Michelle Yeoh reflected on the reception her Oscar-winning film (and performance) received while at Cannes Film Festival (Picture: Getty)
Michelle Yeoh has stated that she doesn’t think Everything Everywhere All at Once would have been nominated – let alone won – the Oscar for best film even as recently as five years ago.
The independent movie directed by the Daniels, which was made for less than $15million, also scooped Academy Awards for the performances of Yeoh and her co-stars Ke Huy Quan and Jamie Lee Curtis, as well as beat director, best original screenplay and best editing.
However, the 60-year-old star reflected on how recently US attitudes have changed towards foreign language films with subtitles, and work that is a little more unusual.
Talking about the film’s reception and subsequent triumph at the Academy Awards in Cannes on Sunday at her Kering Women in Motion talk, the actress told Metro.co.uk and other press: ‘It’s just a matter of pushing the envelope and refusing to say that this is the normal way.
‘Would Everything Everywhere All at Once have been nominated [before now]? Chances are, no. If you are talking about five, 10 years ago, this movie’s [reception] would be like, “It’s comedy, it’s science fiction, it’s got kung fu? It doesn’t fit in the box.”
‘But now it seems like everybody is revamping the way they look, revamping the way they think and also they’re inviting newer members, visionaries, people who think differently.’
The actress said even as recently as five years ago, she wouldn’t have expected EEAAO to even be Oscar-nominated, let alone win seven awards (Picture: Moviestore/Shutterstock)
She is keen for the door to ‘not shut behind me’ when it comes to Asian representation in Western cinema (Picture: Kevin Sullivan/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock)
‘That’s the only way we can make our industry improve – it’s to do things differently – otherwise we get stuck in the same box doing the same things over and over and then we ask ourselves how come there’s nothing interesting out there?’ she added.
Discussing the impact of her Oscar win, the star – who will be seen in upcoming musical Wicked with Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo – recalled the ‘roar of joy’ she felt she had heard from the Asian community.
‘It has generated such pride with our people. The day that I won, I honesty heard the roar of joy from that corner of the world, recognised [and] seen, and heard.’
She also emphasised how keen she was to use the increased profile from her victory to ‘bring other people in’ with her as well, to improve better representation.
‘I think it’s been slowly moving in that particular way, and this has just pushed the door open to say, “We’re not going anywhere else, and this door is not shutting behind me.” Because what I feel like this has done is not just for me, but me being able to bring other people in as well.
Yeoh won the Women in Motion Award on Sunday night (Picture: Getty)
‘I think in the past where there were so few roles, it was so competitive and I can understand why it was like, “If you get the job then it means I don’t have the job” because it was either you or me, but now what we have to change the mindset to is, “If I’m successful then you’re going to be successful and together we can make a big success out of this and create more roles.”’
She also revealed that she would not be playing the mother type of role of Evelyn Wang ‘over and over again’.
‘I’ve created a role like this and I hope someone else will be able to do a different take, a better take.’
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‘Chances are, no.’
