Michelle Yeoh is the first Asian woman to be nominated for an Oscar, a pillar of Asian cinema.
Yeoh's depiction of Evelyn Wang in the film Everything Everywhere All at Once has dominated the awards season this year. She is now ready to make history at the Oscars after winning the Golden Globes and the Screen Actors Guild awards.
"I'm very aware that it's beyond me being recognized as an actress. It's a whole community of Asians coming forward and saying: You have to do this for us."
"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," she says. "It's how we tell the story that makes a difference. The audience wants Hollywood to reflect the global community."
Yeoh was already an A-lister in Asia before she found fame in Hollywood.
She was born in Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia, and spent her teenage years studying at the Royal Academy of Dance in London. Her dance career was cut short due to a back injury, but her training paid off as it enabled her to perform her stunts in the movies for which she went on to become renowned.
Following her victory at the Miss Malaysia contest, she began acting in Hong Kong films before becoming well-known thanks to Yes Madam! in 1985. She portrayed a police inspector, and the film was so popular that it served as an inspiration for a number of other Chinese-language action movies with female leads.
Yeoh co-stars with Pierce Brosnan in the James Bond movie, which marks her first significant Hollywood role. She played a skilled Chinese spy, a radical departure from the typical "Bond girl," at a time when roles for minorities and women were heavily stereotyped.
Her breakthrough performance in Hollywood occurred in 2018 when she was chosen to play the matriarch Eleanor Young in the romantic comedy Crazy Rich Asians, which also features a cast that is largely Asian.
Her friends and coworkers said that taking on Everything Everywhere All at Once was a huge risk for her.
"But life is all about taking risks. If not, you'll be doing the same thing over and over again."
"I think the Asian community has felt so unseen for such a long time. But the sea of change is happening. It's taken time, and I am only grateful to see it," she says.
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