What younger Asian actors tell Michelle Yeoh: ‘Finally, I can see myself’
Michelle Yeoh is everywhere.
The Malaysian actor has been marketing her current production, “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” aggressively since its restricted release and as it approaches its broad release. She’s getting some of the best reviews of her career and is dominating the conversation on Film Twitter, which has already started an unofficial Oscars campaign on her favour.
“What’s unique about this time in my career is having so many people who look like me, particularly the younger generation [of Asian actors], come up to me and say, ‘Finally, I can see myself doing all of these things because you’re doing it,'” Yeoh told People magazine in an interview published Thursday.
“We must stand up for ourselves and have the confidence to speak up.” We are entitled to a voice. That’s what I’m really enjoying at this stage in my career: the fact that we’re getting more opportunities and the possibilities we deserve.”
Yeoh plays Evelyn Wang, an overworked mother, daughter, and soon-to-be-ex-wife contending with an unwanted tax audit of her family-owned laundry in “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” which hits theatres on Friday. Evelyn is quickly transported into several parallel universes inhabited by other, strong versions of herself, according to a weird twist of fate.
Yeoh felt upset when recounting the first time she met “the Daniels” and read the script for the A24 picture, written and directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, in a recent interview with GQ that has gone relatively popular on social media.
“I thought, ‘This is something,’ when I read the screenplay — oh dear,” she added, pausing to compose herself.
“‘I’ve been looking forward to this for a long time.’ That will allow me to demonstrate what I’m capable of to my friends, family, and audience. To be amusing, sincere, and tragic.’ Finally, someone recognised that I am capable of doing all of these tasks.”
“This is something I’ve been waiting for… for a long time.” —Michelle Yeoh on @allatoncemovie & meeting with the @Daniels
Watch the full video here: https://t.co/x7SmE6PDMp pic.twitter.com/Y8RJpfbOVo
— GQ Magazine (@GQMagazine) April 6, 2022
Following scene-stealing supporting roles as the stylish and unimpressed Eleanor Young in “Crazy Rich Asians” and skillful fighter Ying Nan in “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings,” Yeoh’s first main Hollywood role in recent years is “Everything Everywhere All at Once.”
“I try not to insert myself into the role because I perceive the character as a genuine person with real feelings,” Yeoh told GQ.
“What I saw in Evelyn was a really industrious immigrant who is trying so hard to keep her family together, to prove that she is a decent daughter in her father’s eyes.” And I see Evelyn in a lot of the individuals I know. I was compelled to recount their narrative, but not in the traditional sense — because the Daniels told it in such a trippy, wacky, weird, and modern manner.”
Stephanie Hsu, Ke Huy Quan, Jenny Slate, Harry Shum Jr., Jamie Lee Curtis, and James Hong all feature in “Everything Everywhere At Once.” The genre-bending fantasy garnered a 97 percent rating on review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes after its premiere at the SXSW Film Festival.
Yeoh told People, “I have to enjoy the trip I’ve been on.”
“And I’ll keep appreciating it because I feel that if you sit back and say, ‘Oh, how I might have done it [differently]…’ you’ll never go anywhere. No. You must consider the future. How can you make sure you don’t make the same mistake twice? It’s by letting go and moving on.”
