Malaysian actress Michelle Yeoh has won some of the acting industry’s top honours over her four-decade career, including an Oscar and a Golden Globe, and on the night of Feb 12, she added another: the Berlin Film Festival’s Honorary Golden Bear for lifetime achievement.
“Berlinale has always been a very special place for me,” the 63-year-old told Reuters ahead of the festival’s opening ceremony.
The star of hits such as Crazy Rich Asians (2018) and Wicked (2024) recounted how Berlin was the first festival to invite her to sit on a jury in 1999, an experience that she said opened her eyes to filmmaking beyond Hong Kong.
Yeoh, who rose to fame during the heyday of Hong Kong action films in the 1980s and 1990s, is the first Asian woman to receive the honour, joining past laureates including American filmmaker Martin Scorsese and British actress Tilda Swinton.
Yeoh came to the attention of global audiences with the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), followed three years later with the martial arts classic Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000).
Winning a Best Actress Oscar for Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022) was a blessing, said Yeoh, but that award is just for her performance in one movie.
“A lifetime achievement award is about your path, your journey, your career over the last, I guess, almost 40 years and how I’ve been resilient and stubborn,” she said.
That journey, Yeoh added, included pushing back against stereotypical roles for Asian actors.
“The fact that I am given this award goes to show that us, people who look like me, will be recognised and will be seen more and will be heard,” she said.
“But we also have the responsibility to make sure that our voices are heard. We have to speak up.” – Reuters
