Michelle Yeoh Recalls ‘Literally Fighting My Way Into the Film Industry’

By now, we’ve all accepted the universal truth that Michelle Yeoh could kick our asses; but in her early days, she had to do some literal ass-kicking to get her start in film. After falling in love with movies as a young girl in Malaysia, “I later began my acting career in Hong Kong, literally fighting my way into the film industry,” she said at ELLE’s Women in Hollywood celebration in Los Angeles tonight. “On those gritty streets, I was trained to punch, kick, tumble, and fall…and then get up and do it all over again—take after take, film after film.”

All that fighting would earn her now-famous roles in films like Supercop, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and Tomorrow Never Dies. Decades later, that martial arts background contributed to her highly celebrated performance in the action comedy-meets-existential family drama, Everything Everywhere All at Once, one of the most beloved films of the year.

While delivering her speech at the Getty Center, Yeoh said her battles didn’t stop once she reached Hollywood, which “in those days didn’t have many women who looked like me, or stories that echoed my culture.”

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But as she looked back at her journey in show business, Yeoh, now 60, also celebrated her and her peers’ continuing success.

“As women, we are told to take all the work we can when we are young, because when we don’t look quite as good, or move quite as gracefully, the best years of our careers are behind us,” she said. “If that is true, how can a night like tonight be possible? There are many of us having the best times of our career well beyond our quote-unquote prime years. Which is why it still feels like a dream to be standing here with all of you.”

Read her full speech below:

Thank you Charlize. When I grow up, I want to be just like you: so tall, so gorgeous, so sassy.

Tonight, Anne [Hathaway] said something I waited forty years to hear. Maybe dreams do come true. We will see. Miracles can happen.

Look at this room of amazing, beautiful, and powerful women. I am humbled and honored to be recognized alongside all of you, who have done so much to advance the way women are represented and recognized in our world.

I want to begin tonight by thanking Nina Garcia and everyone at the ELLE team for inviting me to be here celebrating so many spectacular women that I admire and have inspired me. Sigourney Weaver, you are a legend.

When I was growing up, I loved going to the movies with my parents. I was transported and awestruck by the heroes and heroines, the humor, the heartbreak. It was magic for a little girl in Malaysia.

I later began my acting career in Hong Kong, literally fighting my way into the film industry. On those gritty streets, I was trained to punch, kick, tumble, and fall…and then get up and do it all over again—take after take, film after film.

Even when I shifted my focus to Hollywood, it was still a fight, just not with kicks and punches. Hollywood in those days didn’t have many women who looked like me, or stories that echoed my culture.

As women, we are told to take all the work we can when we are young, because when we don’t look quite as good, or move quite as gracefully, the best years of our careers are behind us.

If that is true, how can a night like tonight be possible? There are many of us having the best times of our career well beyond our quote-and-unquote prime years.

Which is why it still feels like a dream to be standing here with all of you. Yet here I am…which is perhaps a sign that things are, in fact, changing.

Many of the people who are responsible for that change are in this room tonight. Our hard-fought efforts and impact as performers, writers, producers, directors and in every other aspect of storytelling—nudges our world closer to something better and brighter.

Everyday, just by going to work and, in big ways and small, we announce our arrival. We are here.

We are here.

I personally don’t see why this is so difficult for some to accept. Seems like a no-brainer. You can’t be a global medium by ignoring half the globe. Duh.

Listen, I’m not trying to imply things are perfect, or that our work is done. But every so often, on a gorgeous night like tonight, it’s okay to take a moment to celebrate each other.

And tomorrow, we will get up…and go back to fighting the good fight.

Thank you to Nina, thank you to ELLE. And congratulations to all my fellow honorees–I adore you, worship all of you, and thank you all for being here tonight.