Everyone wants Michelle Yeoh involved in their movies, and who could blame them? She’s the originator of the “Madame Morrible, MM, flip it around, Wicked Witch!” who knows what else her mind could come up with on another movie set. James Cameron has been hoping to bring Yeoh onto Pandora and has found the perfect opportunity to bring her on board for Avatar 4, if there is one. “Michelle is definitely going to be in 4, if we make 4,” Cameron shares to TVBS News, per People. He already has a vision in store for her: she would be a Na’vi named Paktuelat, but didn’t specify what tribe she would be a part of. Cameron has already conquered land, sea, and fire in the world of Pandora, but maybe there’s a tribe of Na’vi living underground. The official X account for the Avatar films previously stated that Yeoh would play a character named Dr. Karina Mogue. But it might be possible that Cameron thought of another role for her, or maybe she transforms into a Na’vi, like how Jake Sully did in the first film.
Despite making over $1 billion globally, Cameron is still concerned about whether a fourth film would be approved by Disney. “So, here’s the thing: the movie industry is depressed right now. Avatar 3 cost a lot of money. We have to do well in order to continue. We have to do well, andwe need to figure out how to make Avatar movies more inexpensively in order to continue,” he explains. Either way, maybe Yeoh can at least act out her part in the press conference Cameron promises to host if the fourth and fifth movies don’t get made.
Are you ready for more “Wicked”? “Wicked: For Good — The Soundtrack” offers a bulked-up take on the music of the original “Wicked” musical’s second act, grounded in yet-again stellar vocals from Cynthia Erivo as a misunderstood but defiant Elphaba and Ariana Grande as a conflicted but changing Glinda. New songs and lyrics raise the stakes — even if the music itself is at times weighed down by the plot it helps move along, like the film it accompanies.
The soundtrack opens with “Every Day More Wicked,” a lengthened-version of a section of the original Act 2 opener “Thank Goodness” with new verses about Elphaba’s perceived wickedness and Glinda’s presumed goodness set to bold orchestration that matches the first film’s opening number, “No One Mourns the Wicked.” Drum beats and ensemble singers are the world builders here, twisting the melody into a march.
The album’s first solo goes to Michelle Yeoh’s Madame Morrible, the sorceress at the center of a propaganda campaign against Elphaba — a choice that works for the plot, but which offsets the power of Erivo and Grande’s forthcoming vocals. They are introduced later, through brief interpolations of the Act 1 showstoppers “The Wizard and I” and “Popular.” All of that makes for a dynamic film opener — but is more fractured in audio form, sans the sumptuous visuals and character reveals that tie those musical references together on screen.
Fortunately, “Thank Goodness / I Couldn’t Be Happier” quickly follows, bringing Grande center-stage — and providing a rare-here opportunity for her soprano head-voice to give way to a deeper belt (her passionate tone, like other Glindas before her, turns this almost nonsensical lyric, “There are bridges you cross you didn’t know you crossed until you’ve crossed them,” into a revelation). That’s not the last we hear from this capital “G” Good, Glinda. “Wonderful,” usually a duet between Elphaba and the Wizard of Oz, is ‘Galinda-fied,’ with Grande adding welcome harmonies — and a brief “Defying Gravity” interlude — to Jeff Goldblum’s Wizard romp.
For this review, our de facto Gen Z correspondent Elise Ryan also saw ‘Wicked: For Good’ twice (she’s seeing it a third time tonight), rewatched the first movie and saw the Broadway production for the third time. Fourth, if you count the touring production she saw in fifth grade.
It was always going to be hard for this album to live up to the soundtrack of the first “Wicked,” which ended with Erivo’s take on the iconic “Defying Gravity” battle cry, and saw Grande own the over-the-top glitz of “Popular.” But that grandness is replicated in key moments: In Grande’s operatic soprano, in Erivo and Jonathan Bailey’s sensual “As Long As You’re Mine,” in which Bailey as Fiyero manages to keep up with Erivo’s beckoning vocals, and in “No Good Deed,” the album’s sonic peak.
At 44 minutes and 52 seconds, the soundtrack adds over 15 minutes of music to the runtime of the original Broadway cast recording’s second act. That includes two brand new songs written for the film (making them eligible for Oscar consideration), one for Erivo’s Elphaba and one for Grande’s Glinda. In lengthening the shorter second act into a 2 hour and 17 minute long film, director Jon M. Chu stretches some of these songs across scenes, filling them out with dialogue, additional verses from composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz and additional scoring from composer John Powell. All of that is a double-edged sword (broom? wand?), at times deflating the power of the tight original tracks, at others adding felt emotional stakes ripe for satisfying listening.
For example: Some of the drama of Marissa Bode, Ethan Slater and Erivo’s “Wicked Witch of the East,” a song performed on Broadway that was also left off the original cast recording, is weakened by which pieces of the interspersed dialogue remain, and which don’t, in the soundtrack version of the song. Like the Tin Man, it feels a bit piecemeal.
But the new tracks are highlights, fleshing out the album. Erivo’s “No Place Like Home” pulls on the iconic line said by Dorothy in “The Wizard of Oz,” providing this Oz-inspired show its take on the theme, like another Oz-inspired show, “The Wiz,” found before. (“Home,” that show’s nod to the line, was sung by Erivo at this year’s Oscars ceremony). The song is the most inherently political, a timely tale of borders, defiance and community. It starts with Erivo’s voice almost isolated, strings swelling behind her, and ends with the first of her transcendent vocal runs, restored to a full open note (after being cut short by the Cowardly Lion on screen) in the album.
That power is felt tenfold in Erivo’s take on “No Good Deed.” The film may belong to Glinda’s emotional trajectory, but it is Erivo who steals the soundtrack’s climax. Drums return as the agony heard in her voice intensifies, the strings crescendoing with her final call.
Glinda’s emotional journey may at first be more subtle, but Grande portrays it deftly. Airy and introspective, “Girl in the Bubble” serves as turning point, filling in gaps about Glinda’s internal reckoning. Her voice is restrained but emotional, Schwartz’s lyrics straightforward with a cheese that feels earned, and thus earnest. This is Glinda after all, not Grande.
Both songs boost the emotional payoff of the character’s finale duet, the fan-beloved tear-jerker “For Good.” And it’s no surprise, years into their own journey with the characters, that Erivo and Grande nail the chemistry of their character’s friendship.
The earnest superhero team-up tale “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” and Tracy Morgan returning to TV with a new comedy called “Crutch” are some of the new television, films, music and games headed to a device near you.
Also among the streaming offerings worth your time this week, as selected by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists: The upstairs-downstairs drama “Downton Abbey” bids farewell in a final movie, Kim Kardashian plays a divorce attorney in Hulu’s “All’s Fair” and Willie Nelson continues to demonstrate his prolific output with the release of yet another new album this year.
New movies to stream from Nov. 3-9
— Guillermo del Toro realizes his long-held dream of a sumptuous Mary Shelley adaptation in “Frankenstein” (Friday Nov. 7 on Netflix). Del Toro’s film, starring Oscar Isaac as Victor Frankenstein and Jacob Elordi as his monster, uses all the trappings of handmade movie craft to give Shelley’s classic an epic sweep. In her review, AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr wrote: “Everything about ‘Frankenstein’ is larger than life, from the runtime to the emotions on display.”
— Matt Shakman’s endearingly earnest superhero team-up tale “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” (Wednesday on Disney+) helps alleviate a checkered-at-best history of big-screen adaptations of the classic Stan Lee-Jack Kirby comic. Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Joseph Quinn play Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, the Thing and the Human Torch, respectively. In 1964, they work to defend Earth from its imminent destruction by Galactus. In my review, I praised “First Steps” as “a spiffy ’60s-era romp, bathed in retrofuturism and bygone American optimism.”
— “Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale” (Friday, Nov. 7 on Peacock) bids goodbye to the Crawleys 15 years after Julian Fellowes first debuted his upstairs-downstairs drama. The cast of the third and final film, directed by Simon Curtis, includes Hugh Bonneville, Michelle Dockery and Paul Giamatti. In her review, AP’s Jocelyn Noveck wrote that the film gives “loyal Downton fans what they want: a satisfying bit of closure and the sense that the future, though a bit scary, may look kindly on Downton Abbey.” Peacock is also streaming the two previous movies and all six seasons of “Downton Abbey.”
— “The Materialists” (Friday, Nov. 7 on HBO Max), Celine Song’s follow-up to her Oscar-nominated 2023 breakthrough “Past Lives,” stars Dakota Johnson, Pedro Pascal and Chris Evans in a romantic triangle. The New York-set film adds a dose of economic reality to a romantic comedy plot in what was, for A24, a modest summer hit. In her review, AP’s Jocelyn Noveck called it “a smart rom-com that tries to be honest about life and still leaves us smiling.”
— The legendary Willie Nelson continues to demonstrate his prolific output with the release of yet another new album this year. “Workin’ Man: Willie Sings Merle,” out Friday, Nov. 7, is exactly what it sounds like: Nelson offering new interpretations of 11 classic songs written by Merle Haggard. And we mean classics: Check out Nelson’s latest take on “Okie From Muskogee,” “Mama Tried,” “I Think I’ll Just Stay Here And Drink” and more.
