The transcript below is from the video “She gave up dancing and learned to do the scorpion kick, by movie fighter Michelle Yeoh” by OLD COMBAT CINEMA.
OLD COMBAT CINEMA:
Hi friends. Michelle Yeoh was born on August 6, 1962. Michelle’s parents were ethnic Chinese although they lived in Malaysia. The family was very wealthy and the girl grew up in luxury and wealth. From the age of 4 she studied ballet. Michelle was making progress and her parents dreamed that in the future she would be able to do this professionally. At the age of 15, she moved with her parents to London, but did not forget about her hobby. After graduating from a private school, she became a student at the Royal Academy of Dance in London, where she was able to continue her ballet studies.
OLD COMBAT CINEMA:
After a serious spinal injury, she had to change her dream because doctors forbade the girl to practice ballet, but dancing was her main love, so she decided to start staging dances and choreography. While it was behind-the-scenes work, it still allowed her to be close to the stage. At the age of 21, Michelle’s mother sent her documents to the qualification commission for the selection of participants for the beauty contest. It was a complete surprise for my daughter. She entered the competition and won as Miss Malaysia. This gave her the right to represent her country Miss World in 1983.
OLD COMBAT CINEMA:
Chinese producers immediately drew attention to the beautiful girl and she received an invitation to star in a video where Michelle, along with Jackie Chan, advertised the watch. Michelle made her debut in the film Flynn and Bamba, filming took place in 1984. She played a teacher. Seeing the actress’s excellent dance training, the director decided that Michelle could become the new action heroine that the viewer had long been waiting for. Further filming was preceded by more than one month of kung fu training , which took place together with stuntmen and lasted up to 12 hours a day.
OLD COMBAT CINEMA:
Since 1985, the actress began to be called Michelle Hahn. She appeared in the comedy film My Lucky Stars 2, where she played a supporting role. A serious role was waiting for her ahead. It was an action comedy action movie where she co-starred with Cynthia Rothrock. The young actress performed most of the stunts herself. In Michelle’s homeland, such films were not very popular, which cannot be said about the West. The actress began to act in film without being at a loss. Michelle spoke fluently only English and Malaysian.
OLD COMBAT CINEMA:
During the filming, she was read a text in Chinese, she memorized it by ear and pronounced it. In 1997, Michelle played James Bond’s girlfriend. Tomorrow Never Dies. This has brought considerable popularity. There, not all of the stunts were performed by the actress as the director did not want to risk her health. However, she starred in fights herself, without resorting to the help of a stunt double. Pierce Brosnan, seeing her fighting, said that Michelle was like James Bond in a skirt. In 2000, she played one of the most striking roles in the film, which was awarded 10 nominations and 4 Oscar statuettes.
OLD COMBAT CINEMA:
The film was called Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. Focusing on Western audiences, she starred in Memoirs of a Geisha in 2005 and in the thriller Inferno in 2007. Small roles followed in both Western films and Hong Kong movies. She played a major action role only in 2010 in the action movie Kingdom of Assassins. Today Michelle is the highest paid actress in the East. She has few projects, but she is in no hurry to grab onto everything, but carefully chooses roles. We wish her success and new roles in the cinema. We like and subscribe to the channel so as not to miss the next videos.
Michelle Yeoh:
“I love my martial arts and action movies. They give another dimension to the acting world: the emotional plus the physical.”
“When I made my first film, it was just an adventure. But after my first movie, I guess I got more of a feeling of what was happening around me.”
“The first one I did was an action film with Sammo Hung and George Lam, but I had the usual female role for that time: you know, damsel in distress, rescued by the hero.”
“Jackie Chan is like a big bro to me.”
“They won’t take you seriously because you are a girl. These guys had to understand that you are just as tough as them, and you have to take them on.”
“In one take, I had to do 24 combat sequences, which is hard. It makes you think, ‘I’d better get on my toes again.’They won’t take you seriously because you are a girl. These guys had to understand that you are just as tough as them, and you have to take them on.”
“Some of the martial arts films, the motivation is about martial arts. That’s where it’s coming from. It is a visual, commercial film, to showcase the next stunt, the biggest thing. And character development becomes a side thing.”
“In many ways, I feel I’m still as physically fit as I was 20 years ago because I’ve always been athletic.”
