LOS ANGELES (AP) – Michelle Yeoh won the Academy Award for Best Actress and made history at the same time.
The Malaysian-born actress became the first Asian woman to win an Oscar for Best Actress for her multifaceted performances across all locations in Multiverse on Sunday night.
“For all the little boys and girls who look like me tonight, this is a ray of hope and possibility. This is proof that dream big and dreams come true,” she said. “And ladies, don’t let anyone tell you you’re past your prime.”
Yeoh’s win comes nearly 90 years after white actress Luise Rainer won the same category for wearing her ‘Yellowface’ to play a Chinese villager in her ‘The Good Earth’.
As a candidate, Yeoh is the first to identify as Asian in this category. Merle Oberon, who was nominated as a Dark Angel in 1935 but didn’t win, hid his South Asian origin according to his birth certificate. In front of reporters in the press room, she happily acknowledged the historic moment.
“I think this is something we have been working on for a very long time, but tonight we broke that glass ceiling!
Yeo defeated Oscar winners Cate Blanchett (“Tar”), Michelle Williams (“Faverman”), Ana de Armas (“Blonde”) and Andrea Riseborough (“To Leslie”).
This category also received notifications for those who were not nominated.
They were left behind in a year that had strong performances by black women like Viola Davis (“The Woman King”) and Danielle Deadweiler (“Till”). On the one hand, some criticized the Riseborough grassroots movement by her A-listers on social media. “I have to dedicate this to my mother and all the mothers in the world because they truly are superheroes and I wouldn’t be here tonight without them.
Janet Yeo witnessed her daughter’s win at the live Oscars Watch Her party in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Yeoh added that her mother “always gave me confidence, taught me love, taught me kindness and compassion,” adding that she also followed her mother’s final advice.
“She asked me the other day, ‘Don’t wear Oscar pants.'”
Yeo looks like a locksmith, Golden She seems to have won every award including Globes and Screen Actors Guild Awards, she’s an immigrant mother from China, and she’s preparing for a tax audit. It was praised for its sensitive portrayal of Evelyn, a laundry operator.
Her wins are her one of her seven Oscars for Everything Everywhere All at Once, including Best Picture and Best Editing. Jamie Lee Curtis and Ke Huy Quan also won best supporting actor Oscars. Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert won for best directors and original screenplay.
Yeoh got her start in the kung fu cinema world but rose to stardom in 1992 as Jackie Chan’s co-star in “Supercop.” American audiences got to know her even better over the next decade with hits like “Tomorrow Never Dies” and Ang Lee’s “Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon.”
When she first read the script for “Everything Everywhere,” Yeoh thought it was “an independent film on steroids.” She was ultimately swayed by the opportunity to give voice to immigrant mothers and grandmothers who go unnoticed. The multiverse movie was also a showcase across a bevy of genres — drama, comedy, sci-fi and fantasy.
At 60, Yeoh has been heavily in demand since her standout turn as a controlling matriarch in “Crazy Rich Asians.” From there, she has done everything from a “Star Trek” spinoff to Marvel’s “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.”
