Time named Michelle Yeoh its 2022 Icon of the Year on Tuesday, highlighting her storied 40-year acting career that includes this year’s “Everything Everywhere All at Once.”
Yeoh is a favorite for an Oscar nomination for her performance in the well-received surreal action-drama. She had been named to Time’s 100 Most Influential People of 2022 list earlier this year, according to LA Times.
During her career, Yeoh told Time that she had to “battle” a Hollywood that offered her parts that were stereotypes of Asians or harmful tropes of Asian women.
“It shouldn’t be about my race, but it has been a battle,” Yeoh said. “At least let me try.”
It wasn’t until this last year that Hollywood began to recognize her as a top-billed actor, seen for her acting abilities beyond what white audiences expect of Asian performers. In “Everything Everywhere All at Once” she starred as Evelyn Quan Wang, the universe-jumping owner of a struggling laundromat.
Earlier this year, in a GQ interview that went viral on social media, a tearful Yeoh said her role as Evelyn “was something I had been waiting for for a long time,” to show audiences “what I am capable of.”
Yeoh acknowledged to The Times that taking the role was also a risk because of the film and her character’s humor, a break from the mold of her previous roles that lacked such a dimension.
It paid off, and now Yeoh is soaking in the recognition.
“Give it to me,” she told Time, referring to an Oscar for lead actress. “It’s not about needing it — it’s that feeling that you don’t have to explain: It’s love from other people. My arms are out open.”
