Michelle Yeoh says Quentin Tarantino saved her from career-induced existential dread
Tarantino visited Yeoh while she was on the mend after an on-set injury
Aux News Michelle Yeoh
Ahead of the theatrical debut of her first top-billed feature, Everything Everywhere All At Once, Michelle Yeoh has taken a look back on her long and varied career in the industry, including the moment she almost quit.
While filming the 1996 film The Stunt Woman, Yeoh suffered a severe injury to her back, which left her torso and neck in braces.
“Everybody thought I broke my back,” she tells The Hollywood Reporter in a recent interview. Her friends encouraged her to take care of herself and think about the rigorous work obligations she’d signed up for. “You like to work, but this is insane. We feel so bad, but only you can help yourself.”
While healing from her injury, Yeoh was sent into an existential crisis and asked herself, “Why am I doing this? Is it worth it? If I really got hurt, then what?”
Then, martial arts buff and director Quentin Tarantino flew to Hong Kong on a mission to meet Jackie Chan, Jet Li, and Yeoh. After a lot of back and forth, Yeoh agreed to a five-minute conversation with Tarantino. During their chat, Tarantino told the actor “I’ve watched all your movies,” before proceeding to rehash his favorite action scenes of hers frame by frame.
“The next thing I knew, we were talking and I was coming back to life,” Yeoh says. “I’ll never forget it. It was like, ‘I do love what I do.’ And that was a turning point where I felt, ‘I’ve paid my dues.’”
She went on to join Pierce Brosnan in the 1997 James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies, which solidified her star power. On the set of the production, Yeoh was told that maybe she did not have to do all her own stunts. “Yes, you have extra skill, which I hope we can incorporate in your work, but you should be confident that you are here as an actress,” director Roger Spottiswoode told her.
Everything Everywhere All At Once from the directing duo Daniels arrives in theaters starting April 8. The film also stars Ke Huy Quan, Stephanie Hsu, Jamie Lee Curtis, James Hong, Jenny Slate, and Harry Shum Jr.
65 Comments
Since when is a Bond film an “American production”? This is as close to Pop Culture 101 as an entertainment writer can get.
Agreed. That was lazy. I was surprised to find out Bond films have been mainly UK-US co-productions since the Timothy Dalton films. Unlike AVClub, I can at least check imdb.
Conflating “Western” with “American” is a pretty common, though gross mistake. We ARE the western world, didn’t you know?
We are the children …
The only “pop culture” these writers actually care about is Twitter
Also I’m pretty sure she shared top billing on Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon which was a fairly fucking massive film all things considered.
(This also goes out to the marketing department for Crazy Rich Asians. No you weren’t the first big Asian-led blockbuster! )
One would think that Michelle Yeoh being in the movie would remind them of that!
It was funnier the first time.
One would think that Michelle Yeoh being in the movie would remind them of that!
and Super Cop, Yes Madam, The Heroic Trio, and hey The Stunt Woman which they even refer to in the fupping article.
This is the same woman who rode a motorcycle jumping from car to car above a moving train right? Just checking.
He Chris Farley’d her.
He moved her into a van, down by the river?
Do…do you ‘member in the song you said “And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make”. Do you remember that? Is…is that true?
It was AWESOME!
I like him establishing the baseline: “Remember when you were with the Beatles?”
I just barfed on an anthill.
“Ahead of the theatrical debut of her first top-billed feature, Everything Everywhere All At Once”I mean, she was top-billed in The Stunt Woman (1996), so you MIGHT want to rethink that line.
One of the films I’m most looking forward to this year. Fingers crossed.
Reviews are rolling in and they’re great. Can’t wait.
It looks so freaking weird, I’m so stoked. (Also, I’m very curious to watch Yeoh playing a non-badass character; seeing her panicking in the trailer was downright startling.)
This and The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent are the two movies I am most looking forward to this year. It’s like someone read my mind, found out what I wanted most to see in a movie and made two movies out of it.
yeah sure THOSE are the movies running in your head all the time, perv
It looks like so much fun
“He was so sweet! He saw that I couldn’t move around very well so he offered to rub my feet for me.”
One fetish star for you, sir or madam!
“With your hands?”“HEY, I DON’T TELL YOU HOW TO DO KUNG FU, MICHELLE.”
Sounds like the exact opposite of what he did to Uma Thurman.
Actually, I feel like it’s the exact same thing, just the flip side of it. He’s good at pumping people up and showing a lot of confidence in them. In the Kill Bill situation, it seems he was like, “You’re awesome! You can do this driving scene, no problem!” despite her misgivings, and then she wound up crashing, because it was actually a difficult scene that should’ve been done by a stunt driver.