— Where’s the future of the global music industry? All over, surely, but it would be more than just a little wise to look to Brazil. Not too dissimilar to how Anitta brought her country’s funk genre to an international mainstream through diverse collaborations and genre meddling, so too is Ludmilla. On Thursday, she will release a new album, “Fragmentos,” fresh off the heels of her sultry, bilingual collaboration with Grammy winner Victoria Monét, “Cam Girl.” It’s a combination of R&B, funk and then some.
— Tracy Morgan returns to TV with a new comedy called “Crutch.” Morgan plays a widowed empty-nester whose world is turned around when his adult children move home with his grandkids in tow. The Paramount+ series debuts Monday.
— Kim Kardashian says she will soon learn whether she passed the bar exam to become a lawyer, but she plays a sought-after divorce attorney in “All’s Fair,” her new TV series for Hulu. Kardashian stars alongside Glenn Close, Sarah Paulson, Niecy Nash-Betts, Naomi Watts and Teyana Taylor in the show about an all-female law firm. Ryan Murphy created the show with Kardashian in mind after she acted in “American Horror Story: Delicate.” It premieres Tuesday on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+.
— The old saying about truth being stranger than fiction applies to Netflix’s new four-episode limited-series “Death by Lightning.” It’s a historical dramatization (with some comedy thrown in) about how James Garfield became the 20th president of the United States. He was shot four months later by a man named Charles Guiteau (Matthew Macfadyen), who was desperate for Garfield’s attention. Two months after that, Garfield died from complications of his injuries. It’s a wild story that also features Betty Gilpin, Nick Offerman, Bradley Whitford and Shea Whigham. The series premieres Thursday.
— HBO offers up a new docuseries about the life of retired baseball superstar Alex Rodriguez. “Alex Vs. A-Rod” features intimate interviews with people who are related to and know Rodriguez, as well as the man himself. The three-part series premieres Thursday.
— The next installment of “Wicked,” called “Wicked: For Good,” flies into theaters Nov. 21 and NBC has created a musical special to pump up the release. Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande lead “Wicked: One Wonderful Night,” a concert event that premieres Thursday on NBC and streams on Peacock Friday, Nov. 7. Additional film cast members like Michelle Yeoh, Bowen Yang, Marissa Bode and Ethan Slater appear as well.
— It’s going to be a while until the next Legend of Zelda game, but if you’re craving some time with the princess, check out Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment. In this spinoff, a prequel to 2023’s Tears of the Kingdom, Zelda travels back in time to join forces with the Six Sages in a war against the invader Ganondorf. You can also drag another human into battle with split-screen or the GameShare feature on Nintendo’s new console. Like the previous collaborations between Nintendo and Koei Tecmo, it’s more hack-and-slash action than exploration and discovery. It arrives Thursday on Switch 2.
Amazon’s Blade Runner limited series finally has a release window. reports that the upcoming sequel show, Blade Runner 2099, is slated for a 2026 release on Prime Video. The story at this point remains a mystery, though the title suggests it’ll take place 50 years after the events of Blade Runner 2049. Ridley Scott is said to be involved in the production.
It was revealed last year that , and according to Deadline, she’ll be joined by Hunter Schafer, Dimitri Abold, Lewis Gribben, Katelyn Rose Downey and Daniel Rigby. We first heard about the possibility of Blade Runner 2099 back in 2022, when it was reported that Amazon Studios was developing a live-action series set in that universe, but there have been few updates since. The release window was noted in an internal memo obtained by Deadline, which reports that the series is now in post-production.
Ne Zha II, the animated sequel film produced by Chinese studio Beijing Enlight Media, is already breaking records as the highest-grossing animated film of all time, and will be re-released by A24 on August 22. To further boost the film’s dub rerelease, A24 tapped Everything Everywhere All at OnceAcademy Award winner Michelle Yeoh to add to its must-watch factor for audiences experiencing the film for the first time in English.
Ahead of its theatrical rerelease, io9 spoke with Yeoh about taking on the role as Ne Zha’s mother, Lady Yin, the power of animation as a cultural exchange, and what starring in the film means to her as the latest emotionally resonant milestone in her illustrious career.
Isaiah Colbert, io9: What first drew you to the world of Ne Zha II? Was there something about Lady Yin—or the myth itself—that felt like it was calling to you?
Michelle Yeoh: Oh, hell yes. Ne Zha is a mythological character that I’ve known since I was a kid. This fiery, rebellious young child. I think, as a kid, I sort of related to it. Everybody wants to fight back and be the one who can go out there and beat up demons and things like that. I saw the movie in its original form first, and I remember thinking, “This is such a cinematic gem.” The animation pushes all the boundaries; it’s spectacular. It’s so rich, it’s like a tapestry that just keeps evolving. All those stunning action sequences. Even I was totally blown away trying to imagine how the heck did they think of all these different realms: the heaven, the Earth, the underground, and the dragons in chains. It was just amazing.
I felt I wanted to not read subtitles because my Chinese is not so good that I can understand in Mandarin all the way through. So I have to go down and understand “Who’s this? Ao Bing. Okay, Ne Zha. This is the dragon.” I think this was the one time I went, “I don’t want to take my eyes off the screen. I just want to watch the whole thing, but I need to understand what was going on.” I felt I needed to hear it, and my first language is English, thinking, “If only they could translate it well, that would be perfect.”
When I was given the opportunity to voice the mother of Ne Zha, it was like, she embodies the most amazing woman. She’s a warrior. She defends her city together with her husband, the general. She is the most loving mother, so it was a no-brainer ’cause it’s like my wish came true. I thought this is such a beautiful, great bridge from the Eastern world to the Western world, where the children who love Spirited Away, Coco, or Moana can come into our world. This will transcend boundaries. We’ll come and be able to embrace this crazy little demon god called Ne Zha and maybe relate to him in many ways. And then there’s Ao Bing.
To be given that opportunity, I felt that I was presented with the prize of the year to voice this woman. When you’re doing an animation, you do it from scratch. You are working your way through all the different nuances. But here, the director and his team, who painstakingly worked five years on this incredible movie, had already laid out the nuances, wit, humor, anger, and the fierceness of this woman and her husband. How she protects the child, defends him, when she’s gentle with him, when she’s the ferocious warrior, and then to the heartbreaking part where they have to say goodbye.
io9: You’ve voiced characters across wildly different worlds—from Minions and Transformers to Kung Fu Panda 2 and Ark. In the first film, Lady Yin was voiced by Stephanie Sheh, known for her role as Sailor Moon. Her performance carried the same quiet strength and maternal depth that I found in your performance. Did you draw inspiration from her interpretation, or did you find your own emotional entry point to carry the baton forward?
Yeoh: The most important thing is you have to find your own, even though there’s already an amazing interpretation, because you cannot mimic somebody else’s great performance. At the end of the day, it’s your own personal journey with the other characters. When you watch, you can hear [it]. There’s just no denying the realism or the actual emotion that you hear, which will help you to feel. It’s very superficial when you try and just copy what someone else has done.
[Beijing Enlight Media has] done an amazing job giving me a great palette to work with. I work with the director, and he will, once again, go through with me the journey of this mother, of how she carried the baby for three years, the frustration. “Just get it out of me!” But, I think the one thing I wanted [was] to make her more charming at the beginning. You would hear a mother’s voice, ’cause I have quite a bass voice. My voice is kind of low and I so I want to bring her up a bit so I don’t sound like a man, or else I’ll be doing the general, too.
As all actors do, we have to discover our journey with the character and bring to it, emotions that you see, you feel, and push the boundaries. And then under the guidance of the director who’s worked on it for like five years—they know it so well—the nuances will come when you understand the story that they are trying to tell.
io9: We’ve talked about the emotionality. But as we mentioned earlier, Ne Zha II is a visually impeccable film but it’s also a film that doesn’t hold back when it comes to its fierce action and devastating emotional beats. In my IMAX screening, adults, including myself, swore under our breaths in awe of the film. As a performer—especially when it comes to the action being pretty brutal—did you see that kind of raw intensity as part of what makes the film transcend its “children’s movie” label?
Yeoh: That’s a very good question. Nowadays, especially when the children of the world [see] action, violence or whatever with video games and with so many things like that, they understand this is all magic. This is all mythical. There’s a monster that’s charging at me with eight tentacles. It’s like, “Yeah, I’m gonna chop it off,” you know. They bring that sense of fantastical to do it so it’s not like two humans brutally fighting with each other. These [fights] are with swords, with magic, with all these kinds of things. It is a different world. Nothing in that world is real.
When you bring it in a sense of animation, it gives them a boundary where [kids] can sit back and go, “This is all pretend. This is funny and fun.” I think you sort of get away with it. I don’t want to use the word but then they’re so immune to it because they mix it with the humor. Even I am, like you say, swearing under my breath or going, “Whoa, how can that even happen?” The beauty of it is mind-blowing.
