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When Supercop came to America, it wasn't just another Jackie Chan vehicle dubbed for the masses. It was a chance for the male-dominated action film audience to get a geniune dose of the feminine touch. She's not the steroid-pumping bodybuilder or the heavily doubled matinee doll that Hollywood likes to pass off as an action femme fatale (Although rumor has it that she isn't allowed to do any of her own stunts in her upcoming American outing - Tomorrow Never Dies - only time will tell). She's the real thing. She's Michelle Yeoh--don't dare call her Michelle Khan (that's from the past!). She has beauty, grace, speed, power and you can add to that list a battery of other compliments. Yeoh has appeared on Conan O'Brien, Rosie O'Donnell and The Late Show with David Letterman to make her presence known to American mainstreamers. Were audiences going to see another Hong Kong star spout off endless, nonsensical lines of babble as they did with Chan (Sorry Jackie!)? Not quite. Yeoh gave the audience a natural-sounding hipster who was able to lose that ounce of British tongue she picked up in London while studying ballet. Expecting a thirty minute free-for-all with the popular action queen, I am happy to give you the best from a ninety minute interview conducted over the phone. I must give special thanks to Peter Chow, Fannie Ip and Lori Tilken from Terence Chang's office. Hopefully this interview will provide an insightful look back into the world of Michelle Yeoh and her Hong Kong days. |
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Tell me about your acting background? You were fantastic in your first role in Owl vs. Dumbo. Oh, thank you, thank you! I got a degree in Dance and Drama when I studied in London. I really chose drama by accident because I was majoring in dance, dance choreography and the history of dance. I had to choose a minor subject and I thought that drama would extend the performance level as a dancer. Acting in drama classes before Hong Kong helped tremendously. I would work with Sammo, George Lam and Deannie Yip who were veterans of the industry. They were nothing but totally helpful and supportive of me. I didn't even speak very much Chinese at that time and I didn't even read Chinese. It was difficult. In Yes Madam, you paved the way for others like Moon Lee, Yukari Oshima and Sibelle Yu in the femme fatale genre. How did it make you feel to be the pioneer? I don't think that is an honor that I really deserve. I was just very lucky to be at the right place, at the right time. When they gave me the opportunity to play that role, I just grabbed with both hands and said, 'Yes, I'm going for it and I'm going to jump in with both feet!' We really didn't know how the audience was going to react to it. At the premiere, both Corey and I were holding our breath, but we gave it our all. The audience was not going to say, 'Okay, there is a girl fighting and there is a guy fighting for her.' When I got into there, it was just going to be one incredible stunt sequence after another that the audience was going to see. All these years, it has been a very male-dominated arena, and it was something very new for us. By the first sequence, I knew. In Hong Kong, you always know which direction they (the audience) are going because they are quite verbal. We were so glad that it was going to work out. Taiwan worked as well, and with Korea, we knew that we were on the right track. When we first started off, I remember Dickson, Sammo and John Sham coming up to me. They said that Owl vs. Dumbo was a role that I could continue to play or if I was interested, we could do an action movie and try something new. I have always been a very adventurous person and when I saw the fight scenes that Sammo was doing in Owl vs. Dumbo, I was very curious and itching to ask Sammo if he could teach me some of those moves. I was like, 'I can do that you know!' Go get 'em! (Laughs) So, I was just there and I did my best. I was very happy that it started a new path that other girls could do as well. The finale in Yes Madam explodes with some of the most incredible stuntwork that can never be replicated. As a beginner, how did you psyche yourself up for what the best in Hong Kong was doing. During the entire film, I was continually having to prove myself to all these stunt guys. Even though I was a girl, I was willing to take the pain and prove that I was just as gutsy as them. I always had to remind myself that if these guys can do it - I CAN DO IT TOO! I mean, there were no stuntwomen around; Hong Kong didn't have any need for them. So I would look at all the stunt guys and say, 'They have two hands and two feet and can do particular kinds of movements. With the proper training, I can do the same thing.' Unless of course, it was something like doing three somersaults through a window. So if it was physically possible, then I should be able to do it. You have mentioned your ballet background in many interviews, but you rarely talk