Michelle Yeoh was on a Zoom call on Tuesday with her “Everything Everywhere All at Once” family — including her co-stars Jamie Lee Curtis, Ke Huy Quan and James Hong and the directors Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan — when she got the news that had her “bursting with joy”: She was nominated for best actress for her performance as the cantankerous laundromat owner in the film, a sci-fi acid trip through time, space and human experience.
“We want to hold each other’s hands, even though they’re in America and I’m now in Paris, and so we’ve been screaming at the top of our heads,” she said by phone shortly after the nominations were announced. It’s no wonder: “Everything Everywhere All at Once” led the day with 11 nominations, including best picture.
Should she win, Yeoh — who was born in Malaysia and became a movie star in Asia before crossing over worldwide in films like “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” (2000) and “Crazy Rich Asians” (2018) — would become the first Asian woman to win a lead actress Oscar. (She won her first Golden Globe earlier this month.)
“Ninety-five years of Oscars,” she said. “Of course, I’m over the moon, but I feel a little sad because I know we know there have been amazing actresses from Asia that come before me, and I stand on their shoulders.” She added, “I hope this will shatter that frigging glass ceiling to no end, that this will continue, and we will see more of our faces up there.”
Yeoh, 60, said that the film, which was released last March and went on to become a surprise box office success amid the pandemic, resonated in part because it came “at a time where we all needed to be healed.”
She explained, “We’ve gone through such a crazy, chaotic time in our life, and we all needed something to fill us with hope and ensure us that as long as we can show each other kindness and compassion and love and never give up on your family.”
Hope was top of mind for the actress, who earlier in the week responded to the mass shooting in Monterey Park, Calif., an Asian American community where Lunar New Year celebrations were taking place. “At a time when our community should be celebrating new beginnings, we are now mourning,” she posted on Instagram.
When asked about her nomination at a time of sadness, she said, “One thing that we all need always is hope,” adding, “We always need to be able to hold up our heads and move forward. All our hearts are so broken for what’s happened in Monterey Park.”
At the heart of the movie is a fraught mother-daughter relationship, two characters who are both struggling to navigate very different everyday realities (and very different interdimensional nonrealities). It didn’t surprise Yeoh that this dynamic resonated with so many viewers, but she has been touched by its power to heal. Older women have come up to her to say that while they didn’t understand the film, it’s helped their relationships with their daughters.
Yeoh recalled one viewer who told of her estranged daughter contacting her after years of not talking. “We have now bonded and we have a relationship because of your movie,” Yeoh remembered the woman saying. “Sometimes when a movie like this comes along and you feel that you’ve healed people, that is such an amazing award.”
For Yeoh, a former stuntwoman who has been working in the industry for decades, “Everything” was a showcase for her many talents. Reflecting on her long career can be bittersweet, she said, “but then, at the other times, it’s like, I love what I do. I have this great passion for film acting and all that. So it’s like, you don’t do it for the awards. You do it because you want to put what is best out there.”
“But of course, please frigging give me the Oscar, man,” she said, laughing. “It’s just a tribute to saying, never give up. If you believe in yourself, you just never give up. It took me 40 years, but it’s here.”
