Michelle Yeoh made history on Sunday by winning the Academy Award for Best Actress.
Yeoh won an Oscar for his role in the psychedelic comedy-drama Everything Everywhere at Once. The award made Yeoh the first Asian actress to win in the category.
In his acceptance speech, Yeoh said, “To all the little boys and girls who look like me tonight, this is a beacon of hope and possibility.” “It’s proof that dreams dream big and dreams come true.”
Yoh beat out Cate Blanchett for “Tar,” Ana de Armas for “Blonde,” Andrea Riseborough for “To Leslie,” and Michelle Williams for “The Fablemans.”
Echoing the theme of her film, which centered around immigrant motherhood, Yeoh paid tribute to her mother.
An emotional Yeoh said, “I have to dedicate this to my mother, to all the mothers in the world.” “Because they are truly superheroes and without them none of us would be here tonight.”
Yeoh’s Oscar is especially significant given the history of Asian actors and the Academy Awards. Yeoh, who was born in Malaysia, is only the second Asian actress to be nominated in her category; However, she is considered the first “openly” Asian actress with distinction. Merle Oberon, who appeared in the 1935 film “The Dark Angel”, hid her South Asian identity during her screen career. and Luise Ranier, a white actress, previously won the category for portraying a Chinese slave in the 1937 drama “The Good Earth.”
The accolades ended a successful awards season for Yoh, who earned critical acclaim for her performance as jaded matriarch Evelyn Wang, an immigrant mother and laundromat owner who unexpectedly decides to save the multiverse from destruction. Assigned work Earlier this month, Yeoh took home Best Lead Performance at the Independent Spirit Awards, the first year the ceremony was added to her acting categories to be gender-neutral. Among many other awards, she received a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Comedy or Musical in January.
While Yeoh has been celebrated in Hollywood as a breakout star for “Everything Everywhere,” the actress is an industry veteran whose career has spanned decades, countries and languages. She first made a name for herself in Hong Kong cinema in the late 1980s and 1990s, becoming a prolific and respected martial arts action icon. As an actress who managed to subvert the typical “damsel in distress” stereotype in action films, and instead often portray crime-fighting heroes, Yeoh became known as a feminist trailblazer in entertainment.
“I work very hard. I make very clear choices that lead me to films that are very supportive or about strong women, and I generally shy away from the ones that portray women in that way. don’t show up as I believe they are,” Yeoh previously told NBC News about his career.
Yeoh entered the Hollywood scene in 1997 with the James Bond film “Tomorrow Never Dies” and has since featured in several successful blockbusters including “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” in 2000 and “Crazy Rich Asians” in 2018. was the first film in which Yeoh played the lead role.
Yeoh credits decades of fervent activism within the Asian community for making it possible for Asian actors, once relegated to sidekick or background roles, to be featured so prominently in a film.
“A lot of us are trying to push the envelope and get it done, because it’s too easy,” Yeoh said. “We believe in us. We believe in our Asian talent. We believe we all have stories that need to be told and embraced.
