It was her multi-faceted dramatic performance in the surreal movie, Everything Everywhere All at Once that put the spotlight on actress Michelle Yeoh, but it was her 40-year "battle" for meaningful roles that earned her the title Icon of the Year from Time.
Yeoh tells the magazine that she had to fight a Hollywood movie industry that offered her parts that were stereotypes of Asians or harmful tropes of Asian women.
“It shouldn’t be about my race, but it has been a battle,” Yeoh tells Time. “At least let me try.”
In an interview with Time published Dec. 6, the Malaysian-born actress, 60, opened up about career obstacles she says she faced as an Asian actress in the entertainment industry.
Yeoh was already an icon in the Asian film industry for her roles in then got the role in the 1997 James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies, in which she plays Bond’s equal. She continued to win over American audiences with her supporting roles in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, Kung Fu Panda 2, several Marvel films and 2018's groundbreaking Crazy Rich Asians that featured an all Asian cast.
Crazy Rich Asians' box office success and audience appeal opened the eyes of Hollywood studios and opened the doors to other Asian and Asian American actors and more diverse storylines and projects for the big screen and television.
It wasn’t until this last year though that Hollywood began to recognize Yeoh as a top-billed actor, seen for her acting abilities beyond white audiences' expectations of Asian thespians.
In Everything Everywhere All at Once she starred as Evelyn Quan Wang, the universe-jumping owner of a struggling laundromat. Her performance in EEAO placed her in the mix for an Oscar nomination in the Best Actress category.
In a Gentlemen's Quarterly interview that went viral on social media, a tearful Yeoh said her role as Evelyn “was something I had been waiting for a long time”, to show audiences “what I am capable of”.
Given the Oscar buzz and the studio campaign promoting her performance, Yeoh said she feels the pressure of possibly winning as Oscar. She would be the first Asian woman to win the lead actress a
“I’ve thought about it,” Yeoh tells Time about a possible history-making Oscar win. “And not just me – I feel like my full Asian community has thought about it. They come up to me and they say, ‘You’re doing it for us.’”
Given the Oscar buzz and the studio campaign promoting her performance, Yeoh said she feels the pressure of possibly winning as Oscar. She would be the first Asian woman to win the lead actress a
“I’ve thought about it,” Yeoh tells Time about a possible history-making Oscar win. “And not just me – I feel like my full Asian community has thought about it. They come up to me and they say, ‘You’re doing it for us.’”
“It’s not about needing it,” she tells Time. “It’s that feeling that you don’t have to explain: it’s love from other people. My arms are out open.”
"I've worked in this industry for almost 40 years, and to finally be recognized for the work that you do," she tells Buzzfeed after being honored by Time. "I've been everywhere, and I've done everything, and now I get it all at once," she joked. "So it's worth the wait."
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