We know our dragons to be the gods of the skies. [I] never imagined they would be all tied, chained up. The whole crowd of beautiful mythical creatures, all chained up underground like that. That whole scene of them when they surge out is breathtaking. Even though it’s very tragic, you go, “Wow, this is so beautiful to look at.” In that way, you are transported. Even as a child, I’m sure there must be some moments where they go, “Ah, it’s scary.” But then after that, you go, “Oh, wow, it’s kind of cool.” If you keep them in that mindset, then it’s a very different kind of magical world.
io9: I wanted to take a moment to give you your flowers. You stand alongside icons like Bruce Lee, Jet Li, and Jackie Chan—in what I’d call kung fu cinema’s Mount Rushmore—not just for your artistry, but for the way you’ve championed Asian representation on the global stage. How do you see Ne Zha II contributing to the growing recognition that Chinese animation isn’t some new arrival, but a long-standing force that’s been evolving in parallel with Western animation and Japanese anime?
Yeoh: Thank you for that. How do you convince… You can’t talk and say, “This is what we can do.” Now you can see exactly what it is. I hope now that you go back and watch Ne Zha I. There are so many more animations coming from my part of the world that deserve recognition. Don’t take my word for it. Go and watch it yourself. Then tell me, were you blown away or were you disappointed? Then you can say it.
We have been waiting for an opportunity. It’s not as if you can demand that your audience likes it or not. Sometimes magic happens, and I truly believe Ne Zha II will be that magic ingredient so that they will be able to say, “Whoa, this was an all-Chinese effort.” Kudos to director Jiao Zi and his team, who painstakingly worked for five years to make a labor of love. They were like Ne Zha, saying, “We will not back down. We’ll keep going. We will keep demonstrating this is our self-worth. We can do this.”
Anyone who does animation will understand the amount of time and effort that goes into it. And anyone who loves animation will be able to see that in Ne Zha II—everything that was poured into it. I hope that with the English voiceover, young children will be able to enjoy it as much as their parents or their uncles, aunties, grandmothers, and grandfathers.
io9: That ties beautifully with my last question for you. At my screening, the theater was filled with Asian families—mothers, fathers, aunties, uncles—passing snacks, fresh from school pickups, turning rows of seats into something like a comfy living room. If you could speak directly to the young viewers watching Ne Zha II—especially those seeing themselves in Ao Bing and Ne Zha—what would you want them to carry with them after the credits roll?
Yeoh: Was your audience mainly Asian?
io9: A vast majority.
Yeoh: That’s a very interesting thing. Honestly, I hope Ne Zha II will go out to the non-Asian society, especially the non-Asian society. But, having said that, a lot of our—what we call ABCs (American-born Chinese), the young children who were born in America don’t really know the mythology or the folklore that came from the East. For them, I hope this is an eye opener to be able to understand more of their own culture that’s been here for such a long time. And for them to be blown away by what they can offer to their friends as well. They embrace the Moanas and the Cocos when they watch it with their American friends, but I think this is a great opportunity for the exchange to be on equal terms.
It’s like “show me yours and I’ll show you mine” sort of thing, which I think is very important in this day and age where we are embracing diversity. Not so much difference in cultures, but the similarities. I think the core message here is self-discovery, the journey with your loved ones and family, and standing up for yourself. I hope little kids, when they watch it, see the love their parents have for them and what parents will do for them. You know, when you’re young, you don’t really see it. You just get petulant when they don’t give you your iPad or your phone, or something like that. But when you watch Ne Zha II, you can see that whatever you do, your parents will always be there for you.
Ne Zha II returns to theaters and IMAX on August 22.
Ne Zha 2‘s visuals blend modern effects with traditional Chinese aesthetics. Courtesy A24
Americans with K-pop fans at home might think Netflix’s KPop Demon Hunters is the hottest story in animation right now. The musical, about a fictional girl group that moonlights as demon fighters, has dominated Netflix’s charts since June. But when it hits theaters this weekend, it will face an unlikely challenger: Ne Zha 2, a mythological fantasy from China arriving in the U.S. through a partnership between A24 and China’s CMC Pictures. Most U.S. audiences have never heard of it, yet the film has already grossed more than $2 billion (almost entirely from China), making it the highest-grossing animated movie of all time. Its Aug. 22 release sets up a fascinating box office showdown between two very different kinds of animated hits.
Ne Zha 2 is the sequel to the 2019 smash Ne Zha, which earned $720 million and is now available in the U.S. via on-demand platforms like Apple TV. The new film had a limited American run in February, including a screening at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. Thanks to the A24-CMC partnership, it’s now poised for a much wider release.
A beloved mythological figure turned big-screen hero
The story centers on a rebellious boy born with destructive powers who must confront an ancient force bent on destroying humanity. The English-language version features Oscar-winner Michelle Yeoh, who has said she was drawn to the film’s universal themes of identity and resilience.
The scale of the production is staggering: more than 4,000 artists from 138 studios worked for five years to complete nearly 2,400 animation shots and 2,000 visual effects shots. Set pieces like the Battle of Chentang Pass—where magma splits the earth as monsters pour into the battlefield—were designed specifically for IMAX and 3D. As the press notes put it, “it’s not much of an exaggeration to say the entire Chinese animation industry had a hand in the making of Ne Zha 2.”
Audiences have responded in kind. The film currently holds a near-perfect 99 percent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, making it not just the top-rated animated release of 2025 but one of the year’s highest-rated films overall. Its U.S. rollout includes regular, IMAX and 3D formats, with a fresh English dub likely to broaden its appeal.
A24’s quiet ambition beyond its indie roots
While A24 typically keeps quiet about its strategy, the studio told Observer it backed Ne Zha 2 to champion bold, distinctive films and spark conversation around a global hit that had gone largely unnoticed stateside. This isn’t the studio’s first foray into global cinema; In 2023, A24 distributed The Zone of Interest in the U.S., a Holocaust drama that went on to win the Oscar for Best International Feature Film.
The figure of Ne Zha has deep cultural roots. In Chinese mythology, he is a rebellious warrior who defies the gods in pursuit of his destiny—a household name embodying both the search for identity and resistance to authority. The Ne Zha films are the first time this folklore has been told on a blockbuster scale and exported around the world.
That makes Ne Zha 2 an ideal project for A24, which is expanding beyond its indie-film roots into a global distribution role. Known for edgy, auteur-driven work like Moonlight and HBO’s Euphoria, A24 has built a reputation as a tastemaker while growing through smart partnerships. The Ne Zha 2 release lets it expand its reach without abandoning the offbeat, distinctive style that defines the brand.
The film’s cultural impact also lies in its art. Its visuals blend modern effects with traditional Chinese aesthetics: ink-wash landscapes, jade palaces inspired by Han Dynasty architecture, and monsters modeled on ancient bronzeware. Combined with large-scale battle scenes, the result is a visual spectacle built for the biggest screens possible.
Washington — President Biden awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, on Friday to 19 recipients, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, former Vice President Al Gore and Olympic swimmer Katie Ledecky.
Mr. Biden spoke briefly about each honoree, praising their “relentless curiosity, inventiveness, ingenuity and hope.”
Nodding to the criticism of his own age as he runs for a second term at age 81, Mr. Biden praised the 27-year-old Ledecky, arguably the greatest female swimmer of all time, as she prepares for the Paris Olympics this summer.
“Don’t let age get in your way,” Mr. Biden said. “Katie, age is just a number, kid.”
Mr. Biden also used the occasion to make thinly-veiled references to the threat he says former President Donald Trump is to democracy. The two are the 2024 presumptive Democratic and Republican presidential nominees, respectively.
The president recalled Gore conceding the 2000 presidential election to George W. Bush after weeks of legal battles over the vote recount in Florida. Trump refused to concede after Mr. Biden was declared the winner of the 2020 election and has defended the rioters who attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in protest of the outcome of the election.
“After winning the popular vote, he accepted the outcome of a disputed presidential election for the sake of unity and trust in our institutions,” Mr. Biden said of Gore. “That to me was amazing what you did, Al — I won’t go into that.”
He called Pelosi the “greatest speaker of the House of Representatives,” saying she “used her superpowers to pass some of the most significant laws in our nation’s history.”
“On January 6, Nancy stood in the breach and defended democracy with her husband, Paul,” the president said. “They stood up to extremism with absolute courage, physical courage.”
Pelosi’s husband was attacked by a man with a hammer who broke into their San Francisco home while the then-speaker was out of town.
The full list of 2024 Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients:
Michael Bloomberg, an entrepreneur, philanthropist and three-term mayor of New York City.
Father Gregory J. Boyle, a Jesuit Catholic priest and founder and director of Homeboy Industries, a gang rehabilitation and re-entry program.
Rep. Jim Clyburn, a South Carolina Democrat who has served three decades in the House. He previously served as House Majority Whip and Assistant Democratic Leader.
Elizabeth Dole, who served as a North Carolina senator from 2003 to 2009. She was also Transportation Secretary under President Ronald Reagan, Labor Secretary for President George H.W. Bush and the president of the American Red Cross.
Phil Donahue, a journalist who pioneered the daytime issue-oriented talk show.
Medgar Wiley Evers is being honored posthumously. He led the fight against segregation in Mississippi after fighting for his country in World War II. He was murdered at age 37 in 1963.
Al Gore. The former vice president won the popular vote in the 2000 presidential election, but conceded the presidency to George W. Bush after a weeks-long recount battle in Florida. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 for his climate change work.
Clarence B. Jones, a renowned civil rights activist and lawyer who helped draft Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech.
John Kerry, who was Secretary of State for President Barack Obama and the Special Presidential Envoy for Climate under Mr. Biden. He earned a Silver Star and Bronze Star for his actions during combat in the Vietnam War.
