MICHELLE YEOH: Embodying the Lady
From an Inspector, to a geisha, to a sorceress, to a female warrior in a Chinese pentalogy—all these roles have been perfectly portrayed by the lovely Michelle Yeoh. For the past three decades, Yeoh has been in a kaleidoscopic variety of roles. Playing side by side, famous Chinese actors like Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Zhang Ziyi and Chow Yun-Fat, as well as popular Hollywood mainstays, actors Pierce Brosnan, Brendan Fraser, Director Stephen Sommers, and award winning, Producer Steven Spielberg.
However, amidst a very remarkable career, spanning over thirty films in more than thirty years, it was untill recently that the then Miss Malaysia encountered the role that really defined her acting prowess—her most challenging portrayal yet;The Lady, it is a film about incredible love, political turmoil and freedom from fear. The film, which had a special screening with Amnesty International on April 26 in Toronto and Vancouver, tells the story of a Burmese woman, Aung San Suu Kyi, as she facing the Myanmar democracy.
In a press conference during the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in 2011, Yeoh said that the role of Suu Kyi was something precious to her.
“I knew that this was not just the role of a lifetime, but an incredible story that really needed to be told.”
Yet again, it seemed that the role of the first Asian woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize was a perfect fit for one of Asia’s best known actresses.
Rebecca Frayn, screenplay writer for The Lady, revealed that she and her husband, Producer Andy Harries, already had Yeoh in mind as soon as the script was finished. Upon completion, Harries sent the film script with the working title Freedom from Fear
right away to Yeoh, in which she eagerly accepted.The star, internationally known from Crouching Tiger and Hidden Dragon, was thrilled to play the role of Suu Kyi in upcoming film The Lady.
Yeoh promptly flew to London, where she actually grew up in her teens and completed her B.A. degree in Fine Arts, to meet with Frayn and Harries about the story. Initially, the script had great touches of the English culture as its Origin. However, it was Michelle Yeoh who brought the Asian flare needed for the story.
Yeoh promptly flew to London, where she actually grew up in her teens and completed her B.A. degree in Fine Arts, to meet with Frayn and Harries about the story. Initially, the script had great touches of the English culture as its Origin. However, it was Michelle Yeoh who brought the Asian flare needed for the story.
Being born in Ipoh, Malaysia to a prominent ethnic Chinese family, Michelle readily knew who Aung San Suu Kyi is. Michelle relates as her native country, Malaysia, hosts over 90,000 refugees where 92% are Burmese. Surprisingly, taking over the role was a whole different story, and one that was far from being easy. Accepting the role meant a huge deal of responsibility for portraying one of the world’s most revered pro-democracy figures as authentic as possible.
It also meant discovering the humanity behind Suu Kyi and drawing the audience to this character. Michelle says it took her more than the normal pre- production character internalization.“I lived and breathed her for the past four years. Every day. Every night. I learned Burmese, I slept with her, I woke up with her. Because it was necessary not just to mimic and give you a two-dimensional concept... but to allow you to come into her world,” she describes.
She watched over 200 hours of Suu Kyi video and audio materials. Yeoh also took Burmese lessons and evidenced her impeccable delivering in one of Suu Kyi’s historic speeches in Burmese. Despite her petite frame, she also had to lose weight for the role and even had to refresh her skills as a piano player. Michelle was able to perfect the role so much that The Lady director, Luc Besson, said she embodied Suu Kyi’s appearance and personality to an extent that she and Suu Kyi were almost undistinguishable.
“I’d watch her everyday, and then I realised it wasn’t just mimicking her and doing the things that she did, because we all know the eyes are the windows to the soul—for me to convey if she had strength or doubts or pain, a lot of the time it would have to come when you look into my eyes,” she tells the media present at the TIFF press conference in 2011.