So, you think he sat Uma down and told her how much she sucks before getting her to do the stunt-driving?
I guess I appreciate that she needed a fanboy in that moment but I can’t think of many greater hells that Quentin Tarantino breathlessly describing my own work back at me.
your photoshopped graphic design work probably wouldn’t get his blood flowing
I dunno, most of my graphic design work is rooted in recreating 70s film bullshit.
ah, you are missing vital information: His graphic design work is for TOES and FEETS MONTHLY MAGAZINE
Actors are dfferent than us.
It worked on Rod Taylor.
I love Rod Taylor’s version of the Time Machine more then any other. The fighter plane time machine introduced in the Adam Project was unexpectedly cool though.
I could be wrong, but I suspect that having an internationally beloved and wildly influential artist who’s recognized as one of the best of their generation express their love for your work is something you have to worry about.
Can’t imagine it needs to operate at that level to be irritating. I do very small entertainment work and I do hate being cornered at cons or whatever and having exactly my jokes from my shows repeated back to me, so I’m just extrapolating from a scaling way up.
Ok… but if one of your favorite comedians literally tracked you down while you were recovering in the hospital from a serious injury to tell you how much of a fan they were, and even knew some of your bits by heart, that wouldn’t be a positive, validating experience for you?
That’s understandable (even, dare I say, reasonable). But really, if a comedy legend found you when you were questioning your life-choices and proceeded to tell you how much you meant to them, would it be hell? (I understand that comedians are even more neurotic than actors, so there’s no wrong answer.)
Oh I’m not even that, I’m just one of those weirdos with a podcast big enough to pay rent. I imagine if a more famous podcaster cornered me and started reciting my jokes I’d be cautiously pleasant but secretly be like “Hah hah yeah, that’s my jokes alright, so glad to hear them again, definitely don’t hope this stops soon.”
Also christ, legendary podcaser…. with my luck that’d probably be Joe Rogan, I don’t know what to say to that guy other than “Ahhhh! Get out of my driveway!”
OMG you’re the craft service guy on the CW”s reboot of CAVEMEN aren’t you
I probably wouldn’t worry about that if I were you…
I heard that when Pam Grier went to see Quentin Tarantino about the lead role in Jackie Brown, he had all these posters up behind his desk of her movies. She asked him if he put them up because she was coming for an appointment and he said he almost took them down because she was coming.
I heard that when Pam Grier went to see Quentin Tarantino about the lead role in Jackie Brown, he had all these posters up behind his desk of her movies. She asked him if he put them up because she was coming for an appointment and he said he almost took them down because she was coming.
I am beyond excited for this film. We’ve waited far too long for Hollywood to give us a Michelle Yeoh vehicle.
Michelle Yeoh vehicle aka a Toyeohta
oh fuck you and your star. take it.
When you accept this star, know that you are also accepting my hatred. Toyeohta… SMDH…
Ha! I was actually seeing if someone would comment with just a clip of the bike stunt or her tumbling off the car in Supercop.
I will always wonder what (and how much) we missed, by ST:Discovery not having at least 1 full season with Captain Philippa Georgiou.
The opening scene of the pilot episode, walking in the desert tracing out the StarFleet-insignia-as-SOS in the sand was an awesome reveal moment. Hinting at such great things to come for the character and the actress playing her, it was a crushing letdown later, even though I suppose we were intended to see it coming.
I have career-induced existential dread too. Will I work this shit job until I die? What is the nature of my miserable existence? Why aren’t there good snacks in the vending machine? So yeah, I get it.
Do you need Tarantino to give you a pep talk, about how he’s seen all your TPS reports, and would love to do a film festival of them in 70mm at the New Beverly?
Yes, no, and bring yer own, respectively.
NO MORE APPLES IN THE VENDING MACHINE PLEASE
Well, that’s almost a sentence.
When the headlines starts “[actress] says [director]”, I usually expect something bad. This was really cool, actually, so whew!And the trailer for her new movie is amazing.
If it makes you feel worse, he probably asked for pictures of her feet 🙁
Hilarious that AVC tried really hard to cancel Tarantino a few years back…that they’re running a ‘people think he’s a nice guy’ column is almost an acknowledgement of failure. Kudos for not rehashing that overblown Uma Thurman story or making a foot joke in the column; that’s a high bar for AVC to clear in 2022
Or, you know, there’s more than one writer here
not for long, apparently