Frank R. Lautenberg is being honored posthumously. The five-term senator from New Jersey is remembered for his work on environmental protection and consumer safety.
Katie Ledecky has won seven Olympic gold medals and 21 world championship gold medals, making her the most decorated female swimmer in history.
Ellen Ochoa, the first Hispanic woman in space and the second female director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center. She has flown in space four times.
Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California made history in 2007 when she was elected the first woman to serve as speaker of the House. She made history again in 2019 when she was reelected to the position.
Jane Rigby, the chief scientist of the James Webb Space Telescope, the most powerful telescope ever built.
Teresa Romero, president of the United Farm Workers and the first Latina to become president of a national union in the United States.
Judy Shepard, co-founder of the Matthew Shepard Foundation, an organization created in honor of her gay son who was brutally murdered.
James Francis Thorpe is being honored posthumously. He was the first Native American to win an Olympic gold medal.
Michelle Yeoh. The actress last year won the Academy Award for best actress for her role in “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” becoming the first Asian to win the category.
Caitlin Yilek is a politics reporter at cbsnews.com and is based in Washington, D.C. She previously worked for the Washington Examiner and The Hill, and was a member of the 2022 Paul Miller Washington Reporting Fellowship with the National Press Foundation.
Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal in All of Us Strangers. Photo by Parisa Taghizadeh, Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures
From a major Oscar winner to one of this year’s biggest awards snubs, this week is filled with some recent quality content. Plus, a fun new spin-off of The Good Wife, FX’s newest blockbuster series, and some animated fun are all premiering.
What to watch on Netflix
Everything Everywhere All at Once
With the Oscars now less than a month away, why not refresh your awards season memory by watching last year’s undeniable winner? Everything Everywhere All at Once all but swept the season, taking home seven Oscars (including Best Picture). In this genre-bending exercise in action and absurdism, Michelle Yeoh stars as Evelyn, a middle-aged Chinese immigrant who’s struggling to hold her life together: her business is getting audited by the IRS (represented by Jamie Lee Curtis), her husband (Ke Huy Quan) feels like their marriage is a mess, and her daughter (Stephanie Hsu) is tired of her mom not accepting her. Everything Everywhere All at Oncestreams Friday, February 23rd. Read Observer’s review.
The Tourist
A British export recently picked up by Netflix, The Tourist is a thrilling ride. Jamie Dornan stars as a man who, in Season 1, woke up alone and amnesiac in the Australian Outback. With a bevy of people out to get him, he had to act fast to try to piece together his true identity. Now, in Season 2, Dornan’s Elliot has an idea of who he is, and it’s not pretty. He ventures back to his native Ireland with Constable Helen Chambers (Danielle Macdonald), where plenty of surprises await. Season 2 of The Touristpremieres Thursday, February 29th.
What to watch on Hulu
All of Us Strangers
A moving, heartbreaking, devastatingly relatable drama, All of Us Strangers takes a fantastical conceit and makes it into one of last year’s most human films. Andrew Scott stars as a lonely writer, dealing with unresolved guilt from his parents’ sudden passing several decades ago. But after a chance encounter with one of his apartment block’s few other residents (Paul Mescal), he ventures to his childhood home and finds his parents, exactly as they were all those years earlier. It’s a difficult needle to thread, but writer-director Andrew Haigh does it with a deep sense of sympathy. All of Us Strangerspremiered Thursday, February 22nd. Read Observer’s review.
Shōgun
Based on the novel of the same name, Shōgun is a new historical epic on FX. The series take place in feudal Japan, where three people’s paths intertwine. First, there’s the shipwrecked English sailor, John Blackstone (Cosmo Jarvis); second, there’s Lord Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada), who’s contending with his keen political rivals; lastly, there’s the Lady Moriko (Anna Sawai), whose necessary skills belie her mysterious past. It’s a sprawling drama filled with political intrigue, richly realized medieval battles, and fascinating characters, all coming together to make a spectacle of a show. Shōgunwill be available to stream Tuesday, February 27th.
What to watch on Amazon Prime
The Second Best Hospital in the Galaxy
Following Hazbin Hotel, Amazon is looking to further bulk up its adult animated slate with The Second Best Hospital in the Galaxy. The series follows Dr. Sleech (Stephanie Hsu) and Dr. Klak (Keke Palmer), a pair of brilliant besties with expertise in all sorts of intergalactic injuries and illnesses. But when a new patient presents a new possibility to cure a universal ill, they decide to take the opportunity—even if they may lose their lives (or their licenses) in the process. The rest of the talented voice cast includes Kieran Culkin, Maya Rudolph, Natasha Lyonne, and Sam Smith. The Second Best Hospital in the Galaxypremieres Friday, February 23rd.
The Green Knight
An Arthurian legend stunningly brought to life by filmmaker David Lowery, A24’s The Green Knight stars Dev Patel as Gawain. Taking cues from the 14th century poem, the film follows Gawain as he strikes down the mystical Green Knight for glory—in exchange for an equal blow bestowed by the knight the following year. It’s a medieval fantasy movie that feels decidedly out of place in the ‘20s, but that’s a good thing. The supporting cast of Alicia Vikander, Joel Edgerton, Barry Keoghan, and Sarita Choudhury help instill things with dread and mystery in equal measure, and Patel makes for quite the convincing knight. The Green Knightstreams until Thursday, February 29th. Read Observer’s review.
What to watch on Paramount+
Elsbeth
The Good Wife has already spawned a successful spin-off in The Good Fight, and now Elsbeth is ready to join the proceedings. Carrie Preston returns as fan-favorite Elsbeth Tascioni, the brilliant but unusual attorney. This new series sees her uprooting her successful Chicago career and bringing her unique talents to New York, where she works with NYPD Captain Wagner (Wendell Pierce) and Officer Blanke (Carra Patterson) to solve a litany of legal cases. For a character that’s existed in the background of shows for over a decade, it’s sure to be an interesting adventure for Elsbeth. Elsbethwill be available to stream starting Thursday, February 29th.
What to Watchis a regular endorsement of movies and TV worth your streaming time.
When you think of the best animation studios in Hollywood, your mind likely does not go straight to Paramount Animation. Ever since the Oscar-nominated Anomalisa, this studio has found itself languishing in box office failure with Monster Trucks, Sherlock Gnomes, and Wonder Park. It’s no wonder their latest films have gone either direct to VOD or streaming on Paramount+. The Tiger’s Apprentice is the latest in the studio’s feeble attempts to make a strong impression on the genre, with wonderful intentions behind this film that get lost in the execution.
Based on Laurence Yep’s 2023 novel, this movie follows Tom Lee (Brandon Soo Hoo), a Chinese-American boy who must protect a phoenix egg. As an Asian-American person, it’s always great to see this culture represented onscreen. The protagonist looks and dresses like me. There’s a lot about this movie that I should have loved, but The Tiger’s Apprentice falters due to how familiar it feels. It’s an amalgamation of every storyline and character trope that you’ve seen in other films, with nothing unique about it besides how it explores Chinese culture. Although it’s fun to showcase Chinese people through the lens of a superhero film, there isn’t enough here to distinguish it from what you’ve seen.
There’s a lot here that feels like the most simple, traditional execution of a story. An early scene features Tom getting roughed up by a bully in school when he suddenly uses a superpower to fend him off. Soon after, he hangs out with a girl he might have a crush on. If any of this sounds familiar, it’s because you already saw it in the 2002 Spider-Man movie with Tobey Maguire. The storyline afterward surrounds Tom being given an object of supreme magical power and needing to protect it from the villains who are after it. If this sounds familiar, it’s because you’ve seen it in tons of movies, including last year’s Blue Beetle.
Soon enough, Tom finds himself on an adventure with a more experienced mentor, Mr. Hu (Henry Golding). If this sounds familiar, it’s because you’ve seen it in Star Wars, The Matrix, and in perhaps the most accurate comparison, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. They butt heads, exchange some banter, and eventually form a bond. This is the type of movie that does everything you expect but with much less of the quality. Part of that is the fact that this film is a mere 83 minutes long, including credits. When you have a film that goes by that fast, you’re basically just hopping from story beat to action sequence to story beat without slowing down to breathe.
That prevents the characters from feeling as if they have complete journeys. The so-called bond that forms between Tom and Hu does not land, which is an issue because there are story beats that ask you to really care about these two. Unfortunately, they are no Miles Morales and Peter B. Parker. Furthermore, Tom’s relationship with a possible love interest never gets the treatment it deserves, with that storyline also feeling rushed and unsatisfactory. We don’t really see their relationship grow and evolve in a meaningful way either because the movie is breezing by.
Fortunately, there are a few cultural details here that are fun to see. From the characters drinking boba together to the fights, which feel inspired by both modern superhero fare and classic wuxia. There are bits of Mandarin all over this movie, and one moment that resonated with me was when the more fluent speakers jokingly corrected Tom’s pronunciation of a certain word. The stakes in The Tiger’s Apprentice feel high but vague. Before you know it, we’re in our big final battle, and it’s never a boring movie. This film can be entertaining often, but the comedy isn’t as strong as it should have been, and the drama falls short as well. There are moments that are supposed to be crowd-pleasing that end up cringe-worthy instead. To add salt to the wound, some of the voice performances can be a bit flat.
