“She loves doing everything on her own,” says Yeoh, 59, of Curtis.
“I said, ‘Pleasedon’t jump down the stairs on the wire.’
She’s like, ‘Why not?
Michelle Yeoh in ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once.'.Allyson Riggs/A24
That sounds like me.
People will say, ‘Don’t do that!’
I’m like, ‘Why not?'”
Michelle Yeoh in ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once.'.Allyson Riggs/A24
“I learned a lot.
She is the master, I am the student.
Selling the martial arts magic is just one skill Yeoh has mastered.
Michelle Yeoh, along with her fellow ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ castmates, was one of EW’s 2018 Entertainers of the Year.Ruven Afanador for EW
The film, the second movie from theSwiss Army Manfilmmaking duo Daniels (a.k.a.
“She is suddenly thrown into the multiverse,” says Yeoh.
(Yes, you read that correctly:hot dogs for fingers.)
Or, as Curtis puts it: “This is a bow-down-and-kiss-Michelle-Yeoh’s-f—ing-feet movie.”
Butsomebodyis watching out for me, and I’m very, very grateful for that.”
Born and raised in Malaysia, Yeoh dreamed of running a ballet school in her homeland.
“I loved being in the world of dance,” she says.
“I wanted to expose more young girls and boys [to] the beauty and discipline of ballet.
Yeoh suffered a back injury when she was a teenager and abandoned her dance plans.
“Straight after that, D&B offered me a contract,” says the actress.
Nothing ventured, nothing gained!”
“Oh, I played the damsel in distress.
she says with mock cheer.
“I [said], ‘I’d love to try action,'” she recalls.
“They looked at me like I had gone a little cuckoo.”
“The action movies in Hong Kong at that time werereallyreal,” Yeoh says.
“There is no green screen; there are no cables.
Everything is physical; everything is contact.
That was the period of Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, Jet Li.
But, hey, nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?
“I didn’t want to just play the damsel in distress,” she says.
“I felt that the girls were not given the right exposure or the proper respect.
Women don’t have to sit back and wait to be rescued.”
It also includes the incredible sight of Yeoh riding an actual motorbike onto an actual moving train.
Says Yeoh: “What was I thinking?
I was swinging at the side of trucks.
I was riding a motorcycle onto a moving train.
I was doing the most insane stunts.”
Including one that almost killed her.
We learn the stunt, and we do it,” says Yeoh.
I’m not standing still, the car isn’t, nothing is still.
All I remember was like ‘Duhn!’
Fortunately, I didn’t go head first.
Then I hear Jackie.
He was like, ‘Okay, okay, that’s it!
We are finished for the day!
We’re not doing anymore!
We’re not doing it!'”
The really crazy thing was what happened next.
She was willing to try the stunt again.
“So we went up and got it in the next take.”
Originally made for a reported $900,000, the film went on to earn an impressive $16 million.
Quentin Tarantino would later describeSupercopas containing “the greatest stunts ever filmed in any movie ever.”
“We had such a great time filming the Bond movie,” Yeoh says.
it’s possible for you to see their face change!
‘You are going to be a Bond girl?
Welcome to London!'"
Yeoh’s character, Chinese spy Colonel Wai Lin, however, was more Bond woman than girl.
“The producers saw that Bond had to evolve,” she says.
But while shooting an action sequence early in the production, Yeoh blew out her ACL.
“But you just know because when you turn right and your knee turns left ha ha!
it’s not looking good.
“Without hesitation, Ang said, ‘I’m waiting for you.
Do what you gotta do, and get well, and you’ll come back to us.’
You are back on set, and you are going to behave.’
I’m like, ‘Yes, sir!'”
Okay, can we have you one more?’
You go, ‘That was so good, why do you need one more?’
Walk away.'”
Still, notable movie roles for Yeoh after theMummysequel were few and far between.
(“It was a proud moment for me,” she says.)
“I kiss my writers every day,” she says.
“They gave me two contrasting characters, and it was delicious.”
It’s likeMission: ImpossiblemeetsGuardians of the Galaxyin space."
“I remember turning the script down,” she says.
Yeoh’s concerns were put to rest after speaking with Chu.
“I asked him, ‘IsCrazy Rich Asiansgoing to be likeHangover 2?’
He looked at me and goes, ‘Oh no.
