South China Morning Post
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Bond girl Yeoh gets licence to thrill 007
by David Cohen In Los Angeles
South China Morning Post. Feb. 11, 1997
Shooting for the next James Bond film does not begin until April, but
new Bond girl Michelle Yeoh Choo-kheng has already made quite an
impression on 007, Pierce Brosnan.
"She's a beautiful woman, naturally, for Bond. She's a great mover, and
a beautiful actress, a wonderful actress," said Brosnan, in Los Angeles
to promote his latest non-Bond film, Dante's Peak.
"I can't say enough nice things about her actually. I thought she was a
really centred person. She seems to have a good way about her as an
actress. She's serious and committed about her work."
Yeoh, most recently seen in Hong Kong in the film Ah Kam: The Story of
a Stuntwoman, will be more than a damsel-in-distress.
"She plays a kind of female Bond. She's his Chinese counterpart. Enough
said there," he said, offering an early peek of the film's secret
storyline.
Brosnan, who plays a volcanologist in the disaster thriller Dante's
Peak, met Yeoh in London late last year, where she and several other
actresses tested for the role.
"You know whether the actress is up to it or not," he said of the
auditions.
"It's pretty obvious after the first few takes, and you say, 'that's
the one.' " The decision, however, was not his.
"I can only voice an opinion and say this girl is great. It's not up to
me. I'm not the producer. I'm just a hired hand."
Brosnan, nonetheless, is keeping a close eye on the story of the
still-untitled Bond film, to be directed by Roger Spottiswoode.
"I've seen some pages. More than last time. It's good. It's tight. And
the story has a finer edge to it. I think that's good. "I think Martin
Campbell did an outstanding job on GoldenEye. It was a great sleight of
hand in many areas, but I thought the story was hard to sell."