BBC recently interviewed Michelle Yeoh regarding her role in Everything Everywhere All at Once.
Writer Derek Cai emphasized an interesting piece of dialogue Stephanie Hsu has in the film. Her character asks “Is it that I can’t be here or that I’m not allowed to be here?”
The question was raised by the film’s antagonist and Yeoh believes it sums up her journey in Hollywood.
Yeoh plays Evelyn Wang, the protagonists who is a Chinese-American immigrant and laundromat owner who becomes entangled with the multiverse.
“You want to have that seat at the table, so you can have the privilege to be seen and heard,” Yeoh says in the interview. “What I’m asking for is the privilege to compete.”
“Even from the day [Evelyn Wang] was born, her father says she’s a failure, because she was born a girl. It’s been a long time since I’ve read something that resonated so deeply with me.”
Yeoh’s character has reverberated with a broad audience. She won acting awards at the Screen Actors Guild and Golden Globes. She would like to receive the same spotlight at the upcoming Oscars.
“I’m very aware that it’s beyond me being recognized as an actress. It’s a whole community of Asians coming forward and saying: You have to do this for us.”
“Asians tend to not show so much emotion. And I think maybe it’s a misconception that we don’t need our stories told, which is not true,” she says. “It’s how we tell the story that makes a difference. The audience wants Hollywood to reflect the global community.”
Before entering Hollywood, Yeoh was a successful actress in Asia. She was born in Malaysia and attended the Royal Academy of Dance in London. However, her dance career had been cut short due to a back injury. Even though she experienced a setback, she credits dance for helping her prepare to do her own stunts in action films.
Yeoh won the Miss Malaysia pageant and started her film career in Hong Kong with her famous role in Yes Madam! in 1985.
“I got myself into action films because I didn’t believe that women were damsels in distress. Their stories need to be told correctly,” Yeoh says.
Cody Foo was Yeoh’s neighbor in Malaysia when he was five: “I remember my mum wanted to hang out with her all the time. I knew she was important because my mum would call her Aunty Michelle Yeoh, not Aunty Michelle. I remember asking to play with her keychain once and she let me, happy that it kept a child occupied while she chatted with my mum. She was basically like any other Aunty.”
“It is difficult to even imagine what success looks like for us minorities in the creative field, until Michelle Yeoh showed me that I could,” says Foo.
“In 1996, we went down to support her at the opening of her restaurant. Shortly after that, she left Malaysia to shoot Tomorrow Never Dies,” he says.
The James Bond film was Yeoh’s first project in Hollywood. She expressed to Elle magazine: “They were shocked that I spoke English…I didn’t understand what was happening.”
“Being called a minority didn’t register with me. I come from Malaysia, and we are a multiracial society, and have always embraced each other’s differences,” she adds.
Throughout her career she has made the effort to reject stereotypical, submissive characters.
“The world has evolved, and there are other markets that will keep growing. That is good for Hollywood because it will show them that they have to evolve and be better,” says Yeoh.
“I think many of us, especially women, understand that as you age, you get put in certain boxes. As an actress, your roles get smaller and more insignificant,” she says.
“We have male actors in their 60s or 70s playing superheroes saving the world. But God forbid, why is it that a woman can’t do that?”
Yeoh’s breakthrough role was in 2018’s Crazy Rich Asians.
She attributes her success to young directors and storytellers: “So I depend on the next generation of forward thinkers like the Daniels, to be bold enough to write this script about a very ordinary woman who’s given an opportunity to be a superhero.”
“They make their own opportunities. They create their own doorways. I wish I was a writer, then I would’ve written a lot of my own scripts,” she adds.
According to her friends and colleagues, Everything Everywhere All at Once was a huge risk.
“But life is all about taking risks. If not, you’ll be doing the same thing over and over again.”
“I think the Asian community has felt so unseen for such a long time. But the sea of change is happening. It’s taken time, and I am only grateful to see it,” she says.
Yeoh is the first woman who identifies as Asian to receive an Oscar nomination. She could make history and become the first to achieve the prestigious honor.