Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Yeoh adds to ‘blessed’ career with role as Goddess of Mercy
Laundromat owner to goddess seems like a titanic leap. But not for Malaysian actor Michelle Yeoh. Yeoh won the best actress Oscar for the surreal comedy “Everything Everywhere All at Once” and is now the Goddess of Mercy in an adaptation of the graphic novel “American Born Chinese.”
“The Goddess of Mercy is a very well-known god in our world,” says Yeoh of the character she plays in the eight-part series, which is now streaming on Disney+.
“There are a lot of things written about her and understanding where she comes from. But we were always, always very respectful of the Goddess of Mercy because she’s very, very iconic in our world. And we had to be careful of how we did that without taking too much liberty and sort of damaging her persona,” she says.
The Goddess of Mercy, known as Guanyin, is only one of the mythological gods that intrudes in the bewildering life of high school sophomore Jin Wang in the series. Trying to juggle his school life and his home life is enough for any kid, but he finds himself unwittingly entangled in the battles of otherworldly gods.
Yeoh, 60, began her ascent as a dancer, but an injury curtailed that endeavor, and she went on to execute her own stunts in several martial arts films after starting her career in Hong Kong.
Yeoh toiled her way into the James Bond movie “Tomorrow Never Dies” with Pierce Brosnan. “I was very fortunate when ‘Tomorrow Never Dies’ came along, and it was (producers) Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson — they had the foresight to think we have to be inclusive. And James Bond is such a legacy that they have to keep evolving. So I was very fortunate.”
“I met visionary filmmakers, filmmakers that I worked with, whether it was Rob Marshall, Danny Boyle, Ang Lee — people who knew that they had to keep pushing the envelope further and further. And then I was blessed, so blessed,” she says.
Yeoh marshaled some juicy roles following James Bond, including parts in “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” “Memoirs of a Geisha” and “Crazy Rich Asians.”
Yeoh says that it had been 26 years since an all-Asian film had been shot when “Crazy Rich Asians” came along. That last film was Amy Tan’s “The Joy Luck Club.” “So I think a lot was riding on whether it was successful or not. And god forbid, what if ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ wasn’t as successful as it was? So thanks to (director) Jon Chu’s brilliance ... he’s such a good storyteller, and that’s what we need is the storytellers, the storytellers like that, because they understand what are the stories that need to be told and give us more opportunities.”
The actor admits that her phone has been buzzing since her Oscarwinning performance in “Everything Everywhere All at Once.”
“There are so many things I am looking forward to doing, but I was offered a dream part just recently. I’ve been invited to join the cast of ‘Wicked,’ one and two. So there’s singing involved. I’ve never done that before. So it’s quite exciting, and I don’t know. But, I’m with the Disney family. Disney family, you can sing and dance and do everything, right?”