While Hollywood is making some strides when it comes to gender and ethnic diversity, it has a long way to go. Many of the scripts Yeoh receives these days, for instance, are meant for men, the actor recently told MSNBC.
When directing duo Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert wrote "Everything Everywhere All at Once," they actually had Jackie Chan in mind to play the protagonist and Yeoh as his wife. But when Chan couldn't do the project, Kwan and Scheinert refocused the film on Yeoh instead.
"As an Asian woman, those kind of roles where you, as an ordinary woman, gets a chance to be extraordinary, that is such a precious, precious gem," Yeoh added. "And when I read it, all the years that I have trained as an actor, I'm given the chance in this one movie to show you what I am capable of. So, it was amazing to get that."