about your martial arts training. I believe that Lam Ching-ying was your instructor. True? Yes, he was one of my teachers. Corey Yuen Kwai (director of Yes Madam) asked several people to come and help me out. I was very fortunate to have Lam begin my training, but Corey, Dick Wei and a group of stuntmen also taught me. So I had a lot of help. What was the most difficult transition going from dance to martial arts? When I first started out with Ching-ying, who is an excellent martial artist, he could tell that I was very flexible and that I could mimic a lot of the moves that he was doing. But the problem was that I was trained as a ballet dancer and not as a martial artist. In ballet, you turn your feet and muscles outward while in martial arts, you turn them in. So he couldn't understand. He would say, 'If you can turn out your feet, why can't you turn in your feet?' Finally, I got a hold of his foot, and I said, 'Now you turn out your feet!' He started to get cramps and quickly saw what I was talking about. Essentially, I had to retrain my muscle groups. In martial arts, you constantly tilt your axis and the force has to go out. The speed and the energy has to be projected outward rather than being kept in your body as in ballet. It was a process where I would just watch very carefully at all of these very skilled martial artists in front of me. I would observe where the energy was coming from, being generated from the waist and the full body. It was a complete motion of the hips and legs. I would digest this information before I would practice myself. Now your next film (Royal Warriors) was even more challenging. Not only did you perform even more action, but your two costars, Michael Wong and Henry Sanada, who was Japanese, could not speak Chinese very well. Yes. It was fine for us, but that poor director had a major problem with it. Was it difficult to map out the dialogue? No, in Hong Kong during that time, nothing was synch sound and everything was dubbed anyway. My Cantonese at that time was very limited, but I could understand and do translation for the other two actors when the director needed it. David Chung (the director) could also speak a little bit of English, and besides, the dialogue in that film was not very long speeches. If Sanada and Michael couldn't say those few words in Cantonese, we would use the same number of syllables and do it in English. We played around with things like that, but it was still an amazing experience. Working with Sanada was wonderful because he was truly a great martial artist. And at that time, he was such a big star in Japan, but when he came to Hong Kong, he was a complete gentleman. He was totally professional, and that was only my second action film. I needed to see a big star like that, one who is so graceful, to learn from. Now when you shoot a film silently, do you just mouth a lot of the words? No, we would say everything out loud. It's just that Michael, Sanada and myself would get all of the inflections wrong if we tried to speak Cantonese. Everyone around the set would be rolling around laughing, but we would be like, 'Hey, we said it right, it's you guys who have it wrong!' (Laughs). So, it would be a fair assumption that you didn't do any of your own dubbing until Supercop. Yes, so no one really knew my voice until then. I mean Jackie didn't do any of his own voices until Supercop either.
Well, in my early films with D&B, they planned my career. I had confidence that they were leading me in the right direction which they did. But later on, I would only work with people that I knew and work with them for at least two movies. I would build up confidence in them. Unfortunately in Hong Kong, a lot of the time, they don't work with a full script and spend little time on preproduction. This has been one of Hong Kong's bad habits for a long time. So, literally, I didn't know what I was going to be saying until I got on set. When I would be putting on makeup in the morning, someone would walk in with a piece of paper and say that this was my dialogue for the day. In movies, the scenes are a lot shorter, so it was difficult to memorize the lines unlike in television when the scenes are longer. Tell me about your initial exit from action films with Magnificient Warriors? Well, we were supposed to shoot in Taiwan for three weeks, but ended up there for three months! We actually had to leave Taiwan after that period because of the enormous taxes imposed for shooting on the set and using their crews. So that's why we left before we could finish up. If not, we would have been there a lot longer. That was one of the problems. In the beginning, everything was fine. We actually had a script, but after awhile, it began changing and then there was just not enough time to finish. We had to rush and make a lot of concessions in working around the original ideas. By the last three weeks, we knew that we had to finish up quick or end up paying a lot more money. All I remember is getting up in the morning, fighting all day, and