This great versatility Michelle possesses may very well be attributed to her wide scope of interests and her diverse cultural orientations. Born Yeoh Choo- Kheng in Malaysia with both Chinese parents, Michelle was an eager dancer at a very young age, and started ballet lessons at the age of four. She then moved with her parents to England at the age of 15 and was enrolled in a boarding school. In college, Michelle studied in London, just as Suu Kyi. She enrolled in the Royal Academy of Dance, majoring in ballet. However, a spinal injury prevented her from becoming a professional ballet dancer. She later on finished college with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Creative Arts with a minor in Drama. She has since worked in films in Hong Kong and the U.S., and this diversity has primarily given her a headstart in an industry with very little space for successful Asian actresses.
Although the film may come as political, cultural and historical, The Lady featured another facet in the story that is hard to disregard, if not utterly indispensible. The element of love. The film revealed a part of Aung San Suu Kyi’s story that not all people know off—how much she and her husband, Michael Aris, suffered for being apart and how they kept each other’s survival.
In The Lady, their poignant love story was narrated in such an emotional light. Being on house arrest in Burma, Aung San Suu Kyi had left her children with her husband; an Academic Doctor, who were all in Oxford. Her husband was behind the scenes, tirelessly campaigning to secure her release. However, it was in 1999 that their love story took a harsh turn for the worse—Aris was diagnosed with terminal cancer. The Burmese authorities refused him permission to visit Suu Kyi in Burma, rather, they offered her freedom in Oxford. This, however, came with a price, that she would never be allowed back into Burma. Suu Kyi was confronted with the hardest decision yet—her husband and children or her country.
“When I read the screenplay my jaw dropped. This is really a love story. Often Michael Aris did not even know whether his wife was alive or dead,” shares Michelle.
Perhaps it was easier for her to play the role of Suu Kyi’s character—being in-love—as Michelle was actually working with her fiancé in the movie. In love with a westerner, just as Suu Kyi, Michelle has been engaged with Jean Todt for eight years now. Her huge engagement ring was almost blinding as she tells of how her fiancé, Formula 1-Boss and The Lady producer, like Michael Aris, gives her the freedom to do as she chooses.
It was also Todt who gave her the idea to contact her friend, Luc Besson, for the job. Known for directing, writing and producing great films, such as The Fifth Element, The Transporter Series, From Paris with Love, Besson accepted the script immediately after reading it. He saw the opportunity to finally present a real life heroine; a female fighter who uses no other weapons except her human virtues.
“Luc Besson came to my rescue,” laughs Michelle, adding that she believes “no matter how good a script is, if you don’t have a director who’s totally committed and dedicated to it, you won’t have a story that will come to life for the audience.”
It couldn’t have been a better pair, Besson and Yeoh, because the real difficulty, if not struggle, came with the production of the film. From Besson creating sets of meticulous
accuracy, to researching about Suu Kyi since no one has actually seen her in 10 years, to
scouting locations in Burma and filming in disguise. Yeoh also had to visit Suu Kyi to discuss
the film, however, on her second visit she was deported from Burma by authorities, reports
say it was for her portrayal of Aung San Suu Kyi.
“The Burmese authorities were very firm, very polite, and escorted me straight out of the country. They just said, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry”...I think they just wanted very clearly and quickly to show just how closed a country they are, and I was very saddened and disappointed by that... it also showed how irrational they were...But I will go back again. I’ll be back [smiles].”
Even with a great deal of experience, both for Michelle and Luc, The Lady was definitely one of the hardest films they made. Especially for Michelle, even with a string of award
nominations and films of great budgets and productions, it was Aung San Suu Kyi that had
a special place in her heart.
“I think all of us who have been involved in this journey, there is no way that what you feel about freedom, democracy, human rights, that it doesn’t affect you. Because it must make you look at the situation a lot harder, and with open eyes.”
Michelle says making the film has affected her in many ways, and Aung San Suu Kyi will
always be an inspiration to her. “She’s given us the real understanding of what it is to have
strength and passion and determination, with the right balance, to do the right things.”
