Michelle Yeoh credits multicultural Malaysia for global outlook: ‘I see how I can learn from others’
- The Oscar-winning actress says in Malaysian society, different ethnic groups ‘learn to live and embrace each other’s culture’
- Yeoh says there are ‘plenty of stories to be told’ from Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong and the Asia-Pacific, and urges filmmakers and artists to go beyond their comfort zones
Yeoh won the best actress in a leading role award at the Academy Awards and Golden Globes for her portrayal of Chinese-American laundromat owner Evelyn Wang, who deals with family turmoil while battling an interdimensional villain in the sci-fi action comedy Everything Everywhere All at Once.
Born in the one-time mining town of Ipoh, an hour north of capital city Kuala Lumpur, Yeoh said it was imperative for Asian filmmakers and artists to think global.
“I think a lot of times we box ourselves in a comfort zone where [we say] let’s just deal with our own market,” Yeoh said. “When you make a movie, it should be global. It should not be for this or for that [market]. That’s when you speak a global language and that’s what we strive to do continuously.”