going home. After awhile, your body breaks down. It was a tough film to work on. I have heard the story from Stanley Tong, but I would really like to get your account of the bum-grabbing incident. (Laughs) Oh, I played the dirtiest trick on him. He doesn't act like a stuntperson. He is quiet, polite and just so well behaved. Here in Hong Kong, if it's a stuntperson, they are like, (talking in a low voice) 'Okay, let's go! Let's do things!' When I first met him on the set of Magnificient Warriors, he was my stunt double and assistant stunt coordinator. I knew that I was going to be working with this guy for the next few months, so we have to break the ice somewhere. Just by looking at him, you know that this is a guy that you can trust. If anything goes wrong, he will be there for me. Whenever you work with a group of stuntpeople, you always have to be able to recognize your own crew. Essentially, you are putting your life into their hands. He said that it scared him so much. You should have seen his face; it was priceless. Even ten minutes later, his face was red and his eyes were bulging out. He stood up with his hands raised and kept repeating, 'I didn't do anything! I didn't touch her!' Everyone in the dressing room was just silent. I had the opportunity to interview Stanley Tong awhile back. He said that he was your teacher during your off years. (Laughs) I really enjoy a workout, and whether I'm in the movies or not, I am very sporty. Stanley was one of the people that I trained with in the movie business. When I left (the film business), it didn't mean that I was going to cut off my friends. So whenever he was in town either shooting a film or on vacation, he would call me up for a game of tennis. I remember telling him that I wanted to learn the staff, and if he could teach me. You always have to keep yourself learning new things. And the best way is to learn from your friends. Speaking of your return to films, did Jackie know that you and Stanley were so close? The original script for Supercop did not include your character, and in the end, you stole the show from the man himself.
I actually enjoyed Project S more than Supercop since it concentrated on the inner conflicts of your character. Supercop was a very set story in the sense that even then it was a part of Chan's story, sort of an action/comedy which is his role. Stanley had to stick to that, but when he spun off my character, we could explore more of the human elements involved. I really enjoyed making that film and enjoyed my costars Yu Ruong-guang and Fan Siu-wing. It had its painful moments as well. Once again, Stanley proved that he could make a good movie. What did you think of the Heroic Trio films? I loved those two films because I got the chance to work with Maggie and Anita. Being on that set was like holiday time. It was just like being with your family...we were all so close. We were very lucky that we found a particular set where we literally built it from an old Coca-Cola factory into our homebase for the next four months. That was very unusual in Hong Kong because we couldn't film on the streets or anything like that since it was supposed to be a futuristic setting. We had to build everything. Bruce Yee, who was our costume and set designer, was incredible. Maggie, Anita and I have been such good friends even before this, and it was great to work on a film together. You made three incredibly loose-structured films called Holy Weapon, Butterfly & Sword and Wonder Seven. What did you think of these films since they were so comic book in nature? At that time, it was the in-thing in Hong Kongall of the swordfighting and the fantasy. As you know, Hong Kong goes through these genre sweeps, and I was just caught up in this one. But you know, it was good as an experience to do something that was not serious all of the time. I liked doing Holy Weapon because I got the chance to work with all of these top actresses and it was a Wong Jing movie. There was no pressure. I just went to work and had a good time. Sometimes you just have to do things that are different and then you get an idea of what to do and what not to do the next time. The one thing that all those films have in common aside from the obvious comic book stylings, is the overuse of wirework. What's the big trick on being on a wire? There is no trick. You just pray...real, real hard. The wires in Hong Kong are so thin because they don't have the money to go back and erase them like they do in Hollywood. You literally have to let the wire take you and not work against it. You can't jump higher than the wire. Any other movement aside from the way the wire is moving will break it. You're like a rag doll. Once you land either right side up or upside down, you have all these hands on your head and body. Then you know that you have landed and that you are okay. It takes some getting used to. Has there ever been anything that you have declined to do in terms of stuntwork? Yes. The key is to stay close to your director and stunt coordinator. During