Michelle Yeoh declined to speak about U.S. politics during a press conference at Berlin Film Festival, saying it’s “best not to talk about something I don’t know about.”
When asked by a reporter if she had any comment as an international actress on the current state of the U.S. — likely meaning Trump’s ongoing ICE raids, though that was not specified — Yeoh said: “I don’t think I am in the position to really talk about the political situation in the U.S., and also I cannot presume to say I understand how it is. So, best not to talk about something I don’t know about.” Yeoh, who is Malaysian and primarily lives in Switzerland, added that she wanted to “concentrate on what is important for us, which is cinema.”
“We hear, ‘Oh, cinema is not going to survive because there’s so many other things happening, the attention span is getting shorter.’ But I truly don’t believe that,” she said. “Because I believe when we go to the cinema, that is time for you. You know, you switch off your phones and you’ve chosen to watch something that you want. And that is the time when you can open your heart and free your mind and have time to yourself. Cinema is a place where we all come together and laugh and cry, we celebrate, but it’s always important to keep that tradition alive. And I hope that is what we are here to do.”
Elsewhere in the conference, Yeoh said she would love to work with more European directors and is “dying” to make a movie with Mexican auteur Guillermo del Toro. “I think it’s finding the balance and hoping that the European directors will take notice of me and say, ‘Maybe we should have her in our film,’” she said. “So please put it out there! I would love to be back here and working with the true greats of European cinema.”
Yeoh was also asked about Asian representation in Hollywood, saying that it “continues to be a struggle” and recalling the industry challenges that came with making films like “Crazy Rich Asians” and “Everything Everywhere All at Once.”
“At the time when he presented the movie, everyone was going, ‘Oh my God, he ticked all the wrong boxes — all-Asian cast, rom-com — it’s going to fall flat.’ But fortunately, I think it hit a nerve,” Yeoh said of “Crazy Rich Asians.” But, she added, “you could see that there was changes, otherwise I would not have been able to make ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once.’”
“It was courageous to do that though, because once again, we ticked all the wrong boxes,” she said of the Oscar best picture winner. “But we prevailed, and I think that’s what it is. I think today, I sit here with a Golden Bear not because of just one movie, but the perseverance, the resilience, the stubbornness to ay, ‘I won’t just go away. I will stay until the right changes are made.’”
Last night, Yeoh was presented the festival’s honorary Golden Bear for lifetime achievement from “Anora” director Sean Baker. The two collaborated on a short film, “Sandiwara,” which is premiering at the festival on Friday.
In his speech, Baker called Yeoh a “once-in a-generation screen presence, the kind who doesn’t just appear in movies, but the kind that redefines the temperature of the room.” Accepting the award, Yeoh moved the audience with an emotional speech reflecting on her career.
“A part of me is still that young girl who simply wanted to make her parents proud,” she said. “My father is no longer here to see this moment. But I carry him with me, his discipline, his steadiness, his belief that if something is worth doing, it is worth doing well. And if he could see me here tonight, holding this Golden Bear, I know he would smile.”
In an interview with Variety on Thursday, Yeoh talked more about her decades in show business and ageism in Hollywood. “Let’s not let them define us as women or put us in a box and say, ‘Oh, well, because now you’re this age, you should only play a grandmother,’” she said. “I’m like, ‘Hell, no. I will kick ass because I want to, and I still can.’”
