Sure, Yeoh didn’t write those words, but sharing them is still a tactic. Something similar, and also with Cate Blanchett, is what the official account of ‘To Leslie’ did, putting a quote from the Chicago Sun-Times, something that academics have yet to review.
Just four and a half days from the gala, nobody expected that the controversy and the drama would arrive in this wayand although everything probably remains in a couple of jokes from Jimmy Kimmel at the beginning of the gala, the truth is that the day for Yeoh’s promotion team must not have had it easy that day at all in any multiverse.