the off hours, we would practice and work together whether that would be Corey Yuen, Stanley Tong or Yuen Woo-ping. That way, they know your skills and what you are good at. Then they work the stunts around what you can do. But like in Supercop, when they told me to ride up that ramp before the jump. I said, 'Well, I don't know, that lane looks pretty narrow. I don't know if I can do this or not.' Then, we start working on something different, a little less or a little more. When I rolled off the van onto Jackie's car the first time, I thought, 'This isn't difficult, I just jump from the van to the car.' But at that time, I was on two stationary cars. Then when we did it for real and everything started moving, I was like, 'Whoa! Hold on a second! It's not the same.' The best thing to do is to learn how to respect the stunt that you are doing. The worst thing that you can do is to be too relaxed and think that the stunt is easy. That's how you get hurt. You have worked with Sammo Hung on three films including the recent Ah Kam. What is your opinion of him? Oh, I have always held Sammo in the highest esteem. I have always admired his work and him as a person as well.. He and his stunt team were very generous with their time in helping me even when we were not working together. For the first few years before he went to America we were very good friends because I was working with D & B at that time and he was one of the co-founders. I was very happy when he decided to do Ah Kam because that role was so perfectit was him. He didn't have to do anything because that is what he was. It was so much fun to work with him again after more than twelve years. It felt like we were working the first time together. We were still the same. He was the same guy that I had known for all those years. Concerning Ah Kam, I felt that the film was a bit disjointed at times. The conflict with the triads and your life as a stuntwoman was never really resolved. Did the script have to be altered because of your accident? Unfortunately, the script did have to be altered because of the accident. Ann Hui was also trying a new form of directing by splitting up the story in three different parts. Essentially, it's three chapters of a person's life over the course of a summer. With the stunts and the ending, it could have been a lot better if I could have done more. I was just so laid off that it didn't happen. The story had to be changed to fit with my injury at that time. Now what exactly happened with that jump? I saw it in the outtakes from the film, but from my vantage point it was a little difficult to make out what went wrong. The jump was only eighteen feet and I was to land on some cardboard boxes and a mattress. Instead, I landed on my head, and even though it was a short jump, the force made me land like a ton of bricks. When I landed, my head went back and I was very lucky that my neck didn't snap. At the angle that I was jumping at my legs actually went over my head. So I folded like a rag doll basically. My back felt like two planks of wood snapping together. It was pretty bad, and a lot of people thought that was it, that I had broken my back. Moving on to safer ground, relatively, tell me about your experience with the still unreleased Soong Sisters?
Did you know that the political themes would keep the film from being released? Well, if you think about it, anyone knows that this would be a very political movie to make. It wasn't necessarily a political statement that they were trying to make, but once you involve a film about three sisters that literally controlled China at that time...how could you stay away from the political issues that was so important to China at that period. When the film was allowed to be made, obviously in Hong Kong and in China and when you get the permission to make movies in China you will have gone through a long process where they tell you that you are not allowed to make it. They have so many guidelines about filmmaking. Now of course, when you came to America to promote Supercop, you were invited on all of these talk shows like Rosie O'Donnell and Conan O'Brien. I heard "sexy, hip, smart and don't mess with her" in the same compliment. How did you prepare for these appearances when anything connected to Jackie was thought of as just kung fu to the audience? I really don't think that there is a way that you can prepare yourself to be honest. I have always been a very down to earth person where you have to accept me for what I am and if there is anything for me to say, I will say it directly and tell you how I feel. When I came to America to promote the film, I just held on to the idea that I was so happy that the film had reached a mainstream audience in the states. That was a very big achievement on its own already. Everyone that I met was so nice and honest that I just presented myself as, 'Here I am!' They were having a good time, so I was like, 'Let's get on with it.' Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee have paved the way for Asian actors to gain notoriety. And now, you have the chance to do the same for Asian actresses in mainstream Hollywood. I think with the Bond movie that it is a very positive movement to show the world that Asian Chinese women are no longer the stereotypes. With the media and in movies, it will take the audience to a new level as well. The people here in Asia are very excited, and I think that it's time for us to show something different. Now that you are here in the states, what actors would you like to work with? Oh my God! Do you want me to send you the list? (laughs) There are so many actors and actresses that I have admired over the years. Mel Gibson, Harrison Ford, Robin Williams, Daniel Day Lewis, Michelle Phieffer, Sharon Stone, Susan Sarandon... What about Chow Yun-fat? Would you like to work with him? Oh yes. Terence is John Woo's producer and the only other person he manages is Chow. When I was in L.A. the last time, I visited on the set (of The Replacement Killers). He is looking so good. We have always wanted to work together, but unfortunately, our paths have always been very separate. By the time we had the chance to work together, we are always so far apart. The only time we worked together was on a commercial. I would really love to work with him because he is not just an incredible actor, but he is a true professional and a nice guy. I know him and Jasmine (Chow's wife) very well. We're like family. When I was out in L.A. doing my interviews, I wanted to visit him on the set because he had just started filming. We couldn't get on the set until about four o'clock in the evening. Because he had known that Terence was going to bring me out to the set, he had finished filming at ten in the morning and just waited there for me to come. He just waited so that he could introduce me to the director. When I walked in and we started chatting, I said to him, 'Why are you not shooting?' When he said that he was finished for the day, I asked him what he was still doing here. 'Waiting here for you,' he said. I was like, 'Yeah, sure you are.' Then someone came up to me and told me that he had really been waiting for all that time. But you know, that is the way he is. Chow has no ego, he knows what he does for a living and he does a bloody good job of it. He is such a nice guy. Now I have always heard that your first big Hollywood film was going to be with Oliver Stone, who is a very close friend of yours. Yes. He is a very good friend of mine. Everyone was under a different impression.. I don't think he ever did anything that I could have been in. I mean, you couldn't see me playing a role in Nixon. (laughs). What went through your mind when you found out that you were going to be the next Bond girl? It was a long process, but my manager, Terence Chang (who also manages John Woo), assured me that these things normally take a lot longer. In Hong Kong, everyone is so spoiled. Everyone knows everyone else - it's a very tight community. You know all the directors and producers. We never have to go through screen tests or anything like that. When they approach you, they already have you in mind. You can take it or leave it. So, going to the states I think I am very, very lucky since I have Terence and Chris Godsick as well. They are my guardian angels, and they work with me to get to the right places. Without them, I wouldn't be in Hollywood right now. It makes a big difference when you have know and trust someone like Terence. I have known him since the days of D & B. If I had not had Terence, I still would have been very happy in Hong Kong. Hollywood is a completely new market, and it is ideal for any star to try and reach the worldwide market with its films. Terence has definitely made the transition a lot easier. He is like my godfather. Can you say anything about your role in Tomorrow Never Dies? It was very gratifying for me to get that role. It all started when I first came to Hollywood to meet with the producers and companies. I met someone at MGM who fortunately had seen my films, and he told me about Goldeneye doing so well. He said that the next James Bond film would be good opportunity for me. That's how it started, but after a few months later, he told me that he made a suggestion and it seems to be taking off. He said that they were thinking of putting in a Chinese agent role in the next Bong girl, and he said I would be ideal. And after hearing about it, I knew that I was perfect for it. I couldn't see anybody else doing it. So after meeting the director, I went to London to meet the producers and all that. I am eagerly waiting for the movie to begin. So are you going to be Pierce Brosnan's love interest? We are going to have to...well...I don't know. You will have to wait and see. I can't tell you everything. (laughs) Of course a James Bond movie takes forever to shoot. Do you have any other projects in the works. Well, Terence and Chris are working on it, but we know that the Bond film will take us at least into the fall. Then there will be a