As Yeoh continues to change the industry with her talent, strength, and deep love for the characters she portrays. But until Hollywood becomes as diverse as the likes of “Everything Everywhere All At Once” or “Crazy Rich Asians,” it’s not going to change anytime soon. “Change has to be deep and wide-ranging, and it’s not just down to Asians to make the changes,” Yeoh told the South China Morning Post. “We need the studio heads to change, and we need more women writers, too, so there is real equality.”
For Yeoh, it’s about standing your ground as an actor and voicing your opinion if you don’t feel the representation is correct. “It’s not the actors fault that they act in some roles that make you go, ‘Oh God, no, don’t do that because it’s a stereotype,'” she told Harper’s Bazaar. “But it’s the writers, it’s the producers, it’s those who say, ‘Oh no, but that’s what the audience wants.'”
What the audience actually wants is a diverse, realistic, relatable representation of the world on the big screen. “Just give us a chance to audition, a chance to go for the character. Don’t put us in boxes or label us, or label anybody for that matter. Actors are actors so long as it’s the right role.”
