Michelle Yeoh

The “Everything Everywhere All at Once” star said she was “bursting with joy” but “a little sad” that previous Asian actresses hadn't been recognized.

“Sometimes when a movie like this comes along and you feel that you’ve healed people, that is such an amazing award.” You do it because you want to put what is best out there.” [Yeoh](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/15/magazine/michelle-yeoh-everything-everywhere-all-at-once.html) — 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. “At a time when our community should be celebrating new beginnings, we are now mourning,” she posted on Instagram. If you believe in yourself, you just never give up. It didn’t surprise Yeoh that this dynamic resonated with so many viewers, but she has been touched by its power to heal. All our hearts are so broken for what’s happened in Monterey Park.” “Ninety-five years of Oscars,” she said. “It’s just a tribute to saying, never give up. 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. [said she was “bursting with joy”](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/24/movies/michelle-yeoh-oscar-nomination.html?action=click&pgtype=Article&state=default&module=styln-academy-awards-2023&variant=show®ion=MAIN_CONTENT_1&block=storyline_top_links_recirc)but “a little sad” that previous Asian actresses hadn’t been recognized. The “Everything Everywhere All at Once” star said she was “bursting with joy” but “a little sad” that previous Asian actresses hadn’t been recognized.

Michelle Yeoh has earned her first Academy Award nomination for Everything Everywhere All at Once.

The film was also nominated for best costume, original score, original screenplay, best original song, film editing, and directing for Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert. The first nominee, Merle Oberon, was nominated in 1935, though hid her ancestry from the public at the time. Michelle Yeoh just scored her first-ever Oscar nomination this morning for her role in the A24 film Everything Everywhere All At Once.

It took 95 years, but Michelle Yeoh is now the first person who identifies as Asian to be nominated for best actress at the Oscars for 2023 show.

I totally understand.’ All this time, they’ve not been recognized, they’ve not been heard.” [Oscars](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/t/oscars/)’ best actress category is historically one of the [awards](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/t/awards/) body’s whitest and least diverse, certainly among the four acting races. Barely a dozen Black women have been nominated for best actress (the first was Dorothy Dandridge in 1955) and just four Latinas have received nods in the category (starting with Fernanda Montenegro in 1999), including Yalitza Aparicio, who also is only one of two Indigenous best actress nominees (the first being Keisha Castle-Hughes in 2004). That distinction goes to The Good Earth’s hardworking Chinese wife O-Lan, whose portrayer earned Oscar gold all the way back in 1938 at the 10th Academy Awards: the 100 percent white actress Luise Rainer. Likewise for double Oscar winner Vivien Leigh, who was born in British-colonized India and whose mother might have had partial Western Asian ancestry. And it’s taken 95 years for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize a woman who identifies as Asian in its best actress category. [Yeoh told The Hollywood Reporter on Tuesday](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/michelle-yeoh-historic-2023-oscar-nomination-everything-everywhere-all-at-once-1235308400/) after the nominations were announced, speaking of the historic nod. Technicalities exist: Some recordkeepers consider Merle Oberon (1936, The Dark Angel) to be the first Asian best actress nominee, but she hid her ancestry (her mother was reportedly of partial Sri Lankan descent) and passed for white. [Everything Everywhere All at Once](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/everything-everywhere-all-at-once-sxsw-2022-1235108278/). But for the Academy, the achievement is even more consequential. And although past nominee Salma Hayek and winners Cher and Natalie Portman all have claims to some Western Asian heritage (Lebanon, Armenia and Israel/Russia, respectively), none has identified as Asian. [Michelle Yeoh](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/t/michelle-yeoh/) to land [her first lead role in a Hollywood film](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/michelle-yeoh-interview-everything-everywhere-all-at-once-1235111436/). 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Michelle Yeoh is a Malaysian-born actress who has had an incredibly successful career. While she got her start doing Hong Kong action films, ...

When it comes to movies, she played a key supporting role in the 2021 Marvel movie Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and has a number of major pictures coming out in the near future after starring in Everything Everywhere All at Once, which is nominated for 11 Oscars. Additionally, she was able to speak English on a regular basis in her home, and that helped her a lot during the movie career Yeoh was able to have. The movie also had three Academy Awards and a Golden Globe, and while none went to Yeoh directly, it was still a major achievement for her. When it comes to education, Yeoh was able to go to London with her family and study at the UK’s Royal Academy of Dance in London, majoring in ballet. Yeoh has had success throughout her entire life and she was also successful in other fields, including dancing and beauty pageants. In recent years, she played key roles in Crazy Rich Asians and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and she has received critical acclaim for her starring role in Everything Everywhere All at Once.

LOS ANGELES CALIFORNIA JANUARY 15 Michelle Yeoh attends the 28th Annual Critics Choice Awards at Fairmont. LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - JANUARY 15: Michelle Yeoh ...

Ditto her [take on the white shirt](https://www.vogue.co.uk/news/article/cate-blanchett-critics-choice-awards-2023) courtesy of Erdem. [T-shirt](https://www.instagram.com/p/CnctMi2SnTa/?hl=en) – in recruiting stylists who aren’t celebrities in their own right (think: Kate Young and Karla Welch whose work dominates the red carpets at this time of year). [Schiaparelli confections](https://www.vogue.co.uk/news/article/michelle-yeoh-schiaparelli-palm-springs-international-film-festival) and sequined Armani Privé peplum numbers, to delightful old-school couture salon-esque looks by Carolina Herrera, her USP this season has been Old Hollywood glamour mixed with a dash of the unexpected. In lieu of hopping on the trend bus, the Everything Everywhere All at Once actor has been pedaling her own cycle of original outfits, which have looked nothing less than refreshing as the [awards season juggernaut](https://www.vogue.co.uk/fashion/article/awards-season-red-carpet-trends-2023) gathers pace. The 60-year-old star has proven her versatility in the eveningwear category by mixing and matching designers, silhouettes, textures and colors with one failsafe accessory to anchor them all: that signature knowing smile that says she’s confident going her own way in an industry that fosters a herd mentality. [sheer](https://www.vogue.com/tag/event/golden-globe-awards), [metallic,](https://www.vogue.com/slideshow/best-dressed-critics-choice-awards-red-carpet) and impossibly slinky dresses delighting paps on red carpets so far?

Colin Farrell, Jamie Lee Curtis and Brendan Fraser are among the first-time Academy Award nominees.

If she wins, Yeoh will become the first Asian woman to win Best Actress.

Many Weibo users in China also called for Everything Everywhere to be screened without cuts. More recently, she has featured in Crazy Rich Asians and Star Trek: Discovery. Yeoh is the first Malaysian and also the first woman of Chinese descent to gain an Oscar nomination for Best Actress.