But The Tiger’s Apprentice offers a stacked cast. We have Oscar-winner Michelle Yeoh as Loo. She really commits to her villainous role here. Throw in Lucy Liu, Henry Golding, Brandon Soo Hoo, Golden Globe winner Sandra Oh, Golden Globe failure Jo Koy, Sherry Cola from last year’s Joy Ride, Leah Lewis from last year’s Elemental, Greta Lee from last year’s Past Lives, and more. It seems like the only Asians missing from this cast are Awkwafina and Randall Park. Most of the performances in this ensemble are fine, but there isn’t always much on the page. The film introduces the idea of having a group of characters who exist as the 12 zodiac animals. It’s not dissimilar to the Spider-People from the Spider-Verse series, but it doesn’t work as well here because the characters generally don’t feel distinct, nor are they particularly funny.
All in all, The Tiger’s Apprentice is a predictable movie that never packs the punch it should have, even if it offers middling entertainment in its animated superhero action sequences.
SCORE: 5/10
As ComingSoon’s review policy explains, a score of 5 equates to “Mediocre.” The positives and negatives wind up negating each other, making it a wash.
Disclosure: ComingSoon received a screener for our The Tiger’s Apprentice review.
Even in animated form, as a cartoon tiger, Henry Golding is handsome. It’s an incarnation that figures prominently in the new film based on Laurence Yep’s best-selling 2003 fantasy novel, the first of a trilogy. Featuring an array of notable Asian and Asian-American talents providing the voiceover work, The Tiger’s Apprentice is a fast-paced adventure that should prove highly engaging for its younger target audience when it premieres on Paramount+.
The title refers to the central character, Chinese-American teenager Tom Lee (an appealing Brandon Soo Hoo), who lives with his grandmother in San Francisco. We immediately know that Tom is not an ordinary teenager from the pre-credits prologue, set 15 years earlier in Hong Kong, when he and his grandmother are suddenly chased by otherworldly creatures. “They found us!” she cries in alarm, before being rescued in the nick of time by similarly strange beings.
The Tiger’s Apprenctice
The Bottom Line
A game cast and brisk pacing work their spell.
Release date: Friday, Feb. 2 Cast: Henry Golding, Brandon Soo Hoo, Lucy Liu, Sandra Oh, Michele Yeoh, Bowen Yang, Leah Lewis, Kheng Hua Tan, Sherry Cola, Deborah S. Craig, Jo Koy, Greta Lee, Diana Lee Inosanto, Patrick Gallagher, Poppy Liu Director: Raman Hui Co-directors: Yong Duk Jhun, Paul Watling Screenwriters: David Magee, Christopher Yost
Rated PG,
1 hour 24 minutes
Cut to the present day, when Tom is mercilessly bullied at school thanks to his grandmother’s proclivity for adorning their house, both inside and out, with elaborate charms and amulets that make it resemble a temple. But Tom is more than capable of defending himself, as demonstrated by his sudden revealing of strange powers that send his tormentor flying to the ceiling.
Upon returning home, Tom discovers a visitor in the form of Mr. Hu (Golding), who seems to go way back with his grandmother. Eons, in fact, since it’s revealed that she’s part of a long line of Guardians of the Phoenix, whose task it is to prevent the magical talisman from falling into evil hands. Evil hands such as those belonging to Loo (Michelle Yeoh), who suddenly shows up to steal the Phoenix, in the process killing Tom’s grandmother. Tom is rescued by Mr. Hu, who miraculously transforms into a tiger to do battle.
As you might have already figured out from the title, Tom becomes Hu’s apprentice, teaming up with a dozen warriors assuming the form of animals from the Chinese zodiac — including the dragon Mistral (Sandra Oh), Dog (Patrick Gallagher, Big Sky) and Horse (Diana Lee Inosanto) — to take on Loo and her evil minions.
While the convoluted fantasy elements may make some older viewers’ eyes glaze over, the film fortunately features generous doses of welcome irreverent humor, as when the reluctant Tom informs Hu, “I don’t know what you’re thinking with all this apprentice stuff, but I’m not waxing cars.” The interactions among the Zodiac animal characters are frequently amusing, and the musical accompaniment for the climactic sequence makes fun use of, what else, “Eye of the Tiger.”
The powerhouse voice cast is another plus; besides the aforementioned, it includes Lucy Liu, Bowen Yang, comedian Jo Koy and Greta Lee (Past Lives), among others. Director Raman Hui, making his feature debut, keeps the proceedings moving at a suitably brisk pace, with the colorful CGI animation providing one diverting image after another. The Tiger’s Apprentice doesn’t really have the heft for the big screen, for which it was originally intended, but it’s easy to imagine it spawning sequels or perhaps a streaming series.
Full credits
Production: Paramount+, Paramount Animation Distributor: Paramount Animation, Jane Startz Productions Cast: Henry Golding, Brandon Soo Hoo, Lucy Liu, Sandra Oh, Michele Yeoh, Bowen Yang, Leah Lewis, Kheng Hua Tan, Sherry Cola, Deborah S. Craig, Jo Koy, Greta Lee, Diana Lee Inosanto, Patrick Gallagher, Poppy Liu Director: Raman Hui Co-directors: Yong Duk Jhun, Paul Watling Screenwriters: David Magee, Christopher Yost Producers: Jane Startz, Sandra Rabins, Bob Persichetti Executive producers: Maryann Garger, Kane Lee, Carlos Baena Production designer: Christophe Lautrette Editor: James Palumbo Composer: Steve Jablonsky Casting: Monika Mikkelson
Rated PG,
1 hour 24 minutes
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Per ComicBook.com, Paramount+ has announced the production start date for its upcoming Star Trek: Section 31, which will be led by Oscar winner Michelle Yeoh. Described as an original movie event, the film is now expected to begin filming on January 29, 2024 in Toronto. It will reportedly last around the end of March.
What to expect in Star Trek: Section 31?
Star Trek: Section 31 will be directed and executive produced by Olatunde Osunsanmi from a screenplay written by Craig Sweeny. The Everything Everywhere All at Once will be reprising her role as Emperor Philippa Georgiou, who fans last saw during the third season of Star Trek: Discovery.
“In Paramount+ movie event, Emperor Philippa Georgiou joins a secret division of Starfleet tasked with protecting the United Federation of Planets and faces the sins of her past,” reads the synopsis.
It is executive produced by Yeoh, Sweeny, Alex Kurtzman, Aaron Baiers, Rod Rodenberry, Trevor Roth, Frank Siracusa, and John Weber. It is produced by CBS Studios in association with Secret Hideout and Roddenberry Entertainment.
Everything Everywhere All at Oncewas met with near-universal acclaim when it came out in 2022. Thanks to its mix of oddball humor, explosively beautiful visuals, and deep tenderness, EEAAO has secured its status as a modern classic. But will your kids enjoy it? Here’s our guide for parents.
EEAAO stars Michelle Yeoh as Evelyn, a laundromat owner who finds out that in another timeline, she’s a scientist who discovered multiversal travel. Aided by her husband Waymond (Ke Huy Quan), Evelyn is tasked with saving reality from a diabolical villain—and trying to mend her fractured relationship with her daughter Joy (Stephanie Hsu) along the way.
What kind of content does Everything Everywhere All at Once contain?
EEAAO contains a great deal of comic violence, with martial arts choreography accompanied by colorful visual effects. There’s some blood, but no extremely graphic injuries or gore. One scene, which features the strategic deployment of paper cuts, might make you squirm in your seat.
EEAAO also contains some references to sexuality, including sexual humor. In one scene, a character uses a phallic-looking trophy as a butt plug. That scene, along with a montage of different realities that include characters making love, contains partial nudity.
What is Everything Everywhere All at Once rated, and is it appropriate for kids?
Everything Everywhere All at Once is rated R for the violence and sexual material mentioned above, plus some swear words.
However, EEAAO may still be a great movie to watch with your teens. The film delivers a strong message of maternal love and acceptance, as Evelyn learns to accept Joy as she is. The family bond between Evelyn, Joy, Waymond, and Evelyn’s father Gong Gong (James Hong) is moving and heartwarming. The film is also visually beautiful, with a smart, mind-bending plot. Overall, it’s excellent storytelling, and you and your family will have plenty to mull over afterwards.
Gene Luen Yang remembers feeling pumped in 2007 when Hollywood came calling about his trailblazing graphic novel “American Born Chinese.” But that excitement turned into exasperation when it became clear the interested party completely missed the point of the book.
“It came out that the reason why they were interested is because the Beijing Olympics were coming up in 2008. And they wanted some property that had the word China or Chinese in it,” Yang said in a recent interview. “Every now and then there would be an inquiry. But I really think the world needed to change in order for there to be an appetite for a story about an Asian American protagonist.”
Change has finally come. After 17 years, the cartoonist is seeing his American dream play out.
“American Born Chinese” debuts on Disney+ on Wednesday with a mostly Asian cast that now includes two new Oscar winners — Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan. The show, which also boasts Asian American showrunners, centers on high school soccer player Jin Wang (Ben Wang) growing up amid pressure to reconcile his American and Chinese sides. Mixing elements of teen drama, fantasy and fight sequences, the show, like the book, jumps between Jin’s storyline and one involving the Monkey King, an iconic character in Chinese folklore. The story threads eventually intertwine.
