As her new series premieres, Oscar winner Michelle Yeoh grateful for a ‘blessed’ career
From a laundromat owner to a goddess seems like a titanic leap. But not for Malaysian actress Michelle Yeoh. Yeoh won the Oscar for the surreal comedy “Everything Everywhere All at Once” and is now the Goddess of Mercy in a reiteration 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 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. It's enough to ruin his day.
“In the Chinese families, you have an altar, and you always have the Goddess of Mercy, because she's the Goddess of Compassion and she is there,” continues Yeoh, 60.
“She didn't go back to the heavens because she stayed to look after the people of the world. So all of us have the Goddess of Mercy in our house.”
Yeoh began her ascent as a dancer, but an injury curtailed that endeavor, and she and went on to execute her own stunts in several martial arts films. “I started my career in Hong Kong,” she recalls.
“Then, when everybody looked at Hollywood — that's the ultimate dream, to be able to come to Hollywood, to be in a Hollywood movie, with directors like John Wu, Charlie Hawk . ... People didn't really know Japan, Korea, China, and they always acted so surprised. They would say, ‘You speak English?' And you go, ‘Uh-h-h-h, yes.' I know I tell this horrible joke. I said, ‘The flight coming here was, like, 13 hours. So I learned on the way.' ”
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,” she nods.
“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.”
Yeoh marshaled some juicy roles following James Bond, including parts in “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” “Memoirs of a Geisha,” “Crazy Rich Asians.”
“When I received the script of ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once,' it was overwhelming,” she remembers.
“It was, like, these two goofballs who are insanely talented had the courage to shine the light on a very ordinary woman, aging, ... who was trying to make ends meet, keep the family together and all of the things that we find so relatable.
“Yes, I think we have broken that glass ceiling,” she says. “I hope Ninja kicked it to hell and it will never come back, like Humpty Dumpty (never) together again.”
Yeoh remarks that it had been 26 years since an allAsian 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 John 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 actress admits that her phone has been buzzing since her prize-winning 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?”