"For all the (yellow-skinned) Asian kids like me who are watching this award show tonight, it's a beacon of hope and promise of possibilities. It's dreams that can come true It proves that we all have the courage to forge big dreams!" At the 95th Academy Awards Ceremony, Michelle Yeoh gave her acceptance speech with a statuette holding the Oscar logo, sonorous and powerful. Taking a deep breath, she continued: "Ladies, don't listen to anyone you're past your prime. Never give up."
After filming "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", Ang Lee admitted that Yu Xiulian's role was prepared for Michelle Yeoh. Yu Xiulian is the "anchor" in the play, yang on the outside and yin on the inside. It is precisely because of Michelle Yeoh's delicate interpretation that Yu Xiulian's tragic life is so moving. I went back and rewatched the film before interviewing Michelle Yeoh. I have watched "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" several times. I once hated Lijiao's repression, and I also sighed because of Li Mubai's cowardice. However, this time I suddenly realized that we have been ignoring Yu Xiulian's independence and ignoring her resistance. Most people regard her as Li Mubai's subordinate role, a silent victim of Lijiao, but is Yu Xiulian really so simple?
Stills from "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"
Yu Xiulian runs a well-known bodyguard agency in the Jianghu. She is highly skilled in martial arts, and her pair of swords makes her superb. She promises a thousand gold, has insight into the world, and is well-versed in human relationships. In the rivers and lakes, Yu Xiulian adhered to her own principles of the rivers and lakes. How could she not be called a rare and strange woman? And this kind of strange woman who started to roam the rivers and lakes at a young age and has an exquisite heart, faced with Li Mubai's hints again and again, could she not understand his subtext? She is playing dumb. Even though she loves Li Mubai badly in her heart, Yu Xiulian is very clear that once she agrees, her exquisite martial arts, and even the bodyguards that she worked hard to establish in the early years among all kinds of people will be a thing of the past.
She didn't want to be the person behind Li Mubai. What Yu Xiulian has to do is herself from the beginning to the end. Yu Xiulian is the biggest rebel in this story. She practiced kung fu hard, and she was stronger than men to resist the three principles and five constant principles of Lijiao. This is Michelle Yeoh's Yu Xiulian, she has great hidden tension and deep connotation. Sometimes people even wonder whether Michelle Yeoh is acting as Yu Xiulian or expressing herself, because she also has a strong vitality and a resolute responsibility.
Just like Yu Xiulian who was alone in the rivers and lakes at the age of 20, Michelle Yeoh's acting career was not smooth at the beginning. In the 1980s and 1990s when Hong Kong movies were in full swing, the beautiful Michelle Yeoh was not the most outstanding among the actresses. So I asked curiously: "Have you always wanted to be an actor?" Michelle Yeoh smiled and shook her head, and replied: "Actually, I never thought about being an actor. I like cinema, but I never I thought that one day I could appear on the big screen. At that time, I loved ballet so much. So ballet was my world.” Studying drama was a kind of coincidence. While studying for a degree in dance, Michelle Yeoh chose to minor in drama to help Process body language. When she had to speak, Michelle Yeoh realized that she had stage fright and thus developed a fear of theatrical performances.
Stills from Everything Everywhere All at Once
Stills from Everything Everywhere All at Once
Stills from Everything Everywhere All at Once
However, life is full of inadvertent coincidences. "My career in the film industry was really interesting," Michelle Yeoh explained. "A Malaysian friend I was very close with married a banker, and once he had dinner with my ex-husband Dickson Poon. At that time Dickson Poon has just set up a new film and television production company. He signed Jackie Chan and other stars to shoot commercials to promote his jewelry and watches.” This also led to Michelle Yeoh and Jackie Chan’s first collaboration, they filmed together Advertisement for a watch. When talking about the experience of working hard in Hong Kong in the early years, Michelle Yeoh said that Hong Kong is the place where her career started. She once worked continuously for seven days and nights on a film. The shooting tasks were all completed on a large construction site, and the rest could only take a nap in a van.
Michelle Yeoh's first film in Hollywood was "Memoirs of a Geisha". She also got her acting license at this time. When she first came to Hollywood, acting certification became a huge problem. Just like the dialectical philosophical problem of chicken and egg, one cannot work without a qualification certificate, and one cannot obtain an actor certificate without work experience, which is an embarrassing dilemma. Michelle Yeoh talked about how she got a lot of rejections in Hollywood when she first started. Most auditions fail. And now talking about this experience, Michelle Yeoh replied calmly: "It will make you work harder, be more fully prepared, and do your job better. You have to adapt to it. If you work hard, the opportunities will increase." It will appear in a better way." I asked, "Then why do you have to choose Hollywood, why not just stay in Hong Kong?" Michelle Yeoh said: "Hollywood is the ultimate dream of all filmmakers or actors from the East. If you're in Hollywood, it means you're doing great. And when I actually got here, I realized, I'm a minority. I didn't realize that before. It was A culture shock."