“It feels like a very surreal moment to have this book that I did as Xerox copies that I would put together at my local Kinko’s eventually become a show on Disney+,” Yang said.
The first two episodes have been screened around the country from San Francisco to New York City to the White House, partly to celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. The predominantly Asian American audiences have praised the show’s heartfelt and at times humorous portrayal of an Asian American family
“‘American Born Chinese,’ you can’t do it in one long movie,” said Yeoh, who’s proud of how the series turned out. “There’s so many different aspects of it that need to be shown, it needs that space and time on screen.”
Yeoh, who made history as the first Asian to win her Oscar category for “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” plays Guanyin, the goddess of mercy. She was invited to the project by her “Shang-Chi and the Legends of the Ten Rings” director, Destin Daniel Cretton, an executive producer.
In the show, Yeoh gets to don a sweeping gown and headdress as well as sweats and a baseball cap. Being a revered Chinese folklore figure, many people already have an image of Guanyin. The Malaysia-born Yeoh didn’t dwell on the pressure of playing someone larger than life.
“What I do think about is how we have to be very respectful of this goddess of mercy because she represents so many things to so many followers all around the world,” Yeoh said. “We gave her the gravitas the she deserved and the respect to show you what we love about her.”
Yeoh and Quan had already wrapped up “Everything Everywhere All At Once,” when they started filming “American Born Chinese.” Castmates Stephanie Hsu and James Hong also guest-star in an episode. The best picture winner premiered in the middle of production and then “we watched the whole world change,” executive producer Kelvin Yu said.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, Wang is the star after doing mostly one-episode guest spots. He still isn’t quite used to seeing himself on posters. Having grown up seeing little on-screen Asian representation, it’s a novel concept that he could be an example for a teenage Asian American boy today.
“It’s very surreal and strange,” Wang said. “I still can’t believe that it’s me. I just feel like it’s someone who looks like me, which is double weird. It’s like seeing your doppelgänger.”
The television adaptation comes in the wake of other teen shows with an Asian American lens. Disney+ also has “Ms. Marvel” featuring a Muslim American female superhero. Jenny Han’s two book series, “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before” and “The Summer I Turned Pretty,” have been hits for Netflix and Amazon Prime, respectively. The fourth and final season of “Never Have I Ever,” about an Indian American high schooler, drops in June.
“We’re standing on the shoulders of those kinds of things, going back to ‘Joy Luck Club’ … all the way up to ‘Fresh Off the Boat’ and shows like ‘Never Have I Ever,’” Yu said. “We’ll take all that momentum. We’ll take all that sort of education for an audience to get used to faces like ours and we’ll embrace it and move forward.”
The graphic novel was landmark literature for Asian American millennials. Reviews lauded it as a fresh take on adolescence, bi-cultural identity and racism. It won several accolades and was a National Book Awards finalist.
For many young Chinese American readers, it was the first time they had seen themselves and the Monkey King — a legend they likely heard about from their parents — in that genre. The character first appeared in the epic 16th century Chinese novel, “Journey to the West.” The tome has been adapted several times including a memorable 1980s TV series created by China Central Television (CCTV). The super-powered simian is well-known across Asia like Batman or Spider-Man, according to Yu.
Daniel Wu, who grew up in California but began his acting career in Hong Kong, plays the Monkey King. This project brings him full circle from when he dealt with his own “American-born Chinese” issues.
“Even though I was warmly accepted by the audiences there, I always felt like slightly being an outsider because I was American,” Wu said. “Because we knew we were trying to tell Gene’s story of what it’s like to be of both sides, there was this kind of special energy that was on set. We knew that we were trying to tell authentically what our story was.”
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Terry Tang is a member of The Associated Press’ Race and Ethnicity team. Follow her on Twitter at https://twitter.com/ttangAP
If anyone is in a position to reflect on how Hollywood has changed when it comes to opportunities for women, it’s Michelle Yeoh. The Oscar-winning star of Everything Everywhere All At Once got to do just that Sunday night in Cannes when she was honored with Kering’s Women in Motion Award. “I have watched the currents throughout my entire career, and I am watching the tides turn now,” Yeoh said.
Yeoh, who also won a Golden Globe and SAG Award this year, was given the Women in Motion Award in front of seated guests who included Leonardo DiCaprio, Isabelle Hupert, Rebel Wilson, Alfonso Cuaron, Salma Hayek, jury president Ruben Östlund, jury members Paul Dano and Brie Larson, President of the Festival de Cannes Iris Knobloch, and Director of the Festival de Cannes Thierry Frémaux. The elegant dining experience set below hundreds of twinkling lights on a hilltop above Cannes is an annual celebration of the accomplishments of women in culture and the arts.
“For too long we as women have been left out of rooms and conversations. We have been told the door is closed to us,” she said. “Well, Virginia Woolf once said, ‘there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind.’ Our ideas are endless. Our passion is infinite. And we have come to knock that door down.”
Yeoh went on to mention several of her most iconic characters “who are strong, capable and unafraid to stand up for themselves,” including Wai Lin from Tomorrow Never Dies, Yu Shu Lien from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and Evelyn Wang from Everything Everywhere All at Once. “They have taught me so many lessons about how I would like to move through the world: with integrity, with perseverance and above all with fierce compassion,” she said.
Yeoh, who has been filming the Wicked movie adaptation in London, attended the world premiere of Firebrand earlier that evening wearing a show-stopping green Balenciaga gown. That night, she wrapped up her acceptance speech — one of so many she’s given over the past year and a half — by looking at what lies ahead when it comes to opportunities for women in film. “There is still work to do. We have a long way to go before we can say we are on equal footing.” she said. “So what I would like to say is keep fighting, keep pushing, keep telling your stories. Your voices are important and your vision is vital.”
After winning a best actress Oscar for her role in “Everything Everywhere All At Once” last month, Yeoh is preparing to step back into the Star Trek universe to reprise her role as Emperor Philippa Georgiou in the new “Star Trek: Section 31” movie.
Yeoh was first introduced as the character in 2017, when the Emmy-winning “Star Trek: Discovery” TV series debuted on Paramount+.
Paramount+ and CBS Studios announced the news on Tuesday. Yeoh will also serve as an executive producer on the project.
Yeoh said in a press release that she is “beyond thrilled” to reprise her role in the “Section 31” movie, which she says “has been near and dear to my heart since I began the journey of playing Philippa all the way back when this new golden age of ‘Star Trek’ launched.”
“To see her finally get her moment is a dream come true in a year that’s shown me the incredible power of never giving up on your dreams. We can’t wait to share what’s in store for you, and until then: live long and prosper (unless Emperor Georgiou decrees otherwise),” she continued.
It truly has been a year of dreams coming true for Yeoh, who made history as the first woman of Asian descent to win an Oscar in the best actress category in March. “Everything Everywhere All At Once” took home seven Oscars that night, including Yeoh’s big win and the top prize for best picture.
“Section 31” will showcase Yeoh’s character as she joins a secret division of Starfleet and is “tasked with protecting the United Federation of Planets and faces the sins of her past,” according to an official synopsis.
“Star Trek: Section 31” will begin production later this year.
Michelle Yeoh sits down with Seth Doane to discuss her film “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” Then, Faith Salie travels to Original Murdick’s Fudge in Michigan to learn about the history of fudge. “Here Comes the Sun” is a closer look at some of the people, places and things we bring you every week on “CBS Sunday Morning.”
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Winning or being nominated for an Oscar can open all kinds of doors in Hollywood, but usually the buzz around an actor or filmmaker begins long before Oscar night. That’s why several of this year’s Oscar winners, like Ke Huy Quan and Brendan Fraser, already have buzzy projects debuting in the next few months, or why nominees like Hong Chau and Brian Tyree Henry are busier than ever. The Oscar class of 2023 will be hard to miss in the year ahead—here’s where to find them.
Angela Bassett
The Wakanda Forever star will appear in Netflix’s Damsel, which was filmed last year. Starring Millie Bobby Brown, the fantasy film centers on a damsel who marries a handsome prince only to discover it was all a trap. She’s also voicing a role in Laika’s upcoming film, Wildwood. The sixth season of her Fox series, 9-1-1, began airing in September but has yet to be renewed or canceled for the seventh season. —Rebecca Ford
Cate Blanchett
When I spoke to Blanchett for Vanity Fair’s Awards Insider cover story just months ago, she told me, “I think it’s time to be quiet,” adding she’d just said no to a couple of things and is taking a much-needed break after the consuming experience of making Tár. But she’d already gotten a few juicy parts in the can, including a lead in Alfonso Cuarón’s upcoming Apple TV+ thriller, Disclaimer, opposite Kevin Kline, and parts in the studio comedy Borderlands (also featuring fellow 2023 Oscar nominee Jamie Lee Curtis) and the Australian drama The New Boy. Plenty more Cate to enjoy for now. —David Canfield
Austin Butler
His Apple TV+ series, Masters of the Air, which reunites him with his Elvis costar Tom Hanks, won’t premiere in time for this year’s Emmy season, but will likely be out sometime this year. The best-actor nominee may be able to lay low for a bit, but Dune: Part Two, in which he plays the villainous Feyd-Rautha, will arrive in theaters November 3, preceded by a huge press tour—but maybe less chatter about his voice this time. —Katey Rich
Hong Chau
Between The Menu, The Whale, and the Cannes premiere Showing Up (hitting US theaters next month), best-supporting-actress nominee Chau had a huge 2022. When I interviewed her last fall, she didn’t seem too concerned about keeping up the pace, though, after such a breakthrough year. Still, one of the most in-demand actors right now can’t stay out of the limelight entirely: She’s part of the massively starry company for Wes Anderson’s summer release, Asteroid City, as well as the second of Yorgos Lanthimos’s two completed projects—And, led by Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons. —D.C.
