‘Crazy Rich Asians’ opened doors for Asian actors — Michelle Yeoh

Michelle Yeoh, the grande dame of Asian actresses in Hollywood, told Variety that it was the success of 2018’s Crazy Rich Asians that has opened the doors for her fellow Asian actors, especially for comedians. 

At one point, she wondered what the effect would be if the film, was one of the few in Hollywood to feature an all-Asian cast. Crazy Rich Asians went on, however, to earn more than US$200 million (SGD$280 million) in box offices worldwide.

Yeoh, 59, who most recently starred in the hit movie Everything Everywhere All at Once, was interviewed in Variety on the occasion of Asian American Pacific Islander Month in the United States. 

The Malaysian actress said, “It was a big moment for us, but looking back, what if it didn’t work? Would it have set our community back many years? A lot was riding on the success of the film, and a lot of Asian leading roles would not have been greenlit. Because that’s showbiz.

Fortunately, it was about great storytelling.”

She praised Jon Chu, the film’s director, for doing “an amazing job of telling this story, which was so relatable and transcends just Asian casts. It sets up the tone that shows that people do love to see leading Asian men and women and to hear their experiences. So, it did change a lot of things.”

She noted that her Crazy Rich Asians co-stars, especially comedians Ronnie Chieng and Jimmy O. Yang, who are finding success in their stand-up comedy shows.

“And to see them be respected and loved for what they have been trying to do so well for so long, but not given the same kind of accolades, as they now so rightly deserve, it’s so great.

We can’t afford to go backward in time,” she added.

Last month, Yeoh’s co-star in Everything Everywhere All at Once, Ke Huy Quan, said that it was seeing Crazy Rich Asians that inspired him to return to acting after a decades-long hiatus.

Quan, 51, had risen to fame in the 1980s with roles in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and The Goonies. In the years that followed, Quan worked as an assistant director for Wong Kar-Wai and choreographed fight scenes for different Asian films, but hardly appeared onscreen.

And then Crazy Rich Asians came along.

“For a long time I thought I was at peace with it, but something was missing, and I really didn’t know what it was until ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ came out. I saw my fellow Asian actors up on the screen, and I had serious FOMO (fear of missing out) because I wanted to be up there with them,” he told Indiewire in April.

Quan earned rave reviews for his part in Everything Everywhere All at Once, where he played Yeoh’s husband. /TISG

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