Michelle Yeoh on Avatar 2, Bond and representation in Hollywood: the Malaysian actress talks James Cameron, female filmmakers and her Oscar-tipped triumph, Everything Everywhere All at Once
- Michelle Yeoh’s role in Avatar: The Way of Water remains hush-hush – but she told us she’s signed up for three more sequels in James Cameron’s sci-fi saga
- After 007 and Crouching Tiger, Malaysia’s most famous actress helped make history in Crazy Rich Asians and Marvel’s Shang-Chi – now at 60, she’s being tipped for an Oscar (at last)
This is turning out to be a remarkable time in the life of Michelle Yeoh. Not that she needs more laurels – after all, the Malaysian actress is already a living legend thanks to international blockbusters like Crazy Rich Asians, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and the Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies. She also made a mark playing Philippa Georgiou in the popular TV series Star Trek: Discovery, and starred in Marvel’s first Asian cast-led movie, last year’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.
Recently celebrating her 60th birthday, on August 6, Yeoh is next set to appear in Avatar: The Way of Water, director James Cameron’s long-awaited follow-up to his 2009 blockbuster, Avatar. Due out in December, it’s the first of four sequels due for release at two-year intervals. Yeoh will appear in all of them.
Though plot details for The Way of Water are more closely guarded than state secrets, we do know that it takes place more than a decade after the events in the first film and that Yeoh will be playing a scientist, Dr Karina Mogue.
“We shot for a few weeks, and I was so impressed with the work that he’s done, the work that he’s doing, the energy. He’s a genius, he’s a walking genius. And I really enjoyed the experience and I can’t wait to go back soon, I hope,” she says.
As a big fan of the original film, credited as a key factor in popularising 3D, Yeoh felt honoured to be part of one of the most ambitious franchises ever.
“I said to James ‘I don’t know why I’m here, I’m here because you’re a genius and I am the biggest fan. I mean, I would be your coffee lady. I would just come here and sit down and watch you,” she gushes. “He’s created these amazing worlds and there’s just no end to it. You just sit there in awe and listen, and he’s very giving and sharing, so it makes life so easy.”
On top of this, Yeoh has lately earned a wealth of critical and public acclaim as the star of Everything Everywhere All at Once, the madcap action adventure film that sees her tap into alternate realities as a kung fu expert, a teppanyaki chef and a global superstar not so dissimilar to her real-life self.