Ana de Armas
The rom-com/thriller Ghosted, which reunites the best-actress nominee with her Knives Out costar Chris Evans, debuts April 21. She’s also recently been filming Ballerina, a John Wick spin-off in which she plays a young assassin bent on revenge. Keanu Reeves recently confirmed he’ll have a cameo appearance in the film, which doesn’t have a release date yet. —K.R.
Kerry Condon
The Banshees actor will appear in the thriller In the Land of Saints and Sinners which also stars Liam Neeson as a newly retired assassin. Netflix has the rights to the film, which is in postproduction. She’ll next film horror thriller Night Swim, in which she’ll star opposite Wyatt Russell. The Universal film is centered on a hidden source of terror found in a backyard swimming pool. —R.F.
Jamie Lee Curtis
The newly minted best-supporting-actress Oscar winner has a role in the aforementioned video game adaptation Borderlands, costarring Cate Blanchett and written by The Last of Us’s Craig Mazin. She’s also in the starry ensemble of Disney’s summer adventure, Haunted Mansion, a new adaptation of the theme park ride that surely has 2023’s best credit block: “with Jamie Lee Curtis and Jared Leto as the Hatbox Ghost.” —K.R.
The Daniels (Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert)
The mega-winners of Oscar night, who took home prizes for original screenplay, directing, and best picture, haven’t announced what they’ll work on next when it comes to film, but they are attached to a TV project, a half hour comedy called Mason for A24 and Showtime. The pair will direct and executive produce, and Minari star Steven Yeun is also attached. The duo signed two notable first-look deals: with A24 for TV and with Universal for film. We’ll wait with bated breath to see where this wild ride takes them next. —R.F.
Colin Farrell
Farrell is currently shooting the HBO Max series The Penguin in New York in which he plays the infamous Batman villain. He previously played the role in the 2022 film The Batman. He’s not officially attached to any other films, but recently told Vanity Fair he hopes to work with his After Yang director Kogonada again soon, and is also attached to a film that will be directed by Andrew Haigh about Norman Mailer and Jack Henry Abbott. —R.F.
Todd Field
The closest thing we’ll probably ever get to a Tár sequel, the short film The Fundraiser, played during a special event at the Berlin Film Festival and may very well never be seen again. Given that there were 16 years between Tár and Field’s previous feature, Little Children, we’re not assuming we’ll hear anything soon—though if a best-director and best-picture nomination aren’t enough to get funding for whatever he wants to do next, then truly, what are we doing here? —K.R.
Brendan Fraser
The best-actor Oscar winner will be back very soon with a role in Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, which many are eyeing for a Cannes premiere in May. He’s also got a role opposite Peter Dinklage and Josh Brolin in Brothers, a comedy from Palm Springs director Max Barbakow. And given how often the idea of a fourth Mummy movie came up on his press tour for The Whale, we wouldn’t rule out that possibility, either. —K.R.
Brendan Gleeson
The Banshees star is busy filming Joker: Folie à Deux, the Warner Bros. Joker movie starring Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga. His character is being kept under wraps, as is much about the film, but Gleeson has said he joined the project because he was “in awe” of Phoenix’s performance. —R.F.
Brian Tyree Henry
Henry had already made the jump to big movies by the time his lauded turn in Causeway came along—on the docket, he’ll be in another Godzilla vs. Kong movie currently filming, provide a voice on the next Spider-Verse animated film, and appear in Rachel Morrison’s biopic Flint Strong. Before all that, though, we’ll get the Emmy-nominated Atlanta star in another intriguing TV role, leading Tom Rob Smith’s FX thriller, Class of ’09, bowing on Hulu this May, just in time for Emmy eligibility. —D.C.
Judd Hirsch
The 88-year-old Fabelmans star made Oscar history with the 41-year gap between his first and second nominations, both for best supporting actor. He’s currently got the lead role in the indie comedy iMordecai, in theaters now and headed to VOD in April, and he’s part of the large ensemble on the Apple TV+ series Extrapolations, which debuted March 17. He’s also got a key but memorable role in the upcoming Showing Up with his Fabelmans costar Michelle Williams. Is it possible the oldest of this year’s acting nominees is also the busiest? —K.R.
Stephanie Hsu
Hsu just returned to the SXSW film festival in Austin for the premiere of her next film, Joy Ride, a raunchy comedy that Lionsgate will release this summer. She also is reuniting with her Everything Everywhere All at Once costars Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan for Disney+’s new action-comedy series American Born Chinese, which hits the streamer in May. She will also appear in The Fall Guy, Universal’s movie adaptation of the 1980s adventure TV series that will star Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt. In it, she’ll play an assistant to a movie star, who is being played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson. —R.F.
Barry Keoghan
Before his Banshees of Inisherin performance captured the hearts of Oscar voters (and much of Twitter), Keoghan made a little cameo in a little movie called The Batman as a little character called the Joker. Nothing is confirmed yet, but his entrance into that cinematic universe is expected to only mark the beginning of his tenure. In the meantime, he’s just been cast opposite Paul Mescal in the Gladiator sequel (more on that shortly), and he also replaced Mescal in the Mubi-backed Bring Them Down. More immediately, he’s leading Emerald Fennell’s upcoming Promising Young Woman follow-up Saltburn, a surefire end-of-year play. “It’s going to be fecking amazing,” Keoghan told me last year on Little Gold Men. And does a “fecking” ever lie? —D.C.
Martin McDonagh
Martin McDonagh may have once referred to himself as the “laziest filmmaker in the world,” but he’s proven pretty prolific of late, directing seven (!) actors to Oscar noms in five years and earning a handful himself during that time period. No doubts at this stage that most of Hollywood wants to work with him. No details on what’s next for the Banshees of Inisherin writer-director; for now, his Olivier-winning play Hangmen just made its world premiere in his beloved Ireland. —D.C.
Paul Mescal
If a breakout star came out of this year’s nominations—and with so many first-time nominees, there were a lot of candidates—best-actor nominee Mescal may have emerged as the biggest choice of all. He’s caught the eye of Ridley Scott and Richard Linklater—he’s leading both of their upcoming films, though the latter’s will be over a decade in the making when all is said and done—and already with buzzy, awards-season-bound projects directed by the likes of Andrew Haigh and Garth Davis locked in and likely set to debut later this year. “Gladiator was one of my favorite films growing up. It’s beyond strange,” Mescal told me of starring in Scott’s sequel. “This all feels more dumbfounding than the Oscar nomination to be honest.” —D.C.
Bill Nighy
The Living star and best-actor nominee spent part of 2022 filming Role Play, a thriller starring Kaley Cuoco, and he lent his voice to the animated feature Dragonkeeper, a Spanish and Chinese coproduction set to debut in theaters and eventually on Hulu in the United States. If that seems like a thin slate for a usually very occupied actor, maybe his Proust Questionnaire for Vanity Fair contains the answer; asked about his current state of mind, Nighy replied, “Easy, baby.” —K.R.
Ruben Östlund
The Swedish director has been very vocal about his next film, The Entertainment System Is Down. He says he’s currently working on the script, which will center on a group of passengers aboard a plane that has lost its entertainment-system capabilities. “When iPads and phones start slowly charging out, these modern human beings have to deal with being bored,” he told Vanity Fair. —R.F.
Sarah Polley
Awards season is a lot. If your film premieres at a fall festival—as Polley’s Women Talking did—you basically sign up for a six-month marathon of cross-continental campaigning, split between the movie’s release, two phases of Oscar voting, and the many voter-outreach efforts squished in between. Polley was so fascinated by what she observed on the trail that she’s decided it’ll be the subject of her next movie—and having observed her a bit over the past year, I personally can’t wait to see what spin she puts on it. The news has been leaking rather quietly, but she confirmed her plans to me on Oscar Sunday, and well, winning an Oscar ups your cachet a bit. Let’s hope she goes all in. —D.C.
Ke Huy Quan
Quan has been open about his fears that his best-supporting-Oscar win could be the end of his comeback story: “I had a conversation with my agent,” he told Variety. “I’m so worried that this is only a one-time thing.” For audiences, however, Quan will be back very soon: He reunites with his Everything Everywhere All at Once costar Michelle Yeoh in the Disney+ series American Born Chinese, debuting May 24, and will return to Disney+ for the second season of the Marvel series Loki. He also has a role opposite Millie Bobby Brown and Chris Pratt in The Electric State, a Netflix adventure directed by Joe and Anthony Russo, who were producers on Everything Everywhere. As Variety wrote, ominously, the day after the Oscars, “as of today, there are no other offers on the table.” But it seems reasonable to hope that will change soon. —K.R.
