Michelle Yeoh laughs at 60: ‘Yes! Finally! I’m cool!’
‘I’ve come to terms with the fact that I’m 60’: Hong Kong actress and HKU alumni Michelle Yeoh
‘My daughter is very fond of me as a grandmother, and so is my daughter’: Hong Kong actress Michelle Yeoh who is celebrating her 60th birthday on Thursday
Michelle Yeoh was introduced to Hong Kong cinema at the age of 24 by director Wong Kar-wai, who cast her in his 1993 film Once Upon a Time in China, directed by her father. She played a key role in the film and helped lead the film’s international success.
Despite her film roles, Michelle spent most of her professional life in Hong Kong, where she is a veteran actress, as well as a philanthropist and former vice-chairwoman of the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions.
As she turns 60 years old on Thursday, she celebrates with family and friends with a special programme and some fun.
Michelle made her movie debut in 1993, when she starred as the heroine in Once Upon a Time in China. Although the film was not a huge commercial success, it won her a Golden Horse Film Award. A few years later, she was cast in director Wong’s next film, My Sassy Girl, also released in the following year.
However, the film did not fare as well as the first. Her character, a former showgirl who was married to a wealthy businessman, was deemed too over-the-top and it did not do well at all.
Michelle, who began her working life in a children’s education unit for the Hong Kong government, received a phone call from her father, the director of the Film and Television Trust, an organization that supported the films of Hong Kong filmmakers. He told her: “I heard that you’re the girl they want to cast in the movie.”