If I did that, my mother will kill me.’
And then I thought, oh, okay, now we can have a conversation!”
Shortly before the release ofCrazy Rich Asians, Yeoh received the script forEverything Everywhere All at Once.
“I was driving with my fiancee because we were checking out wedding venues,” he says.
When Kwan returned from Big Sur, he related his idea to Scheinert.
That was when we said, whoa, this is exciting; we get to do existential crisisandfight scenes.
They’re our two favorite things!"
“My mom’s side came from Taiwan, and my father’s side came out of Hong Kong.
They came to New York City, and they started a laundromat,” he says.
“Growing up, I would go visit my grandfather in the laundromat all the time.
“Filtering that through the immigrant family just kind of heightened it.
Oh, theyliterallyspeak different languages.
Kwan and Scheinert wrote the lead role with Yeoh in mind.
Initially, the character was even called “Michelle.”
“We grew up on those Hong Kong action movies,” says Scheinert.
“We couldn’t imagine anyone other than her playing the part, and that was very scary.”
Fortunately, while the actress might have been confused by the film’s script, she also loved it.
“There are so many universes,” she says.
“It was so different from anything I’ve read in a long time.
I couldn’t understand how an absurd story could just captivate me until the very end.
It blew my mind.
“I would ask them questions like, ‘Hot dog fingers?
I don’t understand this universe,'” she says.
“I would bombard them with questions that I think any ordinary person would ask.
They were very clear, very solid in this multiverse that they wanted to present.
Yeoh did have one condition.
“I don’t want her to be named ‘Michelle.'”
He only decided to return to acting after witnessing the success ofCrazy Rich Asians.
and this is [after] two decades without an agent,” he says.
“I started doing the math in my head,” says Kwan.
“I was like, he would be the right age.
What isthatguy up to?
He was the first person we auditioned for the role, and he became instantly our favorite.
That’s the person we imagined when we were writing this role.”
Jamie Lee Curtis’ participation in the film is also thanks to Yeoh.
“She was the entire reason I said yes to this movie,” theHalloweenstar explains.
“You get to fight with Michelle Yeoh.
You get to fall in love with Michelle Yeoh.
You get to do a mating dance with hot dog fingers.
Curtis was also quite instrumental in coming up with her IRS auditor’s aggressively dowdy look.
“She would just text us photos of weird outfits and weird hairdos.”
“I could not believe that they never went to the conventional [academies].
The Le brothers admit to having been in awe of theSupercopactress.
“Working with her, literally my knees would be shaking.
I guess you could call us the biggest fanboys.
“I have to sometimes step back and say, ‘like let the professionals do their job.’
I have to talk myself down.”
Even so, Yeoh was able to import some old-school Hong Kong action movie practices to the Daniels set.
“The shocking thing with the fights was she didn’t really want to rehearse,” says Scheinert.
“She’d practice it two or three times and then be ready.
It was mind-blowing.”
Stephanie Hsu, 31, was similarly impressed.
“I mean, I grew up watching her,” she says.
“She is such an icon for so many Asian families.
Beyond that, the amount of joy she brings everywhere she goes is just incredibly humbling.”
When Yeoh watched the finished film last year, she felt both relieved and overwhelmed.
“I was so nervous to watch it,” she says.
I laughed at it so much.
I didn’t see me anymore.
I saw this Chinese immigrant woman who was dragged into all these different things.
So I had a good laugh.
And then I had a good cry.”
Three decades after the release ofSupercop, films with predominately Asian casts remain a rarity in U.S. cinemas.
“I don’t think they are little steps anymore,” says the actress.
“I think they are making progress, definitely.
“I think our movie kind up blowseverythingup, not just the Asian-American experience.
(Says Yeoh: “I got to play an elf, and I have green eyes.
I look pretty cool.
“It’s James Cameron!
I would be a tea lady for James Cameron,” she says.
That’s a lot of upcoming projects to add to an already impressive filmography.
And then we can make all of her work part of the extended universe.”
A cinematic universe in which Michelle Yeoh really is everything everywhere all at once?
We could fallhardfor that.
Everything Everywhere All at Onceis opening in limited theaters March 25 and will be released wide April 8.
Cover edit by Ethan Bellows, with design by Chuck Kerr.
Video interview edited by Sam Gordon.
