Michelle Yeoh has been in the entertainment business for 40 years and has been in a number of successful movies. She isn’t like other actresses because she mostly works in action movies, and her performances never cease to amaze us. Most people don’t know about a few things in her life that go on in the background.
Ballet, a beauty pageant, and martial arts.
At the start of her career, the actress, who is now 60 years old, wanted to be a ballet dancer. Yeoh moved from Malaysia all the way to England to go to the Royal Academy of Dance and follow her dream of becoming a dancer. She also wanted to teach ballet. Because of an injury to her back, which put an early end to her career as a dancer, she was unable to make that dream come true.
On the other hand, Michelle Yeoh did not back down. Her mother entered her in the Miss World Malaysia contest, which she won after she finished her education.
Most of her stunts are her own doing.
After a mutual friend put her in touch with Dickson Poon, co-founder of D&B Films, she got the chance to star in a commercial with Jackie Chan. Dickson Poon is an entrepreneur as well. Yeoh’s career in Hong Kong movies has taken off since then, and she has been in a number of movies, including Yes, Madam!, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and Supercop. Even though she had never taken any martial arts classes before, she looked like a natural in those movies because she had dance experience.
Becoming a Bond girl.
The Hong Kong star’s first movie in English was Tomorrow Never Dies, which was a James Bond movie. Also, the Hong Kong actor’s first role in an English-language movie was in this one. Yeoh said that she felt very lucky to have been able to act in the movie, which was a big turning point in her career at the time.
It was a proud moment because here is a Chinese woman who is standing side-to-side, toe-to-toe with the greatest spy in the world, James Bond,
she noted.
What Michelle Yeoh had to deal with as an Asian actress in Hollywood
Yeoh has said that even though she has been in almost 50 movies, she is not yet the “number one” actress in Hollywood. She got a lot of job offers, but the roles she was considered for were for people who looked like her.
It shouldn’t be about my race, but it has been a battle. At least let me try.
She took a three-year break from Hollywood movies so she wouldn’t do anything that would hurt the image of Asian women in the United States.
But when she played Evelyn Wang in the movie Everything, Everywhere, All at Once, everything changed. In that role, she was able to show how talented she was, and as a result, she was given a big job in that year’s Academy Awards competition.
I’ve thought about it. 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,’
said, Yeoh.
Long-awaited award
On January 10, 2023, the Golden Globe Awards were shown on TV. Yeoh’s performance in Everything, Everywhere, All at Once was praised, and she won the award for Best Actress because of it.
40 years, not letting go of this,
said Yeoh in her acceptance speech.
She was stopped by the pianist, which meant that her time was up. She didn’t want to stop, though, and she was determined to finish her memorable speech. As things were winding down, the pianist stopped her and told her that her time was up.
This is also for all the shoulders that I’ve stood up for, all who came before me, who look like me, and all who are going on this journey with me forward,
she continued, referring to her fellow Asian performers.
Thank you for believing in us.
She was also nominated for Best Actress at the Oscars, making her the first Asian actor to have a chance to win one of the most prestigious awards in the industry today.
Jamie Lee Curtis’ priceless reaction as Michelle Yeoh accepted her first Golden Globe.
In one of the Instagram posts she made, Jamie Lee Curtis said to her,
Once a cheerleader. ALWAYS a cheerleader. My Bae won a Golden Globe. Her first nomination and win.
Like Michelle Yeoh, everyone is fighting their own battles. The important thing is to believe in it and keep going no matter what. Do you have a story about your life that you wish to share with us? Feel free to do so in the comments section. We’d love to hear it!
