Michelle Yeoh recalls shock of being referred to as ‘minority’
We want to be represented, we don’t want to be invisible, we don’t want to be told that we’re not good enough to be on the silver screens. You don’t have to treat us special. Just treat us as equals.
LOS ANGELES: Ipoh-born actress Tan Sri Michelle Yeoh, 56, has recalled the shock of being classified as being part of a minority when she first arrived in Hollywood.
Michelle, who is here for the Golden Globes Awards, told a writer: “Asian communities are so hungry; they never see themselves on the big screen. Honestly when I first came out here, suddenly to be told I’m a minority was a big shock. I came from China — how did I suddenly switch to being a minority? We want to be represented, we don’t want to be invisible, we don’t want to be told that we’re not good enough to be on the silver screens. You don’t have to treat us special. Just treat us as equals.”
Michelle relaxed when asked if her own mother was like Eleanor Young, her character in Crazy Rich Asians.
She replied: “Oh no. My mom is not Eleanor at all. She’s not a hippie, but she’s very carefree, very outgoing. Eleanor would be truly my homage to the mothers that I know in Asia. A lot of my friends or my friends’ mothers.”
Michelle, who also appears in CBS All Access’ Star Trek: Discovery, wore the same ring on the set of Crazy.
The emerald engagement ring that belonged to her character, Eleanor Young, is actually one of Michelle’s own rings. Mary E. Vogt, the Crazy Rich Asians costume designer, told The Knot that director Jon M. Chu had always envisioned an emerald ring.
“Jon Chu, our director, who is fantastic, always said that he saw emerald as Eleanor’s colour,” Vogt told The Knot. “He really felt that it was a very regal colour, a very strong colour, that it was just something that he associated with Eleanor, that green. And so he thought she should have a green engagement ring.” The crew designed a ring for Michelle to wear, moulded after the ring John F. Kennedy had made for Jackie Kennedy, but in the end Michelle brought her own ring in for Chu and Vogt to see. She had designed the emerald ring.
“The ring in the movie, it belonged to me, yes,” Michelle told The Knot. “It was very important for it to be real. And Eleanor was a character who knew what she wore had to be flawless. Her (own) mother-inlaw did not approve and did not give her the family ring at the end of the day… so that ring had to be very special.”