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Malaysian icon Michelle Yeoh breaks down Oscar wall with first Asian best actress nomination after 95 years

by Ruel J. Mendoza /

01.25.23
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Photos: @everythingeverywheremovie @michelleyeoh_official

Malaysian icon Michelle Yeoh is the first Asian actress to break down that wall and receive a best actress nomination for her first lead role in the Hollywood film Everything Everywhere All at Once. The 60-year old former beauty title holder (Miss Malaysia World and Miss International Tourism Quest, both in 1983) and actress have successfully crossed over from being a Hong Kong movie star to being an award-winning and critically-acclaimed Hollywood actress.

For the first time in 95 years, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) have finally given an Asian actress a place in the best actress category.

Malaysian icon Michelle Yeoh is the first Asian actress to break down that wall and receive a best actress nomination for her first lead role in the Hollywood film Everything Everywhere All at Once.

The 60-year old former beauty title holder (Miss Malaysia World and Miss International Tourism Quest, both in 1983) and actress, known for her supporting yet scene-stealing roles in such films as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; Memoirs of a Geisha, Tomorrow Never Dies; The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor; Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and Crazy Rich Asians, have successfully crossed over from being a Hong Kong movie star to being an award-winning and critically-acclaimed Hollywood actress.

In her recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Yeoh said that she waited for a long time and it was all worth it.

“It’s taken a long time. But I think this is more than me. At the present moment, constantly, all the time, having Asians walking up to me saying, ‘You can do it, you’re doing it for us.’ It’s like, ‘I understand. I totally understand.’ All this time, they’ve not been recognized, they’ve not been heard.”

Oscars’ best actress category is historically one of the awards body’s whitest and least diverse, certainly among the four acting races.

Women from the global majority represent a slim minority of nominees, with Halle Berry the only winner, more than 20 years ago, for Monster’s Ball. Barely a dozen Black women have been nominated for best actress, the first was Dorothy Dandridge for Carmen Jones in 1955. This was followed by Diana Ross (Lady Sings The Blues), Cicely Tyson (Sounder), Diahann Carol (Claudine), Whoopi Goldberg (The Color Purple), Angela Bassett (What's Love Got To Do With It?), Halle Berry (Monster's Ball), Gabourey Sibide (Precious), Viola Davis (The Help), Quvenzhané Wallis (Beast of the Southern Wild), Ruth Negga (Loving), Cynthia Erivo (Harriet), Viola Davis (Ma Rainey's Black Bottom), and Andra Day (The United States Vs. Billie Holiday).

Just four Latinas have received nominations in the category starting with Brazilian actress Fernanda Montenegro for Central Station in 1999. The rest includes Salma Hayek (Frida), Catalina Sandino Moreno (Maria Full of Grace), Yalitza Aparicio (Roma) and the latest being Ana de Armas (Blonde).

Keisha Castle-Hughes, a Māori or Polynesian people of mainland New Zealand was the first indigenous actress to receive a best actress nomination for The Whale Rider in 2003.

Not until today, not a single woman who identifies as Asian, the largest racial group on the planet, has been recognized as best actress by the Academy Awards.

Technicalities exist: Some record keepers 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.

Likewise for double Oscar winner Vivien Leigh (Gone With The Wind, A Streetcar Named Desire), who was born in British-colonized India and whose mother might have had partial Western Asian ancestry.

And although past nominee Salma Hayek and winners Cher (Moonstruck) and Natalie Portman (Black Swan) all have claims to some Western Asian heritage (Lebanon, Armenia and Israel/Russia, respectively), none has identified as Asian.

Interestingly, Yeoh’s EEAAO character, the immigrant laundromat owner Evelyn Wang, is not the first Asian character to be recognized in an Oscar-worthy lead actress performance. 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.

