![]() ![]() “He wore me down,” Yeoh told Country and Town House. It was Quentin Tarantino who rushed to her bedside and implored her to stunt another day. Immobilised in a neck and back brace, she thought her career was over. Yeoh had flung herself onto a moving truck from an 18ft overpass when filming The Stunt Woman and fractured a vertebra, plus several ribs on impact. Last year, she divulged that Chan no longer holds such beliefs, not after she “kicked his butt”. Years later, Yeoh told David Letterman that Chan, while a “very good friend” of hers, believed that women “should stay at home and cook”. It apparently took some time for her co-star to adjust to this new dynamic. For 1992’s Supercop, she joined forces again with Chan, only this time as a martial arts expert rather than a model. Over the next few years, Yeoh established herself as one to know – and to respect. She couldn’t have kids, however, and they divorced in 1991. In 1988, when she was 25, Yeoh married studio head Dickson Poon and retired, hoping to start a family. Within a year, Yeoh was the lead of her own kung fu movie, Yes, Madam! Even in today’s context, the stunts she performed in that movie are jaw-dropping. “I cut off my hair and I trained hard,” she recalled. The next few weeks played out like a Rocky Balboa montage, or that iconic “I’ll Make a Man Out of You” sequence in Disney’s Mulan. Seeing her male co-stars bump and brawl, Yeoh wanted a shot herself. She agreed to star in 1984’s The Owl vs Bumbo, appearing in a role best described as damsel in distress. She managed to infiltrate that world like a Trojan horse. In the Eighties, the Hong Kong action scene was very much a boy’s club. She was “just a pretty face” at that point. Soon she found herself on set opposite Jackie Chan, not shooting a film, mind you, but a watch commercial. She returned home, where her mother entered her in the 1983 Miss World Malaysia beauty contest. Born to an upper-class family in Ipoh, Malaysia, Yeoh moved to London at 15 to study ballet at the Royal Academy of Dance, only for a back injury (her first of many) to extinguish those dreams. Or at least, begin to understand where her ethereal grace comes from, not to mention that perfect posture, which she somehow maintains even when flying through the air or landing a right hook. To learn Yeoh was once a ballet dancer is to understand something integral about her. Her story, with its underdog arc, Rocky Balboa-esque transformation and Quentin Tarantino cameo, is fit for a film adaptation itself. Yeoh’s career has been far from smooth sailing, though. ![]() ![]() She is the first Malaysian, and second Asian, actress to be feted with an Oscar nod. She has picked up a Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild award for her performance. Thanks to EEAO, Yeoh has garnered praise and, in the past few months, some shiny trophies, too. Tonight, if numbers are anything to go by, Yeoh will ascend those tricky Dolby Theatre steps and take the stage at least once, if not multiple times. ![]() The film and Yeoh were fantastic, but it was assumed that its early release meant EEAO would be forgotten come awards season.Īnd yet here we are on Oscars eve and the eccentric, unlikely comedy-drama is leading the pack with 11 nominations. There’s a good chance the Oscars were hardly on her mind then. The revered doyenne of Asian cinema and stunt legend was speaking about recognition in general, which after decades in the industry, she was finally receiving in abundance thanks to her leading role in Everything Everywhere All At Once. I waited a long time for this,” Michelle Yeoh told me back in May last year, visibly emotional as she spoke. Michelle Yeoh is up for her first Oscar this weekend (A24/Alamy/The Independent) ![]()
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