big publicity tour as you know. In getting this role, I have to put in all of my energy to ensure its success. After the motorcycle jump in Supercop and the recent injury with your last big stunt in Ah Gum, do you feel that you need to do these types of things any longer? With stuntwork, it gets more and more difficult each time, especially in Hong Kong. We are constantly trying to come up with new things to do that would be realistic and not over the top. We don't have the luxury of blue screen or digital effects. We have to actually do whatever it is without killing ourselves. In Supercop, you jump of a one and half story building, and then in Project S, you had better start thinking of jumping off something a lot higher than before. Each time the stunt has to be different and more exciting. And at the same time, how can we make sure that it will be safe. It's a problem that we face from the get go. The audience in Hong Kong is a lot more pampered because there are so many great martial artists and stuntmen. So in Hollywood, are you going to use blue screen and CGI? Oh yes, I am all for that. There is no need to risk anyone's life, whether that be the lead actor or the stunt people. In Hong Kong, the stunt coordinator arrives at the set and thinks of things to do. Then, over the course of the next few days, they lay out the different movements. The action evolves around one thing that they have done. That is the big difference. In the Bond film, everything will be storyboarded and ready to go before we even get there. Every move is already choreographed. In Hong Kong, I literally don't know what I am going to be doing until two minutes before or five or ten minutes before. So what kind of films do you like to watch when your not shooting or recovering from one? You seem like a drama fan. Any movies that I can get my hands on. I am very up-to-date with the films that are out. Actually, I'm a horror buff. I love horror movies. Really? I love them too. No way. What's the best horror movie that you have seen? I liked Scream quite a bit. But one of my personal favorites is an old eighties flick called Dead and Buried. Dead and Buried? No, I haven't seen that one. Have you ever seen The Evil Dead? Of course. I am big fan of The Evil Dead and Sam Raimi. SO AM I! (laughs) Everyone gives me looks when I say horror films. But I do like other types of films like Howard's End and Sense and Sensibility. I did have one final question. There has always been some confusion as to what your name is. Some people say Khan while others like myself and HKFC, have always said Yeoh. Khan was from the D & B era, and at that moment in time, when movies were sold to the European market, there were so many bad ones that came after Bruce Lee. Anything Asian was considered a no no. So, they had to repackage the films and make them appear non-Asian. I didn't even use Michelle until I came to Hong Kong. I had always went just by my Chinese name which is Yeoh Choo-king. When I studied in England for so many years, I never had an English name. My friends would call me Choo, which is the first half of my first name. When I went to D & B, they had to come up with an English name, and they chose Khan. They said that Yeoh was just too Asian, and they wanted to change it to Khan. Since I was very new to the market, I would always listen to my peers and thought that was the right thing to do. But then when I came to the states, I was advised that I had a lot of fans who had watched the D & B films and knew my name as Khan. Well, I always got letters because whenever I printed your name in the magazine, I never stopped calling you Yeoh. Good man. In Hong Kong, there is no Khan or Yeoh, they only know me by my Chinese name. So they would call me Michelle Yeung as in Yeung Chi-king. But in the states, they started using the credits (for Supercop) as Khan. When I got back to Asia, everyone started approaching me. The funniest thing was a relative of mine actually wrote me a note and asked if I had been married because of the change in names. I was like, 'No, no, no, no!' I think we had better reaccess the whole situation again. I thought that it was not too late. And now with the Bond film... Pierce Brosnan and Michelle Yeoh. Right. Yes, that is the way it will be. I think he (Brosnan) was told that it was Michelle Khan. Recently, when he was doing an interview, when they threw it at him, I think he was confused. The problem has been rectified. Well, I'm glad you have your name back. Oh, so am I. Oh God, you don't know. It was like an identity crisis. Yeoh...Khan...Yeoh...who is that? |
| MICHELLE YEOH FILMOGRAPHY: | |
| 1984 | Owl vs. Dumbo |
| 1985 |
Twinkle Twinkle Lucky Stars
Yes Madam |
| 1987 | Royal Warriors |
| 1988 | Magnificient Warriors |
| 1989 | Easy Money |
| 1992 |
Police Story III:Supercop
Heroic Trio |
| 1993 |
Butterfly Sword
Executioners Holy Weapon Project S |
| 1994 |
Tai Chi Master
Wing Chun Wonder Seven Shaolin Popeye II |
| 1996 |
Soong Sisters
Ah Kam |
| 1997 | Tomorrow Never Dies |