For a long time, Asian faces rarely appeared in Hollywood shots. “I don’t get to see my face on screen, or at least not as much on TV. So it’s been a very difficult process (finding opportunities in Hollywood). A lot of the characters I meet are very stereotyped, Basically the characters are working in Chinatown and Chinese restaurants. Asian faces are not reflected in the normal characters. This change of faces is a long process. way to be seen, to appear in a more appropriate image.”
We wondered what advice Michelle Yeoh would have for young people with Hollywood dreams right now. She said: "You have to know why you want to come here and why you want to be an actor." To this day, when talking about the enthusiasm for the profession of acting, I can clearly see the warm light in Michelle Yeoh's eyes. "For me, it's a real passion and love that you have to live away from your family. It's tough. At the same time, there's a lot of uncertainty here, you can't guarantee when you'll have your next job, you It’s not clear what’s going to happen next. You have to be fearless and work really, really hard without fearing a failure or two. Really know what you want.”
Michelle Yeoh also stopped filming for a while after her marriage. When asked about this experience, Michelle Yeoh said: "I am in awe of actresses who can balance career and family. They have very successful careers while having children. .During the time we decided to quit filming, we thought it was very important to have a family, and my husband was also a very traditional person. He didn't just want a child, he wanted an empire. And if our lives don't intersect, There is no chance of having children."
It was once rumored that Michelle Yeoh's role in "The Instantaneous Universe" was originally written for Jackie Chan. "Is that true?" I wondered. Michelle Yeoh replied frankly: "Yes, it was originally written as an action movie with Jackie Chan as the leading actor. It was originally a Jackie Chan movie with a good story, very commercialized. But it will lose that There is no such intergenerational trauma, there is no mother-daughter relationship. So they threw everything away and went back to the story itself, and instead wrote such a deep story. At the same time it is also a very simple story, one that we all Familiar Asian immigrant family, a very ordinary woman we would pass on the street, was brought to attention and given superpowers, became an extraordinary human being. I saw this in our mothers, aunts, grandmothers One. These women have given us great inspiration and motivation, and I have a lot of respect for them.
Michelle Yeoh's Oscar for Best Actress was one of the final awards at the 95th Academy Awards. This year's Oscar competition is also strong: Cate Blanchett's "Tower," Michelle Williams' "Fabermans" as Steven Spielberg's mother, Anna De Armas plays the glamorous Marilyn Monroe in "Blonde." In Michelle Yeoh's eyes, they are all strong contenders for the award. When the envelope with Michelle Yeoh's name was slowly opened, I heard the sound of the wheels of history turning. As the first Asian Oscar queen, Michelle Yeoh is undoubtedly epoch-making.
"This is a historic moment and I'm so grateful for the film industry's recognition of embracing diversity and true representation (of minorities). It's something we've been chasing for a long time and I feel like we've finally broken the glass ceiling . I kicked it like a good kung fu.” Actors of Asian descent, or various minorities, have been overlooked in Hollywood for far too long. The recognition and affirmation that Michelle Yeoh has received is very meaningful when there are so many actors who feel underappreciated. "Any minority should be heard and seen. We deserve an equal opportunity, that's all we ask for. Just give us a chance and we can prove we are worth it."
Michelle Yeoh with Best Supporting Actor Ke Huy Quan, Best Actor Brendan Fraser and Best Supporting Actress Jamie Lee Curtis at the 95th Academy Awards )
Halle Berry, as the first and so far only black actress of the Oscars, presented the trophy to Michelle Yeoh together with the last Oscar actress Jessica Chastain, and three actors of different ethnicities embraced each other , will eventually become a highlight in Oscar film history. In today's Asia where "white, young and thin" aesthetics are prevalent, Michelle Yeoh's award is also of pioneering value. At the age of 35, she became the first "Bond Girl" with an Asian face. At the age of 39, she was nominated for Best Actress at the 54th British Academy Film Awards with "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon". At the age of 43, she starred in the first real Hollywood movie "Geisha". Memoirs"; at the age of 56, she starred in the hit comedy movie "Crazy Rich Asians", and at the age of 61 she became the first Asian actress at the Oscars. As she said on the podium, a woman should never be defined by her age.
Everyone has a tiger in their hearts, which can break through the world and pursue lofty ideals. Michelle Yeoh would like to say to many people in society who do not have the courage to take the first step: "No one should be afraid. If that thing is what you love, then do it for yourself, for what you believe in, and for what you want Struggle for things.” Graceful old age, probably Michelle Yeoh’s current appearance, with the precipitation of the years, but also the unchanging obsession at the beginning. "After 40 years, I finally understand this. You will gradually find that we will win this battle. And at this moment we are working hard in this direction. So don't give up. Never give up." Michelle Yeoh said, eyes The light grows brighter, "When you give up, it's a loss. You don't deserve to be put in a box by anyone. Don't listen to anyone who says you're too old to do certain things. Trust what you do. "
Michelle Yeoh has always done this. "Keep that fire burning in your soul. Dare to think, if you don't think, it's impossible. And nothing is impossible. Look at me, nothing is impossible!"
