Michelle Yeoh makes history with Best Actress Oscar win

Michelle Yeoh makes history with Best Actress Oscar win

By: Michelle Liew

Tan Sri Michelle Yeoh, 60, struck Oscar gold for her performance as multi-dimensional heroine Evelyn Wang in Everything Everywhere All at Once.

She made history by becoming the first Asian woman to win the best actress Oscar.

She played the role of Evelyn Wang, a Chinese American laundromat owner who is mired in a tax audit, stuck in a crumbling marriage and struggling to connect with her daughter Joy.

She ends up traversing multiple universes to evade a powerful supernatural enemy, who happens to be an iteration of ... her daughter.

She beat out Cate Blanchett (Tár), Ana de Armas (Blonde), Andrea Riseborough (To Leslie), and Michelle Williams (The Fabelmans) for the honour.

Yeoh came into the night with all the momentum after winning the Golden Globes and the Screen Actors Guild Awards, among the major precursor awards as Everything Everywhere became the unexpected awards season juggernaut, being nominated 11 times at the Oscars.

“For all the little boys and girls who look like me watching tonight, this is a beacon of hope and possibilities. This is proof that ‘dream big’ and dreams do come true,” Yeoh said while accepting her award.

“And ladies, don’t let anybody ever tell you you are past your prime.”

In all, she has received 39 nominations for this role, including the United States’ Critics Choice Award and the United Kingdom’s Bafta prize, both of which she lost to Blanchett.

Yeoh is also now the first actress who identifies as Asian to win for Best Actress.

Earlier in the night, Yeoh’s co-stars Ke Huy Quan and Jamie Lee Curtis took home their respective awards in Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress.

Everything Everywhere took home the top prize, winning Best Picture. It also won Best Original Screenplay, Best Editing, with the directing tandem of Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan nabbing Best Director.