The life of Michelle Yeoh

Brut America

She's Hollywood's favorite universe-hopping superhero and is making history for Asian women in Hollywood … But Michelle Yeoh has actually been a superstar of Hong Kong cinema for decades. This is her story.

Transcript

00:00You say Michelle, I say yo!

00:02Michelle!

00:03Yo!

00:04Michelle!

00:05Yo!

00:06I was born Yeo Chu King, and like a lot of us, I adopted an English name to make it easier

00:34for others to remember. But still, they mispronounced my last name. Yeo, Yao, Yo. It's simply Yo.

01:04Because I'm a dancer, I have rhythm. And when it comes to martial arts, the rhythm

01:30is very important. At the end of the day, it's like two people dancing.

02:00Bon has to be a man of the 90s, and we're going to the next millennium. He has to work

02:29with women who are capable of doing the things that he does. I don't speak Mandarin, it's not

02:44my mother tongue, so I had to learn it phonetically. Fortunately, I've done action movies before, so the

02:50physical side of it wasn't so difficult, until I tore the ligament in my knee. I need a knee surgery.

03:20We knew it was special, because we knew it wasn't often that we had an all-Asian cast

03:47in a studio film. But it was a lot of pressure, because what if it didn't work?

04:11I'm here because we need your help.

04:13I'm very busy today. I don't have time to help you.

04:16I just wanted to make movies that mattered. And then I received the script, everything,

04:23everywhere, all at once. I knew immediately the gift I'd been given to play Evelyn Wong,

04:32who turned out to be the most challenging, humane, unique, tender, sweet, sour,

04:41tough, and resilient character.

05:04I had to wait 40 years, but it's okay, because there are different

05:08journeys, there are different battles, there are different times, and I'm lucky that I'm still

05:14able to be here, right? Even if it's at such a good old age.

05:19I know that every card that has ever been stacked against me in this industry has been stacked

05:25against Michelle tenfold. And I imagine it is only because of her love and deep dedication

05:33that someone as talented and internationally revered as the Michelle Yeoh could have waited

05:40almost 40 years to finally have her chance at being number one on the call sheet.

05:54I'm just so happy that I'm still here when the change has happened. You know,

05:59that I'm not in my rocking chair and go like, why didn't I get that chance? And for all that

06:05looks like us, we are going to move forward and find bigger and better opportunities.

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