Her teenage dreams of becoming a ballerina were dashed – but now, in her 60s, the actress is winning Oscars and starring in this year’s blockbuster film. When Jon M. Chu – who had directed Michelle Yeoh in Crazy Rich Asians – asked the actress to be in his new film, she had just one reservation.
“I read the script and said, ‘Jon, you know I don’t sing.’” The film was Wicked , based on the multi-Tony-winning musical about two witches, Glinda and Elphaba, one good and one green. Chu already had his trainee witches: Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo.
He wanted Yeoh for Madame Morrible, their magic teacher. “The next thing I received was this video call with Jon, Ariana and Cynthia,” Yeoh tells me over Zoom from Prague, where she is filming the Blade Runner 2099 series for Amazon Prime. “And the three of them are going, ‘It’s imperative that you come and join us now!’” Yeoh had never seen the musical but relented to the irresistible force of the trio and was soon travelling to Oz (aka Elstree Studios in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire) to perform duets with Erivo, a Grammy-winning singer.
“They were very loving and encouraging,” Yeoh says. “They found me an amazing voice coach. Cynthia was like, ‘Don’t be shy, you can do it.
’” It’s hard to believe there is anything Michelle Yeoh can’t do. Her career is as wildly impressive and multi-dimensional as Everything Everywhere All at Once , the film for which she won the best actress Oscar in 20.
