Michelle Yeoh : Set for New Action

Malaysia’s Datuk Michelle Yeoh is back in her third Hollywood film this year.

IT WAS a blazing hot summer’s day in Beverly Hills and I was just about to check in at Four Seasons Hotel with fellow Malaysian journalists. Just as we were wondering whether we’d meet any Hollywood stars, a lilting laugh across the hotel lobby prompted us to turn around and look.

We spied a svelte Asian woman with wonderfully lithe limbs clad in a short, swingy summer dress with a group of Caucasians. While we were admiring her slender thighs, she turned around and what do you know? It was Malaysia’s very own Hollywood star Datuk Michelle Yeoh Choo Kheng.

As she disappeared into the next room, I could barely wait for my interview with her the following day. Bright and early next morning at nine, I made my way to the interview room and found that it was still dark. While I put down my stuff to look for the light switch, she practically bounced into the room exclaiming: “Why is it so dark in here?” Then, drawing the curtains to let the natural light into the room, she continued: “There, isn’t that better?”

This action of hers made me think of how Jackie Chan climbed onto a chair to draw the curtains to keep the sun out of Jet Li’s eyes while at The Forbidden Kingdom junket in Beijing. Ah, so this is how action-oriented martial arts stars are really like.

Telling her about the episode in the hotel lobby, I ventured to ask how she keeps herself fit and her legs shapely. Laughing, she offered: “I think I’ve incorporated it into my lifestyle. It’s not a chore for me to go to the gym. It’s like second nature. Like when you wake up, you brush your teeth and have a shower. Doing my stretches, working on my core exercises, doing leg lifts is already part of the things I do while I’m brushing my teeth.”

She keeps herself limber and supple because all her years of training as a ballerina and in martial arts have helped her understand how important it is to keep in good shape. “I want to be healthy because I want to live a full life.”

And, yes, that pair of legs has really taken her places.

In June this year, Yeoh was hailed as the best action heroine of all time, topping a list of 25 fellow fatal femmes, on film critic website Rotten Tomatoes.

A video which compiles snippets of her jaw-dropping fight scenes in various action films leaves no doubt in the viewer’s mind as to why the decision was unanimous.

One can hardly believe that those legs actually belong to a former Miss Malaysia (1983) who trained to be a ballerina. Even more surprising is the fact that a spinal injury forced her to abandon her childhood dream. Although that proved to be a blessing in disguise as the Ipoh girl began to make waves in Hong Kong cinema as a bona fide action star.

Yeoh shot to stardom when she became the first Asian actress to break the sterotype of Asian females in Hollywood playing Bond Girl Wai-Lin in Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), which got her a nomination for Best Fight (trouncing a bunch of baddies) at the 1998 MTV Movie Awards.

Now, she is perhaps best known internationally for her role as skilled swordswoman Yu Shu Lien in multiple award-winning Taiwanese auteur Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000).

The critically-acclaimed martial arts film scored her five best actress nominations and became the highest-grossing foreign-language film in American history.

Her fight scenes, some furious and others poetic, with Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi, again choreographed by famed action director Yuen Wo Ping, are nothing short of breathtaking, as she chases the headstrong girl on walls and over rooftops while fighting her using all manner of weapons.

The versatile actress, who has made more than 30 movies with more than 20 of them actioners, effortlessly alternates between action and drama while effectively keeping herself from being stereotyped.

Apart from the martial arts exponent Yu Shu Lien, Yeoh has played diverse roles like the geisha Mameha in Memoirs of a Geisha (2005), astronaut Corazon in Sunshine (2007), reindeer herder Saiva in Far North (2007), noblewoman Mrs Wang in Children of Huang Shi (2008), immortal sorceress Zi-Yuan in The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2008) and nun Sister Rebecca in Babylon A.D. (2008).

“It’s very fortunate that I’m making movies because it’s a passion of mine, not because I have to. In that sense, you have the luxury of choosing what you want to be and who you want to work with. And that is very important. If not for that, I’d much rather spend more of my time with family members and loved ones,” said Yeoh who is engaged to Ferrari boss Jean Todt.

Following in her footsteps and those of mainland Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi, 29, are other pretty Chinese actresses like Crystal Liu Yifei, 21, and Li Bingbing, 32, who played Golden Swallow and White Hair Demoness Lian Nichang respectively in The Forbidden Kingdom, and Hong Kong starlet Isabella Leong, 20, who was tomb guardian Lin in The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.

With more Asian actresses trying to break into Hollywood, Yeoh opined: “First of all to find great female roles is difficult. Then, to be an Asian female actress is even more difficult. And if you don’t speak the language, forget about it.

“So, if you are an Asian actress, or any actress for that matter, you have to make sure that you’ve got the skills and the tools to make the crossover to or work anywhere in the world.”

Yeoh, who turned 46 on Aug 6, celebrated her birthday with co-star Brendan Fraser at a news conference for the film The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor in Tokyo.

Recently, she was back in town as the brand ambassador for Anlene Concentrate, a new milk product. She can now be seen performing complicated stunts in TV commercials as the new face of Anlene.

As the Global Road Safety Ambassador for Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), Yeoh is now on a crusade for safe roads in developing countries after learning that children are killed or maimed every 30 seconds on “death tracks”.

Yeoh is now on-screen in her third Hollywood film this year as nun Sister Rebecca alongside Vin Diesel in the Mathieu Kassovitz-helmed post-apocalyptic action thriller Babylon A.D. Vin Diesel plays mercenary Thoorop who is hired to deliver a package from Russia to New York and the package is a mysterious woman with a secret.