Insisting that she is not as uptight as her Eleanor Young character, the 56-year-old actress jokes her role in 'Ip-Man' spin-off forced her to keep reminding herself not to do karate moves.
- Nov 1, 2018
AceShowbiz - Former "Bond" girl Michelle Yeoh is hoping the fun never stops on the "Crazy Rich Asians" sequel now her castmates know she's nothing like her super-serious character.
The actress, who played uptight family matriarch Eleanor Young in the hit summer film, tells WENN cast and crew had a blast when cameras weren't rolling, but she always felt like a party pooper because her castmates wanted to keep their distance.
"It was a lovefest (on set)," she explains. "The local artists, the actors from Singapore and Malaysia, welcomed their counterparts from around the world and they were so happy to work with them. Everyone bonded, going to karaoke and having midnight snacks.
"Unfortunately, I didn't get to have such a good time. My role was so serious that every time I walked in, it got very serious!".
And Michelle is also hoping she won't have so much on her plate when she shoots the sequel: "At the time I was straddling two movies," she says. "I was filming a movie in China, the spin-off of Ip Man - and that was an action movie. So I had to remind myself when I was Eleanor Young, 'Don't get physical!'."
"That would not have been good to come at them with karate moves."
Yeoh reveals the cast got on so well, they still keep in touch: "We all still have a group chat," she smiles. "Every morning when I wake up there are 50 messages."
And she still thinks the film was a huge gift, confessing she knew it would be an important movie when she read the script.
"When we set out to do the movie we knew it was special," she says. "We knew it was a great opportunity, because we were working with an all-Asian cast from around the world. This was the first time even for me to be involved in that. I was on my knees praying that opening weekend because the results meant so much. It would've knocked all the other Asian films back another 25 years, so it was very important."
"The movie transcends race and it spans all generations. The kids and the adults love it and they all watch with each other. It's a shared experience of a feel good movie and we've been lacking in that. It's been a long time since we had a really good love story and it's all about love on all the different levels - family love, true love, romantic love and of course the love of the consumption of food."
