Michelle Yeoh reflects on Hollywood career at Golden Globes: “It was a dream come true until I got here”

11 January, 2023

Michelle Yeoh

Michelle Yeoh has reflected on her career in Hollywood at the Golden Globes 2023, calling it “a dream come true until I got here”.

The actor collected the award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy for her role in Everything Everywhere All At Once at the awards show tonight (January 10), which is currently taking place in Los Angeles.

“Forty years… not letting go of this,” Yeoh began her acceptance speech before thanking the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) for the honour. “It’s been an amazing journey and incredible fight to be here today, but I think it’s been worth it. I remember when I first came to Hollywood – it was a dream come true until I got here.

“Look at this face – I came here and was told, ‘You’re a minority’ and I’m like, ‘No, that’s not possible’. And then someone said to me, ‘You… speak… English’ – forget about them not knowing Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Asia, India. Then I said, ‘Yeah, the flight here was about 13 hours long so I learnt’.”

Yeoh also reflected on turning 60 last year and the decreasing chances women get in Hollywood as they get older. “I think all of you women understand this – as the days and the years and the numbers get bigger, it seems like opportunities start to get smaller as well,” she said. “It was probably at a time when I thought, ‘Come on, girl, you had a really good run. You worked with some of the best people – Steven Spielberg, Danny Boyle – so it’s good, it’s all good’. Then along came the best gift. Everything Everywhere All At Once…”

The Golden Globes’ pianist then began to play Yeoh off the stage, with the actor responding: “Shut up, please. I can beat you up, OK.” She continued with her speech, thanking the film’s directors the Daniels for having “the courage to write about a very ordinary immigrant, ageing woman, mother, daughter who was – the worst thing – trying to do her audit”.

“I was given this gift of playing this woman who resonated so deeply with me and with so many people because, at the end of the day, in whatever universe she was at, she was just fighting – fighting for love for her family,” she said. “Evelyn Wang was no one without Ke Huy Quan – Raymond Wang – and there was no joy in her life without Stephanie Hsu.”

Yeoh’s win makes her the first Malaysian actor and the second woman of Asian descent to win the trophy for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy at the Golden Globes. She is also the second Everything Everywhere All At Once star to win at tonight’s ceremony, following Quan’s win for Best Performance by a Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy.

Elsewhere at the Golden Globes, Angela Bassett has become the first actor to win a major award for a Marvel movie. You can follow all the winners as they happen live at the Golden Globes 2023 on NME.com here.

Everything Everywhere All At Once was named NME’s Film Of The Year last year. Speaking to NME after the list was revealed one half of the Daniels, Daniel Scheinert, explained why the movie has struck a chord with so many people.

“I think because, at its core, it’s about being overwhelmed and struggling to connect and communicate,” he said. “We all just lived through this pandemic that made us all very overwhelmed, made it very hard to connect and communicate. We’re just so lucky that we made a piece of artwork people were in the mood for.

“I have one more answer. I think the movie is successful because it’s impossible to hate Ke Huy Quan or Michelle Yeoh. You can’t shit-talk the movie because you look like a real jerk – Ke and Michelle are just so good and sweet in it. I feel like they’re the secret weapon.”

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