Michelle Yeoh has been involved in two of the biggest Asian success stories at the Oscars in the last 25 years – Ang Lee’s legendary title Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, which won four Oscars in 2001, and Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s Everything Everywhere All at Once, which won seven in 2023, including a Best Actress award for Yeoh. But the prolific Malaysian-born actress said that these success stories are few and far between and encouraged gatekeepers of the entertainment industry to get better at promoting equal opportunities for storytellers.

“I think it’s crucial for the involvement of our industry to create more opportunities – equal opportunities – for storytellers to be able to tell their own stories in their own ways,” she said during a wide-ranging conversation at the Red Sea International Film Festival in Saudi Arabia on Friday. 

Yeoh revealed that the main role of the middle-aged Chinese immigrant in Everything Everywhere All at Once was originally supposed to be played by Jackie Chan. “They wrote it for a guy,” she said. “To be able to finance a movie like that, it’s easier.”  

When Chan didn’t board the project, Yeoh said the filmmakers “threw the script away and said, “What is the most important thing we face? Our mothers!” The film, which was budgeted at $25M and went on to surpass $140M at the global box office, was a prime example of an original idea supported by distributor A24, that proved that risks and original storytelling can glean critical and commercial results. 

“If we don’t take risks, we’re not going to come into something like Everything Everywhere All at Once,” said Yeoh. “We take risks with big movies that flop, so why can’t we take risks with small movies?”

The actress, who can currently be seen as Madame Morrible in Universal’s Wicked alongside stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, told the audience that she initially had reservations when director Jon M. Chu (who she had previously worked with on Crazy Rich Asians) asked her to take on the role in the beloved musical. “I don’t sing,” she quipped, but admitted Chu “could throw a phonebook at me and I would say yes.” But Erivo and Grande – who had never met Yeoh in person – sent her a surprise video saying: “Michelle, it is imperative that you join us!”

“Cynthia and Ariana are just like the yin and yang,” she said. “They are so different, but they just fit together so perfectly.” 

Yeoh was filming Wicked when she won the Best Actress Oscar for her mind-bending performance in Everything Everywhere All at Once and she recalled coming back to set feeling “very grounded.” 

“To come back to the set of Wicked was grounding,” she said. “When you’re doing the Oscar thing, it’s wild because you’re so scared you’ll put the wrong foot forward and jeopardize your movie. Coming back to Wicked was love.” 

The actress also reflected on her illustrious career from her early days of shooting martial arts films in Hong Kong to being cast in James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies. “That actually propelled me to the international market, but I couldn’t do anything for two years properly. Not because of the lack of scripts or parts coming my way, but because I did feel at the time they were so stereotyped in how we saw Asian women.” 

Because she already had success in Asia under her belt, Yeoh admitted she was able to turn down these stereotypical roles. “Being able to say no is so powerful…I just felt at that moment that I wasn’t prepared to step backwards and accept the roles that were stereotypically writing Asian women down.” 

Reflecting on what would ultimately be her next film after Bond, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Yeoh credited director Lee’s vision and his storytelling ability. “That’s why an incredible storyteller is so important and it’s important for us to encourage and nurture and view these amazing stories.” 

After that film’s incredible Oscar wins, Yeoh said that while it was a “glorious” night for Asian cinema, not much changed in the industry in the immediate aftermath. “Did it change? I don’t think it really did. I think at the time, maybe America wasn’t really ready for it.” 

She continued: “I kicked my way to shattering the glass ceiling, right? We are beginning now to see more diversity and we are beginning to see more women, especially behind the camera, and that is very important…Tell your story. Don’t compromise. Believe in what you do, because if you don’t believe that, you’ve lost just about everybody.”