Michelle Yeoh creates history as the 1st Asian to win an Oscar
On March 12, Sunday, by winning the Oscar for best actress, Michelle Yeoh made history as the first Asian woman. Her performance in the science fiction film “Everything Everywhere Everything at Once” earned her the award.
Yeoh, born in Malaysia, won the best actress Oscar for her portrayal of laundromat manager Evelyn Wang, who discovers a “multiverse” of alternate realities. She is the first person of south-east Asian heritage to do so. Yeoh won the prize after besting a challenging field, including Cate Blanchett for Tár & Michelle Williams for The Fabelmans.
Yeoh has already received much attention during the awards season for Everything Everywhere All at Once, including a Bafta nomination for best actress, a Screen Actors Guild award for best actress, and a Golden Globe win for best actress in a motion picture (comedy or musical).
“All the little boys and girls who look like me watching tonight,” Yeoh said in her dedication to the award. ” This is the ray of hope and opportunity. Yes, dreams do come true,” she continued.
“Ladies, never listen to anyone who says you’re past your prime.”
She praised her 84-year-old mother, who was watching from her home in Malaysia, “all the mothers in the world for being truly the superheroes and without them, we wouldn’t be here tonight.”
here’s Halle Berry tearfully presenting Michelle Yeoh her Best Actress Oscar. they’re the only two women of color to win the award in 95 years pic.twitter.com/nsM2qFCA1l
— Spencer Althouse (@SpencerAlthouse) March 13, 2023
In A24’s genre-defying success “Everything, Everywhere All at Once,” Michelle Yeoh played a harried wife, mother, and laundromat owner whose life has turned upside down when she is thrust into several parallel universes. Yeoh received the best actress Oscar at the ceremony on Sunday night.
After a storied career that alternated between action-packed roles (” Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”) and portrayals of regal self-control (“Crazy Rich Asians”), she received her first Oscar nomination and victory with this performance.
Cate Blanchett, who won the best actress award at the BAFTAs, presented Yeoh with her stiffest rival after Yeoh’s historic victory at the SAG Awards.
