Why winning an Oscar would mean so much to Michelle Yeoh 

Michelle Yeoh has been an actor for more than 30 years, but it’s only this year that she’s been nominated for best actress for her role in “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” Not only is this her first Oscar nomination, but it is also the first time in over 85 years an Asian actress has been in the running in this category. In the run-up to Sunday, the movie has swept the awards circuit, and hopes are high that she’ll make history.

If you’ve seen the movie, then you understand just how unique this film is. Yeoh knew it herself the instant she read the script.

“That is such a precious, precious gem,” she told me. “And when I read it, it was like, you know, it’s all the years that I have trained as an actor, I’m given a chance in this one movie to show you what I am capable of.”

Yeoh and I got a chance to sit down a few days before the Oscars. She said that despite some disappointment over the years that some of the roles offered to her were getting smaller and smaller, she always kept working. She also noted a difference in parts written for men and women as they get older: Men get to be action heroes who save the day, while women usually wait at home for those same men to return. In “Everything Everywhere,” however, she gets to be an “ordinary” woman who becomes extraordinary (and save the world from that everything bagel).

Equally important for her were the relationships between the characters in the movie despite the wacky backdrop. Even in scenes where characters have hot dog fingers or become rocks (you have to see it to understand), the emotional connections are there. For Yeoh, she appreciated how the movie appeals to everyone, but in different ways. 

“That’s what I loved about the film,” Yeoh told me. 

No matter the generation, ethnicity, or sexual identity, some part of this movie speaks to everyone and what they’re going through. Yeoh credits the writers and directors, Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (aka “the Daniels”), for crafting a story so universal even if the main focus is on an Asian immigrant family.

With that in mind, I asked Yeoh if she thinks there has been real change in Hollywood when it comes to diversity.

“I am seeing there are more stories being told, things that I tried to pitch 10 years ago, 15 years ago, we would have been met with like, ‘Oh, yeah, very interesting. You know, but maybe the time is not right.’” Yeoh told me. But today? “I see the change. I have been watching the change. And I think there’s a whole group of us that are pushing for that change, and we can’t take our foot off the pedal.”

As for winning that Oscar? Does it really matter? Yeoh was emphatic. “It matters,” she said as she got emotional (so did I). “It matters a lot. And it doesn’t just matter to me. It’s shining the light on a part of the world, of people that look like me who’s never been included.”