Michelle Yeoh won a Golden Globe and there was no way she was going to walk off that stage without saying all the damn things she loved.
Halfway through her acceptance speech for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy for her performance in “Everything, Everywhere, All Once,” the exit music began.
“Shut up, please,” he snapped, laughing. “I can beat you, okay?”
No joke considering her prolific martial arts acting career.
Yeoh, who was born in Malaysia, began his speech by discussing how race has affected his career in Hollywood.
“It’s been an amazing journey,” he said. “I remember when I first came to Hollywood, it was a dream come true until I got here. Why look at this face. I came here and was told, “You’re a minority,” and I said, “No, you can’t.” And then someone said to me, “You… speak… English.”
“I mean, forget I don’t know Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Asia, India. And then I said, “Yeah, the flight here was about 13 hours. That’s how I learned.”
She also suggested that her winning role felt like a break from Hollywood’s problem with sexism and ageism.
“I turned 60 last year and I think all of you women understand this: as the days, years and numbers get longer, it seems the opportunities start to shrink. And I was probably at a point where I thought, “Well, hey, come on, girl, you had a really good run. You have worked with some of the best people.
He added: “It’s okay. All is well. Then came the best gift: “Everything, everywhere, at once.”
Then the Globes exit music started playing. But Yeoh wasn’t done.
After deftly clearing the break, Yeoh thanked the film’s writers and directors, Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, “who had the guts to write about a very ordinary immigrant woman, mother, daughter” who was … verified by IRS.
“I was given the gift of playing this woman who resonated so deeply with me and so many people because at the end of the day, no matter what universe she was in, she was just fighting, fighting for the love of her family them,” she says. She said.
The comedy-drama has been nominated six times at the 2023 Golden Globes, including Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy and Best Director.
