Michelle Yeoh has been kicking butt and taking names onscreen for over 40 years. So the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce’s decision to award her a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, which will be unveiled this week, feels like a no-brainer. Yeoh’s name is synonymous with larger-than-life action and wuxia flicks, but her fellow performers say you wouldn’t know it upon meeting her. “My biggest takeaway from her is that you can be an Oscar-winning actor and at the top of your game, and yet still be a kind, warm, nurturing, genuine person,” Justin Chien, her co-star in Netflix’s The Brothers Sun (more on that below), previously told Tudum of working with the Presidential Medal of Freedom honoree. (You forgot about that accolade, didn’t you?)
The Malaysian star first rose to fame in the ’80s and ’90s, getting her start in Hong Kong action and martial arts movies like Yes, Madam; Tai Chi Master; and Wing Chun before making the Hollywood jump in the mid-’90s. After starring with Pierce Brosnan in the James Bond adventure Tomorrow Never Dies, Yeoh took on movies like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; Memoirs of a Geisha; Sunshine; and The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. These roles led to even more memorable parts, like the intractable matriarch Eleanor Sung-Young in Crazy Rich Asians, the starship captain Philippa Georgiou in Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Section 31, the unlikely hero Evelyn Quan Wang in Everything Everywhere All at Once — which won her that aforementioned Oscar — and the shady Madame Morrible (flip it around: Wicked Witch) in Wicked and its sequel.
Keep reading to learn more about Yeoh’s Walk of Fame star–worthy roles on Netflix.
When the leader of a Taiwanese triad, Big Sun (Johnny Kou), is targeted by a mysterious enemy, his eldest son, legendary assassin Charles Sun (Justin Chien), moves from Taipei to Los Angeles to protect the rest of his family. Charles’s mother, Eileen (Yeoh), kept his younger brother, Bruce (Sam Song Li), sheltered, with no memory of his early childhood in Taiwan or of the influence his family wields. But as their adversaries descend, the trio are forced to confront their complicated past — and kick some serious butt — to secure their future. This eight-episode, action-packed family drama was created by Brad Falchuk (The Politician) and Byron Wu and also stars Joon Lee and Highdee Kuan.
This The Witcher prequel takes place 1,200 years before the primary series and unfolds via a tale told to the bard Jaskier (Joey Batey) by a mysterious, powerful being (Minnie Driver). After saving him from certain death, she explains that she wants to tell him a forgotten story about “seven estranged warriors who come together to fight an unstoppable empire, bring humans and monsters to the world via the Conjunction of the Spheres, and create the very first version of a Witcher.” Yeoh stars as one of the warriors, Scían, the last member of a nomadic elf tribe. Sophia Brown (Marcella), Laurence O’Fuarain (The Sandman), Mirren Mack (Sex Education), Lenny Henry (Jay Kelly), Jacob Collins Levy (Nautilus), Zach Wyatt (Timestalker), Lizzie Annis (Extraordinary), Huw Novelli (Heads of State), and Francesca Mills (Harlots) also star in this series, co-created by Declan de Barra (The Originals) and Lauren Schmidt Hissrich (The Rats: A Witcher Tale).
British superspy James Bond (Brosnan) is dispatched to stop a ruthless media mogul (Jonathan Pryce) from breaking the Chinese market and plunging the world into all-out war in this 1997 Bond adventure, directed by Roger Spottiswoode (Under Fire). Yeoh plays Wai Lin, a Chinese agent and martial arts expert who develops a tentative partnership with 007. The movie also stars Judi Dench (Skyfall) and Teri Hatcher (Christmas at the Chalet).
When Sam (Karen Gillan) was a kid, her assassin mother (Lena Headey) skipped town after a bungled job. Years later, Sam has followed in her footsteps and works for a man (Paul Giamatti) who triggers a kill order on Sam after she breaks rank and saves a young girl, Emily (Chloe Coleman), while on a job. They seek refuge with a trio of assassins (played by Yeoh, Carla Gugino, and Angela Bassett) who run a weapons armory disguised as a library — and have history with Sam’s mother. Together, they might be able to fight off the army of skilled killers coming after them, save Emily, and put Sam’s family back together in this action thriller, directed by Navot Papushado.
Lorenzo Richelmy (Jumping from High Places) stars as the titular son of a Venetian merchant who spends three years traveling along the Silk Road only to be captured and imprisoned by the fifth leader of the Mongol Empire, Kublai Khan (Benedict Wong). This two-season drama series follows Marco Polo’s early years in the Mongolian court as Kublai Khan works to build the nearly 100-year-old Yuan dynasty. Yeoh plays Lotus, a Taoist nun charged with protecting the heir of one of the growing Mongol Empire’s enemies, the Chinese imperial Song dynasty.
Yeoh’s character also appears in the series’ Christmas special, Marco Polo: One Hundred Eyes.
Nearly 20 years after the events of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, martial arts master Yu Shu Lien (Yeoh) returns in this sequel to protect the legendary Green Destiny from falling into the wrong hands. When an underground warlord, Hades Dai (Jason Scott Lee), sends his people to capture the weapon, Shu Lien gathers a group of disparate warriors — including Meng Sizhao, aka the Silent Wolf (Donnie Yen) — to stop her enemy, defend the sword, and save the world. Harry Shum Jr. (Grey’s Anatomy), Natasha Liu Bordizzo (Day Shift), Eugenia Yuan (Secret City), Roger Yuan (Dune), JuJu Chan Szeto (Wu Assassins), Chris Pang (Joy Ride), and Woon Young Park (Reminiscence) also star in this wuxia movie, directed by Yuen Wo-Ping (Iron Monkey).
Based on Soman Chainani’s 2013 novel of the same name, this fantasy movie, directed by Paul Feig (The Housemaid), follows best friends Sophie (Sophia Anne Caruso) and Agatha (Sofia Wylie), who are sent to the titular school that teaches the next generation how to be fairy tale heroes (called “Evers”) and villains (called “Nevers”). When Sophie, who longs to be a princess, is enrolled as a villainous Never and Agatha, who’s skeptical of fairy tales, is cast as a heroic Ever, their friendship — and the fate of their world — are put to the test. Yeoh co-stars as Emma Anemone, the school’s “Beautification” professor, and is joined by an ensemble cast that includes Kit Young (Shadow and Bone), Jamie Flatters (The Forgotten Battle), Rachel Bloom (Rachel Bloom: Death, Let Me Do My Special), Rob Delaney (Love at First Sight), Laurence Fishburne (The Ice Road), Patti LuPone (Hollywood), Cate Blanchett (Don’t Look Up), Kerry Washington (Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery), and Charlize Theron (The Old Guard).
Aspiring singer Kate Andrich (Emilia Clarke) can’t catch a break. She works a dead-end job as an elf at a year-round Christmas store in London and couch surfs at various friends’ houses. Things seem to be on the upswing when she forms a connection with a handsome stranger, Tom (Henry Golding), but finding him again proves more difficult than she anticipated. Yeoh plays Kate’s boss — who insists on being called Santa — in this twisty holiday rom-com, directed by Feig (Ghostbusters: Answer the Call) and written by Bryony Kimmings and Emma Thompson (Sense and Sensibility), the latter of whom also stars as Kate’s mom.
