Michelle Yeoh Is The 1st Malaysian Nominated For Best Actress At The Oscars
Malaysian actress Michelle Yeoh is smashing the glass ceiling, one award at a time.
After bagging the Best Actress award at the Golden Globes, Yeoh is now the first Asian ever nominated for Best Actress at the Oscars.
Source: Reuters via South China Morning Post
The film Yeoh starred in, Everything Everywhere All At Once, has also received a total of 11 nominations, the most for a single film.
Furthermore, her co-stars, Ke Huy Quan and Stephanie Hsu, have both been nominated for Best Actor and Actress in a Supporting Role respectively.
Yeoh makes history for the Asian community
Yeoh has been receiving award after award for her incredible performance in the sci-fi indie film Everything Everywhere All At Once. According to Deadline, it became indie entertainment company A24’s highest grossing film ever.
Source: A24 via The Hollywood Reporter
This time, however, Yeoh has become the first Asian nominated for Best Actress in the Academy Awards’ 95 years of history.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter (THR), Yeoh mentioned that this nomination is important not just for her, but the Asian community. She noted how “all this time, [Asians have not] been recognized, they’ve not been heard.”
Yeoh’s nomination is truly remarkable. It marks a step towards the growing recognition for the Asian community within Hollywood and the global entertainment industry.
Oscars’ Best Actress award notorious for being the least diverse category
According to Indie Wire, Oscars’ Best Actress category has had the least minorities ever nominated. In fact, a woman of colour has not won this category since Halle Berry won for her role in ‘Monster’s Ball’ in 2002.
The lack of diversity in the Oscars has resulted in social media movements such as #OscarsSoWhite. These movements hope to ignite a change in the diversity of nominees.
This year, however, there has been a record-breaking number of Asian-led film nominations. According to NBC News, there were 16 nominations in total, with 11 for Everything Everywhere All At Once.
Source: A24 via People
According to The New York Times, Yeoh hopes that this nomination “will shatter that frigging glass ceiling to no end, that this will continue, and we will see more of our faces up there.”
Asians all over the world rejoice for Yeoh
The Ipoh-born Malaysian actress has being receiving congratulations from Asians across the globe.
According to THR, Yeoh mentioned, “My phone is going completely bananas from Hong Kong and Asia and China. They are all dialing in because they are just so ecstatic for me and for the fact that, you know, it’s the first Asian who’s getting this opportunity to be up there.”
In recent years, Asians have been achieving more historic wins in the entertainment industry. Perhaps in a few years’ time, we might soon see Singaporeans nominated at the Oscars too.
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Featured image adapted from Reuters via South China Morning Post and A24 via The Hollywood Reporter.
