Extraordinarily, it was the first time she’d even been shortlisted: her work in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon got her a nomination at the Baftas, but their American counterparts were apparently less enthused.
Yeoh was embraced by Britain relatively early on. As well as working twice with the Canadian-British Spottiswoode, first in Bond and then his 2008 war epic The Children of Huang Shi, she has starred in films by Danny Boyle, Asif Kapadia, Luke (son of Ridley) Scott and soon also Kenneth Branagh: she’s in the ensemble of his third Hercule Poirot film, A Haunting in Venice, coming later this year.
But she embraced Britain first. Born in northwestern Malaysia in 1962 to a politician father and lawyer mother, she moved to London at 15 to pursue a childhood dream of becoming a professional ballerina at the Royal Academy of Dance.
Unfortunately a back injury put paid to that. But after re-centring her degree on choreography and drama, she was soon acting in student productions of Shakespeare and Oscar Wilde – and to her surprise, enjoying it. Her mother, keen to keep young Michelle’s show-business streak going after graduation, entered her into the 1983 Miss World Malaysia pageant: she begrudgingly took part, and won. Casting directors noticed. She was flown to Australia to make an advert for watches alongside – yes – Jackie Chan, and that caught the eye of a Hong Kong production company in turn.
She had the looks and poise for cinema, but what about formal martial arts training? No – but her background in dance allowed her to learn fast. From her 1984 debut on, she mastered a new discipline on every film: Wing Chun, Tai Chi, kickboxing, Muay Thai. In 1987 she retired after marrying the head of the studio – then in 1992 divorced him and got back to work. Her comeback film – Police Story 3: Supercop, with Chan again – is now widely considered to be one of the greatest action movies ever made.
Its climactic scene has Chan dangling from a helicopter’s rope ladder as it scuds across the Kuala Lumpur rooftops. Yeoh had pleaded with the director, Stanley Tong, to allow her to do this stunt: “But Michelle,” Tong sighed, “if I let you do that, what on earth can I give Jackie to top it?”