Yahoo Lifestyle Michelle Yeoh Had Doubts About Starring in ‘Wicked,’ Then Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo Sent Her a Video: ‘It’s Imperative That You Join Us!’
Michelle Yeoh wasn’t initially convinced she should be part of the hit musical “Wicked.” Speaking at the Red Sea Film Festival, she said that, although Jon M. Chu “could throw the phonebook at me and I would say yes,” she wasn’t sure she was the right choice to play Madame Morrible in the film until she got a surprise video from stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande straight from the film’s set.
In the video, the two stars said, “Michelle, it is imperative that you join us!” and, even though the Oscar winner can’t sing, she took on the role and joined Chu’s production almost immediately.
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“Cynthia and Ariana are so different but they fit each other perfectly,” Yeoh added. “When we were shooting ‘Wicked,’ I was doing the Oscar run to try pushing ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once.’ To come back to that set was grounding. When you are doing the Oscar thing it is wild and you are so scared that you are going to put the wrong foot forward and jeopardize your film. Coming back to ‘Wicked’ was love.”
Yeoh added that the two “Wicked” leads are “always singing” and that Grande is “like a hummingbird, always fleeting and flying.” “It was such a happy set,” she gushed, emphasizing that creating that kind of environment is where the “brilliance” of Jon M. Chu is.
“Wicked” is, of course, not the first time the actor and director collaborated, having previously worked together in 2018’s “Crazy Rich Asians.” The project, she quipped, “ticked all the wrong boxes at the time we made it” by being a romantic comedy with an entirely Asian cast.
Yeoh went on to say she is thankful that Chu refused Netflix’s offer to buy the film. “If it had gone straight to Netflix, it wouldn’t have been where it is today. It’s important to have a shared experience and that we keep the vibrancy of cinema.”
The actor is also grateful for how “Crazy Rich Asians” brought her closer to a new generation almost two decades after the success of Ang Lee’s “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.” “Journalists were all coming to me and saying ‘My parents are so excited that I am interviewing you!’ And I get it because all my movies came out when you were toddlers.”
“I started to form a new generation [with ‘Crazy Rich Asians’]. And then I came out with ‘Minions,’ so little kids got to know me as well. I now have a doorway to a younger generation and I will be eternally grateful to [Jon M. Chu] for that.”
That connection to younger audiences became further solidified with her Oscar-winning role in “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” Of the unexpected hit, Yeoh said that “if it wasn’t an A24 movie, a lot of things would be out,” begging the question: “We take risks with big movies that flop, so why can’t we take risks with smaller movies?”
Elsewhere in the conversation, Yeoh said she does not regret taking a few years in between her breakout role in “Tomorrow Never Dies” and Ang Lee’s “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.” At the time, the actor felt the industry was “stereotyped” in how it saw Asian women. “Being able to say no is so powerful. At that moment, I wasn’t prepared to step backwards and accept roles that were writing Asian women down.”
Yeoh also recalled facing challenges during her early days working in Hong Kong, saying that, at that time, action “was for the guys.” “The guys were very protective of their damsels. We’d be going around saying ‘save me, save me,’ and that didn’t ring very well with me. At that time, I had to prove to the guys that girls can step up to the plate and deserve to be next to them in these action movies.”
Commenting on Ang Lee’s epic, Yeoh said it was a “hugely important film for Asian cinema.” “It was the first time, especially in America, that audiences would see a film like it unless you were Quentin Tarantino and a huge movie buff.”
“If it wasn’t for the way Ang Lee presented, it would have been too confusing for general audiences to see where [the film] comes from,” she added. “Ang Lee is like a painter, he slowly leads you by the hand talking about swords, weapons and the concepts of a hero. So when we break out into our first action sequence, you are running with me. By the time we finish the sequence, you are sold.”
Yeoh concluded the conversation by saying that, if she could tell creatives anything, it would be to “open the gates and let us in.” “Give us equal opportunities. Let us prove ourselves. If we cannot have a seat at the table because we are not capable, that is ok, but we are not even given the opportunity to try.”
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