Life after winning an Oscar for Best Actress can be tricky.
All eyes are on you, watching your next move.
Will it be a triumph or a misstep?
While the win gives an actress the freedom to be more selective with her projects, it also comes with a certain level of expectation.
After all, you have been bestowed with the highest honour in acting by your peers.
Tan Sri Michelle Yeoh knows this pressure all too well.
She made history in 2023 when she became the first Asian woman to clinch the Best Actress award at the Oscars for her role in Everything Everywhere All At Once.
It was a sweet victory after acting for four decades – first making her mark as an action star in Hong Kong, and then crossing over to Hollywood in 1997.
Her next two projects after the Oscar win, however, received mixed reviews.
Yeoh won fans over with her portrayal of Madame Morrible in Wicked, and the sequel Wicked: For Good although her singing divided musical theatre fans.
In 2025, she returned to the Star Trek universe to reprise her role as Philippa Georgiou in the TV film Star Trek: Section 31.
The project proved to be a rare misfire, earning Yeoh a Worst Actress nomination at the Golden Raspberry Awards earlier this year (thankfully, she “lost” to Rebel Wilson).
But Yeoh appears to have found her footing again with the release of It’s My Time.
What makes this even more special is it marks the Ipoh-born star’s comeback to Chinese cinema.
“I’ve always wanted to return to making Chinese-language films. I’ve mainly been working on English-language productions, so I’m very grateful to producer Wen Muye and director Bai Xue for inviting me to play Zhao Yanhong,” Yeoh tells StarLifestyle in an e-mail interview.
In the Mandarin biopic, Yeoh plays Zhao, a woman in her 70s who has to move into an old folks’ home after falling ill.
But Zhao refuses to let her circumstances define her.
At the nursing home, Zhao discovers she has the knack for solving the Magic Cube (think Rubik’s Cube) after some lessons from a young instructor (portrayed by Liu Haoran).
Twisting and turning the cube comes naturally to Zhao, and her newfound ability soon transforms her uneventful life at the nursing home, bringing her unexpected recognition.
Yeoh says when she initially read the script, she was drawn to the character as it presented a new set of challenges.
“The character immediately appealed to me.
“Zhao Yanhong is an extraordinary woman, and she’s very different from any role I’ve played before,” Yeoh says, adding, “It’s such an inspiring story about having the courage to pursue your dreams, and I really fell in love with it.”
The character Zhao is based on Zhao Wenying, a former mathematics teacher who discovered the puzzle cube in 2014 after her granddaughter introduced it to her.
She went on to teach herself solving techniques through online tutorials. Zhao would later become the fastest person aged over 60 to solve the puzzle while blindfolded.
Yeoh had several challenges ahead of her when accepting this acting gig.
“The biggest challenge, of course, was speaking Mandarin again,” Yeoh says.
But like muscle memory, the language soon returned.
True to her reputation as a consummate professional, Yeoh also paid close attention to the finer details that would bring the character to life.
“I spent a lot of time observing and learning the small movements, body language and walking style of an elderly woman to make the character as authentic as possible,” adds Yeoh who turns 64 on Aug 6.
She was also dedicated to learning how to actually solve the Magic Cube so that her movements would look effortless on camera.
The actress reveals that she trained for almost two years to master the skill.
“The biggest challenge was staying focused. The director wanted my movements to look fast and natural, so I carried a Magic Cube with me almost everywhere on set and practised whenever I had the chance,” says Yeoh who is married to retired French motor racing executive Jean Todt.
Asked if returning to work in China after nearly three decades in Hollywood required her to adjust to a different filming rhythm, Yeoh takes a diplomatic approach, saying every production is unique in its own ways.
“You can’t really compare because every production has its own rhythm and personality,” Yeoh says.
“What was special for me was working in Mandarin again, working with a wonderful Chinese cast and crew and reconnecting with our audiences.
“At the end of the day, everyone is trying to tell the best story possible, and that language is universal,” she continues.
Yeoh adds that she could see the parallels between her character’s journey in It’s My Time and her own life.
Having won the Miss Malaysia beauty pageant at the age of 20 before moving to Hong Kong to pursue a career in showbiz, the actress has also experienced moments when she had to take a leap of faith without any safety nets.
“I feel almost every new chapter in my life started with uncertainty.
“When I left Malaysia, when I began in Hong Kong, even later in Hollywood, there were no guarantees.
“I’ve learned you can’t wait for someone else to tell you it’s your time.
“You have to believe in yourself and be ready when the opportunity arises,” she says, almost like a battle cry.
Yeoh has always marched to the beat of her own drum.
At a time when Bond girls were often portrayed as either seductive femme fatales or damsels in distress, she made history as the first Asian Bond girl to stand as an equal to Agent 007 in Tomorrow Never Dies, opposite Pierce Brosnan.
At a time when actresses of a certain age – particularly Asian actresses – were often overlooked for leading roles, Yeoh continued to defy expectations, taking on one major project after another (Crazy Rich Asians, Last Christmas, A Haunting In Venice, Everything Everywhere All At Once, Wicked).
Then, at 60, she shattered another glass ceiling by becoming the first Asian woman to win the Oscar for Best Actress.
Yeoh is the epitome of the belief that it’s never too late.
Yeoh philosophises: “When you’re younger, you think life is about reaching the next goal.
“But today I treasure the journey much more than the destination.
“I hope audiences who watch this movie leave with a feeling that it’s never too late to discover a new passion or to surprise yourself.”
It’s My Time is showing at cinemas nationwide.
