Last year Yeoh announced her engagement to Jean Todt, the French executive director of Ferrari’s formula one team. What if he were to suggest she give up acting? “He would never do that,” she says. “He would never ask that of me. He’s very sensible and supportive. He even came out to see me during Far North. And when he wasn’t there, he sent me food packages.”
This is good news indeed. It would be a shame if Yeoh were to call time on a career in which she has punched and kicked in the face of so many industry prejudices. As an Asian woman in her mid 40s, her every appearance on screen defies mainstream cinema’s bias towards the youthful, and the Caucasian.
“I appreciate I am very blessed, so I do work my hardest when I get the opportunity,” she says. “Asian performers have always had to fight cliched roles — the Suzie Wong type, the Chinatown waitress, the Chinatown-whatever. Even 10 years ago, they were the only roles available. You would think I would’ve been working non-stop after Tomorrow Never Dies, but my next Western film wasn’t until Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon three years later. Why? Because no one was offering me the roles I wanted. It was still the same old stereotypes. If you look at my CV, there’s not a big repertoire. Things are getting better now, but the same problem still arises sometimes. When I told my agent I wanted to work with Danny Boyle on Sunshine, he said, ‘There’s not really a role there for an Asian face.’ But that’s the thing: I’m not an Asian face. I’m an actress. That’s what we need to overcome.”
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