Here is the full list of the 95th Academy Awards nominees with the film Everything Everywhere All at Once leading the pack with 11 nominations:

Best Picture
All Quiet on the Western Front— Malte Grunert, Producer
Avatar: The Way of Water—James Cameron and Jon Landau, Producers
The Banshees of Inisherin—Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin and Martin McDonagh, Producers
Elvis—Baz Luhrmann, Catherine Martin, Gail Berman, Patrick McCormick and Schuyler Weiss, Producers
Everything Everywhere All at Once—Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert and Jonathan Wang, Producers
The Fabelmans—Kristie Macosko Krieger, Steven Spielberg and Tony Kushner, Producers
Tár—Todd Field, Alexandra Milchan and Scott Lambert, Producers
Top Gun: Maverick—Tom Cruise, Christopher McQuarrie, David Ellison and Jerry Bruckheimer, Producers
Triangle of Sadness—Erik Hemmendorff and Philippe Bober, Producers
Women Talking—Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner and Frances McDormand, Producers

Best Director
Martin McDonagh (The Banshees of Inisherin)
Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert (Everything Everywhere All at Once)
Steven Spielberg (The Fabelmans)
Todd Field (Tár)
Ruben Östlund (Triangle of Sadness)

Best Lead Actor
Austin Butler (Elvis)
Colin Farrell (The Banshees of Inisherin)
Brendan Fraser (The Whale)
Paul Mescal (Aftersun)
Bill Nighy (Living)

Best Lead Actress
Cate Blanchett (Tár)
Ana de Armas (Blonde)
Andrea Riseborough (To Leslie)
Michelle Williams (The Fabelmans)
Michelle Yeoh (Everything Everywhere All at Once)

Best Supporting Actor
Brendan Gleeson (The Banshees of Inisherin)
Brian Tyree Henry (Causeway)
Judd Hirsch (The Fabelmans)

Barry Keoghan (The Banshees of Inisherin)
Ke Huy Quan (Everything Everywhere All at Once)

Best Supporting Actress
Angela Bassett (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever)
Hong Chau (The Whale)
Kerry Condon (The Banshees of Inisherin)
Jamie Lee Curtis (Everything Everywhere All at Once)
Stephanie Hsu (Everything Everywhere All at Once)

Best Adapted Screenplay
All Quiet on the Western Front—Screenplay by Edward Berger, Lesley Paterson & Ian Stokell
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery—Written by Rian Johnson
Living—Written by Kazuo Ishiguro
Top Gun: Maverick—Screenplay by Ehren Kruger and Eric Warren Singer and Christopher McQuarrie; Story by Peter Craig and Justin Marks
Women Talking—Screenplay by Sarah Polley

Best Original Screenplay
The Banshees of Inisherin—Written by Martin McDonagh
Everything Everywhere All at Once—Written by Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert
The Fabelmans—Written by Steven Spielberg & Tony Kushner
Tár—Written by Todd Field
Triangle of Sadness—Written by Ruben Östlund

Best Cinematography
All Quiet on the Western Front—James Friend
Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths—Darius Khondji
Elvis—Mandy Walker
Empire of Light—Roger Deakins
Tár—Florian Hoffmeister

Best Documentary Feature Film
All That Breathes—Shaunak Sen, Aman Mann and Teddy Leifer
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed—Laura Poitras, Howard Gertler, John Lyons, Nan Goldin and Yoni Golijov
Fire of Love—Sara Dosa, Shane Boris and Ina Fichman
A House Made of Splinters—Simon Lereng Wilmont and Monica Hellström
Navalny—Daniel Roher, Odessa Rae, Diane Becker, Melanie Miller and Shane Boris

Best Documentary Short Film
The Elephant Whisperers—Kartiki Gonsalves and Guneet Monga
Haulout—Evgenia Arbugaeva and Maxim Arbugaev
How Do You Measure a Year?—Jay Rosenblatt
The Martha Mitchell Effect—Anne Alvergue and Beth Levison
Stranger at the Gate—Joshua Seftel and Conall Jones

Best Film Editing
The Banshees of Inisherin—Mikkel E.G. Nielsen
Elvis—Matt Villa and Jonathan Redmond
Everything Everywhere All at Once—Paul Rogers
Tár—Monika Willi
Top Gun: Maverick—Eddie Hamilton

Best International Feature Film
All Quiet on the Western Front (Germany)
Argentina, 1985 (Argentina)
Close (Belgium)
EO (Poland)
The Quiet Girl (Ireland)

