Michelle Yeoh made history Sunday by winning the Academy Award for best actress.
Yeoh took home the Oscar for her starring role in the psychedelic comedy drama “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” The accolade makes Yeoh the first Asian actress ever to win in the category.
“For all the little boys and girls who look like me watching tonight, this is a beacon of hope and possibilities,” Yeoh said in her acceptance speech. “This is proof that dreams dream big, and dreams do come true.”
Yeoh beat out Cate Blanchett for “Tár,” Ana De Armas for “Blonde,” Andrea Riseborough for “To Leslie,” and Michelle Williams for “The Fabelmans.”
Echoing the theme of her film, which centered heavily around immigrant motherhood, Yeoh paid tribute to her own mother.
“I have to dedicate this to my mom, all the moms in the world,” an emotional Yeoh said. “Because they are really the superheroes and without them none of us will be here tonight.”
Yeoh’s Oscar is particularly significant given the history of Asian actors and the Academy Awards. Yeoh, who was born in Malaysia, is only the second Asian actress to be nominated in her category; however, she is considered the first “openly” Asian actress with the distinction. Merle Oberon, who received a nod for the 1935 film “The Dark Angel,” had concealed her South Asian identity throughout her screen career. And Luise Ranier, a white actress, previously won the category for portraying a Chinese slave in 1937 drama “The Good Earth.”
The accolade closes a successful awards season for Yeoh, who earned critical acclaim for her performance as frazzled matriarch Evelyn Wang, an immigrant mother and laundromat owner who’s unexpectedly tasked with saving the multiverse from destruction. Earlier this month, Yeoh took home best lead performance at the Independent Spirit Awards, the first year the ceremony combined their acting categories to be gender-neutral. Among several other awards, she received the Golden…
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