Despite Instagram post backlash Michelle Yeoh doubles down with Oscar win comment
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Michelle Yeoh has become a Hollywood heavyweight with her recent Best Actress nomination at the Academy Awards for her role in the phenomenal 'Everything Everywhere All At Once'. However, hear journey was not easy. As the awards get closer, Yeoh has addressed the significance of her possible win for the A24 movie and what it would mean to the Asian community. Yeoh has been headlining this award season with wins for Best Actress at both the Golden Globes and the Screen Actors Guild Awards for her role as Evelyn Wang.
'Everything Everywhere All at Once' is an original movie, directed by the Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, who also serve as writers for the movie. Other contenders for the Best Actress award are Cate Blanchett for 'Tár', Ana De Armas for 'Blonde', Andrea Riseborough for 'To Leslie' and Michelle Williams for 'The Fabelmans'.
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When and where will the 95th Academy Awards air?
'You have to do this for us'
In her recent interview with BBC, Yeoh recalled her long journey, from being in a 'James Bond' movie to her Oscar nomination. Yeoh plays Evelyn Wang, a Chinese-American immigrant, who runs a laundromat. Her woes are many and her life often feels like it is falling apart, leaving her terse, anxious and often snappy. Along with running the laundromat, she has a fractured relationship with her daughter due to their cultural differences, her husband is ready to divorce her due as their marriage has turned loveless and her overbearing father who believes she cannot do anything as she was a woman. It is when she goes to file taxes that she gets pulled into the mutiverse and there begins an extraordinary story of love, culture and most of all, family. The main villain, ironically, is her daughter from another universe.
Yeoh is the first Asian woman to receive an Oscar nomination for acting. Aware of the weight that the honor carries, she said, "I'm very aware that it's beyond me being recognised as an actress. It's a whole community of Asians coming forward and saying: You have to do this for us."
Speaking about being an outsider in Hollywwod, Yeoh reportedly said, "You want to have that seat at the table, so you can have the privilege to be seen and heard. What I'm asking for is the privilege to compete."
Stressing on the importance of representation on movies, she said, "Asians tend to not show so much emotion. And I think maybe it's a misconception that we don't need our stories told, which is not true. It's how we tell the story that makes a difference. The audience wants Hollywood to reflect the global community."
'Everything, Everywhere All at Once' gets 11 Oscar nominations
At 11, 'Everything Everywhere All at Once' has bagged the most number of nominations at the 95th Academy Awards. The nominations include Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Picture and Best Supporting Actress among others. Both Jamie Lee Curtis and Stephanie Hsu are nominated for Best Supporting Actress while Ke Huy Quan is nominated for Best Supporting Actor in the movie.
The 95th Academy Awards will take place on Sunday, March 12, at 8pm ET, 5pm PT on ABC.