Best Original Song
—“Applause” from Tell It Like a Woman, Music and Lyric by Diane Warren
—“Hold My Hand” from Top Gun: Maverick, Music and Lyric by Lady Gaga and BloodPop
—“Lift Me Up” from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Music by Tems, Rihanna, Ryan Coogler and Ludwig Goransson; Lyric by Tems and Ryan Coogler
—“Naatu Naatu” from RRR, Music by M.M. Keeravaani; Lyric by Chandrabose
—“This Is a Life” from Everything Everywhere All at Once, Music by Ryan Lott, David Byrne and Mitski; Lyric by Ryan Lott and David Byrne

Best Production Design
—All Quiet on the Western Front—Production Design: Christian M. Goldbeck; Set Decoration: Ernestine Hipper
—Avatar: The Way of Water—Production Design: Dylan Cole and Ben Procter; Set Decoration: Vanessa Cole
—Babylon—Production Design: Florencia Martin; Set Decoration: Anthony Carlino
—Elvis—Production Design: Catherine Martin and Karen Murphy; Set Decoration: Bev Dunn
—The Fabelmans—Production Design: Rick Carter; Set Decoration: Karen O’Hara

Best Visual Effects
—All Quiet on the Western Front—Frank Petzold, Viktor Müller, Markus Frank and Kamil Jafar
—Avatar: The Way of Water—Joe Letteri, Richard Baneham, Eric Saindon and Daniel Barrett
—The Batman—Dan Lemmon, Russell Earl, Anders Langlands and Dominic Tuohy
—Black Panther: Wakanda Forever—Geoffrey Baumann, Craig Hammack, R. Christopher White and Dan Sudick
—Top Gun: Maverick—Ryan Tudhope, Seth Hill, Bryan Litson and Scott R. Fisher

Best Animated Feature Film
—Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio—Guillermo del Toro, Mark Gustafson, Gary Ungar and Alex Bulkley
—Marcel the Shell With Shoes On—Dean Fleischer Camp, Elisabeth Holm, Andrew Goldman, Caroline Kaplan and Paul Mezey
—Puss in Boots: The Last Wish—Joel Crawford and Mark Swift
—The Sea Beast—Chris Williams and Jed Schlanger
—Turning Red—Domee Shi and Lindsey Collins

Best Animated Short Film
—The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse—Charlie Mackesy and Matthew Freud
—The Flying Sailor—Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby
—Ice Merchants—João Gonzalez and Bruno Caetano
—My Year of Dicks—Sara Gunnarsdóttir and Pamela Ribon
—An Ostrich Told Me the World Is Fake and I Think I Believe It—Lachlan Pendragon

Best Costume Design
Babylon—Mary Zophres
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever—Ruth Carter
Elvis—Catherine Martin
Everything Everywhere All at Once—Shirley Kurata
Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris—Jenny Beavan

Best Live Action Short
An Irish Goodbye—Tom Berkeley and Ross White
Ivalu—Anders Walter and Rebecca Pruzan
Le Pupille—Alice Rohrwacher and Alfonso Cuarón
Night Ride—Eirik Tveiten and Gaute Lid Larssen
The Red Suitcase—Cyrus Neshvad

Best Makeup and Hairstyling
—All Quiet on the Western Front—Heike Merker and Linda Eisenhamerová
—The Batman—Naomi Donne, Mike Marino and Mike Fontaine
—Black Panther: Wakanda Forever—Camille Friend and Joel Harlow
—Elvis—Mark Coulier, Jason Baird and Aldo Signoretti
—The Whale—Adrien Morot, Judy Chin and Anne Marie Bradley

Best Original Score
All Quiet on the Western Front—Volker Bertelmann
Babylon—Justin Hurwitz
The Banshees of Inisherin—Carter Burwell
Everything Everywhere All at Once—Son Lux
The Fabelmans—John Williams

Best Sound
—All Quiet on the Western Front—Viktor Prášil, Frank Kruse, Markus Stemler, Lars Ginzel and Stefan Korte
—Avatar: The Way of Water—Julian Howarth, Gwendolyn Yates Whittle, Dick Bernstein, Christopher Boyes, Gary Summers and Michael Hedges
—The Batman—Stuart Wilson, William Files, Douglas Murray and Andy Nelson
—Elvis—David Lee, Wayne Pashley, Andy Nelson and Michael Keller
—Top Gun: Maverick—Mark Weingarten, James H. Mather, Al Nelson, Chris Burdon and Mark Taylor