Malaysian-born actor Michelle Yeoh became the first Asian woman to win the Academy Award for best actress on Sunday for her multifaceted performance in the multiversal Everything Everywhere All at Once.
“I have to dedicate this to my mom and all the moms in the world because they are really the superheroes, and without them none of us would be here tonight,” she said.
“For all the little boys and girls who look like me watching tonight, this is a beacon of hope and possibility. This is proof that dreams dream big and dreams do come true. And ladies, don’t let anyone ever tell you you’re past your prime,” she said.
Photo: AP
Yeoh’s victory comes almost 90 years after Luise Rainer, a white actor, won the same category for donning “yellowface” to play a Chinese villager in The Good Earth.
As a nominee, Yeoh was the first in the category who identified as Asian. Merle Oberon, who was nominated in 1935 for The Dark Angel, hid her South Asian heritage, birth records show.
Yeoh prevailed over Oscar winner Cate Blanchett (Tar), as well as Michelle Williams (The Fabelmans), Ana de Armas (Blonde) and Andrea Riseborough (To Leslie).
Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP
Yeoh appeared composed after winning seemingly every award everywhere, including the Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild award, for her nuanced portrayal of Evelyn, an immigrant Chinese wife, mother and laundromat operator bracing for a tax audit.
Yeoh is to be seen later this year in the Disney+ series American Born Chinese. She is also preparing to reunite with Crazy Rich Asians director Jon M. Chu for the screen adaptation of the musical Wicked.
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