Michelle Yeoh Knows the Secret to Feeling Limitless

You’re starring in Everything Everywhere All At Once, a title that might also describe your career lately. You just appeared in Shang- Chi, are currently filming American Born Chinese, and have other projects. But the movie is about a laundromat owner who discovers alter- nate realities and amazing skills.

It’s a good thing, right? Who would have thought, at my age, to be busier than ever? I’m very, very lucky.

I loved the film. What drew you to this project?

When was the last time you saw a woman like this become a superhero? So I immediately said, “I need to meet these two directors [Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert].” They had me with their passion, the clarity of the story that they were telling. They have very strong women in their lives, basically their mothers, which made sense when it came together. I signed on after I understood where they were coming from. They told me, “Well, you know, Michelle, if you refused to do this movie, we would have to go back and rewrite the whole script again.” In their craziness, they really believed in me.

How did you prepare to embody Evelyn?

Every time I take on a new role, I have to give her history; I have to know where she’s coming from. Because Evelyn is a real character and she deserves her story to be told in its entirety, I kept a diary of Evelyn Wang [starting from] when she left China with the man she loved, much to the dismay of her parents, and her father disowning her because she didn’t do what he wanted. She had the American Dream, like a lot of immigrants do, because they are in search of a better life. Hoping for one thing, which was what Evelyn did, they started their laundromat, they started a family, and maybe it’s all coming together. But then it’s hard. Not everybody is able to keep it together; not everybody is able to be successful at what they set out to be.