Michelle Yeoh and Cate Blanchett compete this Sunday for the Oscar for best actress, a category that has been involved in the controversy over the last-minute nomination of the British Andrea Riseborough for To Leslie, to the detriment of black performers who were aiming for the Oscar as Viola Davis or Danielle Deadwyler. But the controversy has not stopped there. Today it is Michelle Yeoh who has starred in an episode that could well cost her the precious golden statuette.
Although the Australian Blanchett has had an unstoppable streak since she won the Volpi Cup for her despotic conductor in TÁR, by Todd Field -the Golden Globe in the drama category, the Bafta and the Critics choice-, the Malaysian interpreter of Chinese origin has also been imposed with the Golden Globe in comedy film, the prize of the union of actors and the Spirit. That is to say, it was clear that the Oscar was going to opt for one of the two.
But the protagonist of Everything at the same time everywhere has wanted to charge against the racism that she believes prevails in Hollywood by sharing on her Instagram account an article from Vogue magazine entitled ‘It has been more than two decades since there has been a non-white winner of the Oscar for Best Actress Will the situation change in 2023?’, where a deep criticism is made of what they call “systematized racism” by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
The argument that the fashion medium has given is that 21 years have passed since a non-white actress won an Oscar in this category, the last being Halle Berry for Monster’s Ball. The topic began when Vogue compared the two actresses who are the main candidates for the statuette this year and, although they mention the enviable career of Blanchett, who already has two Academy Awards, Vogue has reiterated its support for Yeoh, emphasizing that she has not had as many opportunities as the Australian.
Aware of the repercussions it could have, Yeoh was quick to delete the statement from his networks, but it was too late because it has become a ‘trending topic’ on Twitter. Although the 60-year-old actress is within her rights to share the opinion of the magazine, the mention of Blanchett in it could not sit well with the Academy and end up harming her chances to be recognized as best actress in this 95th edition. edition.
In fact, Yeoh has already commented in a recent interview about her discomfort with Hollywood since she participated as a Bond girl alongside Pierce Brosnan in Tomorrow Never Dies. “At that time James Bond was a macho and the girls who accompanied him only had flirty names. At that time in the industry nobody cared if I was Chinese, Japanese or Korean or if I spoke English. They spoke to me very loudly and very slowly. I didn’t work for almost two years until Tiger & Dragon came along because I didn’t want to do the stereotypical roles that I was offered.”
The actress, who has since appeared in successful titles such as Crazy rich asians and Shang-Chi and the legend of the ten rings, has signed on for A Haunting in Venice, the new film about the adventures of Detective Poirot with Kenneth Branagh, and will work under the orders of James Cameron in the next films of the Avatar saga.