Andrea Riseborough
She made To Leslie in anonymity and even experienced that movie’s release without much notoriety—but after the shock and controversy of her best-actress nomination, it’ll be interesting to see how the chameleonic British star navigates her career going forward. As has been the case for her entire life in film, things look very different from one screen project to the next: There’s an American thriller called Geechee that she’s leading, and two very different Kate Winslet projects she’s got juicy smaller roles in: the dramatic Lee Miller biopic helmed by Ellen Kuras, and the satirical HBO limited series The Palace, coming from the producers of Succession. A little bit of every shade of Andrea, just the way she prefers it. —D.C.
Steven Spielberg
Spielberg is executive producing and developing numerous projects at any time, and his upcoming work includes an EP credit on Apple TV+’s series Masters of the Air, which will star Austin Butler, and a documentary about John Williams. He’s also a producer on the new The Color Purple film and Bradley Cooper’s Maestro coming out later this year. As for what he might direct? That’s more up in the air. A year ago, he was attached to a new movie based on the Steve McQueen character Frank Bullitt that had Cooper attached, but there hasn’t been any recent news on this project. —R.F.
Michelle Williams
As you may have pieced together at this point in the list, Kelly Reichardt’s upcoming Showing Up, starring Williams—her fourth collaboration with Reichardt—has a true bonanza of 2023 Oscar nominees, with delectable supporting turns from Hong Chau and Judd Hirsch. Williams, who welcomed her third child in the fall, seems to be taking a bit of a break in the wake of the Fabelmans awards push, but based on her career thus far, it won’t be long before she’s busy again. —K.R.
Michelle Yeoh
Yeoh will soon be seen in Disney+’s series American Born Chinese, but we’ll be seeing a lot of the Oscar winner on the big screen very soon as well. She’s starring in Kenneth Branagh’s next Agatha Christie adaptation, A Haunting in Venice, which will also star Tina Fey,Jamie Dornan, and Kelly Reilly and will be released in September. And she’s wrapped work on the next installment in James Cameron’s Avatar franchise, though we don’t know much about her character on the supersecretive franchise. She’s reuniting with her Crazy Rich Asians director Jon M. Chu for Wicked. Currently filming, she’ll star as Madame Morrible in the highly anticipated two-part adaptation for the Broadway musical. —R.F.
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“Everything Everywhere All at Once” took home the top prize and several other award winners made history. Entertainment Tonight’s Kevin Frazier takes a look at the key moments from the 2023 Oscars.
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Everything Everywhere All at Once is the third movie in Oscar history to win three acting Oscars, following 1976’s Network and 1951’s A Streetcar Named Desire. It is the first movie to do so and win best picture. The film fielded the first Asian woman and second woman of color to ever win best actress, in Michelle Yeoh, and the third duo to win best director, in Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan. It won the most Oscars (seven) for a best-picture winner in over a decade, going back to 2008’s Slumdog Millionaire. And it led the charge in an especially unprecedented night for its scrappy studio, A24, which completely swept the big six categories in picture, directing, and all four acting categories (Brendan Fraser rounded that out with his best-actor win for A24’s specialty box-office hit The Whale).
It’s worth zooming out a bit to consider the performance of Everything Everywhere All at Once at Sunday night’s Academy Awards—a dominance of truly historic proportions for this nearly 95-year-old awards show. It wasn’t even that much of a surprise, after the movie achieved similar success with various industry guilds over the past few months. As we discuss in our annual Little Gold Men Oscars postmortem (listen above), this film—with talking rocks and hot dog fingers and multiverses—was the overwhelming industry favorite. Yes, these are very much not your parents’ Oscars. Inside the Dolby Theatre, evidence of just how much has changed, even since Green Book, was, well, everywhere.
But I keep going back to the groups beyond the Oscars. The unions of tens of thousands of film and TV professionals who have often leaned more conservative than the arty Academy, guilds whose sheer size often leads to bland consensus. Organizations for actors, directors, producers, writers, and more resoundingly decided on Everything Everywhere All at Once. The Academy has made great strides to diversify and expand its membership, but if we look back at how this season has evolved, it’s Hollywood as a whole that tells the real story of transformation, and maybe evolution, here. The Oscars merely sealed that envelope.
In its own way, this year’s Oscars felt like a vote for Hollywood’s future. Everything Everywhere All at Once was a box-office phenomenon for A24, grossing over $100 million globally on an indie budget and achieving a full theatrical run, to say nothing of its robust life on digital since the summer. On the campaign trail this season, Guillermo del Torosaid in a conversation moderated by Deadline, “When I see a film like Everything Everywhere All at Once, and I realize how much it is impacting the generation of my kids, and how they embrace it in the same way I embraced The Graduate when I was their age, I love that.” I think many of his peers agreed with that sentiment, that the film signaled a more inclusive, emotionally resonant path for (wild) originality in Hollywood going forward.
Beyond it, rather than a crafts sweep like we saw last year with Dune, the Oscars spread the wealth—more accurately representing what, for most, the year in film looked like. Take the two biggest movies of the year, neither of which went home empty-handed: Top Gun: Maverick won for its roaring sound design, while Avatar: The Way of Water was rewarded for its astonishing visual effects. The last big best-picture nominee, Elvis, was snubbed despite a strong nominations haul—my biggest surprise of the night. That can mostly be attributed to the surging affection for All Quiet on the Western Front, the German war film that played its own unique role this season, organically capturing the hearts of craftspeople as it sat on Netflix’s backburner, while the streamer’s most heavily campaigned contenders fizzled out. At this point, even if an unusual choice—I wouldn’t exactly call All Quiet the most acclaimed or buzziest streaming movie of the year—the Academy cannot and should not ignore streaming, given the sizable chunk of the industry it now represents. (In that sense, last year’s win for CODA felt forward-looking as well.)
The only movie to win an above-the-line award outside of Everything Everywhere and The Whale’s Fraser was Women Talking, for Sarah Polley’s superlative adaptation. Surprisingly, given its tough road on the circuit, the UAR-MGM release was the only indie of a certain prestige class to nab any gold at all on Sunday. I found it particularly fascinating that Polley met such an enthusiastic standing ovation, given the smallness and divisiveness of her movie. Her story in Hollywood, from traumatized child actor to highly regarded filmmaker—challenging the way sets and productions are run—got a real moment, and this felt in its own way like a vote for a brighter Hollywood future, as Polley alluded to in her speech.
Less optimistically, perhaps: The respectful admiration for critically acclaimed box-office duds The Fabelmans, Tár, and The Banshees of Inisherin remained just that—of the 22 nominations between them, not a single win to show for it. The applause was notably tepid for the trio as they kept coming up on nomination rolls, relative to other movies, and you have to wonder about the town’s temperature for this sort of filmmaking right now. Each movie, in this writer’s opinion, is tremendously worthy and exciting. But just as they did with the broadcast itself, the Academy seemed to listen to its critics and try to meet a rapidly changing moviegoing public where it’s at. They could’ve done worse than deliver a historic night to the movie that, in more ways than one, defined American cinema in 2022.
On Sunday, Michelle Yeoh won an Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” making history as the first Asian actress to do so in the show’s 95 years.
In her acceptance speech, the Malaysia-born 60-year-old made a point to call out gendered ageism and encourage those who want to follow in her path.
“For all the little boys and girls who look like me watching tonight, this is a beacon of hope and possibilities,” she said in her acceptance speech. “This is proof that dream big, and dreams do come true. And ladies, don’t let anybody tell you you are ever past your prime. Never give up.”
Throughout this awards season, Yeoh has used her platform to speak up about how she and other Asian actors have faced stereotypes and societal barriers in their careers. In a GQ interview, she called the role of Evelyn in “Everything Everywhere All at Once” “something I’ve been waiting for, for a long time.”
The facts back up how gendered ageism is ever-present in Hollywood. In 2017, USC published a report that found that only two leading characters over 60 were featured in the 25 films nominated for Best Picture over the previous three years — and they were both played by the same white man, Michael Keaton.
When older people were featured in Best Picture-nominated movies, men were playing leaders, while older women, and older people of color in particular, rarely got to wield power on screen, according to the report.
“Occupational prestige is the province of male seniors,” the study stated. “The consistent portrayal of male leaders in film means that audiences across the life span do not see a portrait of authority and achievement that reflects reality by including females and people of color.”
But it’s not just actors who face gendered ageism. Very few of us will ever become Oscar-winners, but unfortunately the harmful societal assumption that women have a fleeting “prime” working age is still alive and well.
Too many women are told they are “past their prime,” in their careers, which is why Yeoh’s encouragement is so important.
Although age discrimination in the workplace has been illegal in the U.S. since 1967, many women still report dealing with it on a regular basis. In fact, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission reported that since 2010, the number of women filing age discrimination charges has surpassed the number of men filing age discrimination charges.
Just last month, CNN anchor Don Lemon got called out for suggesting in a TV segment that because of her age, 51-year-old Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley was not “in her prime,” which he later apologized for.
Cynthia Pong, a feminist career strategist for women of color, said the implicit message that women have a “prime” working age is something her clients and people in her community deal with a lot. For them, it can show up beyond words as a “sense that a door is being shut in [their] face because they are a certain age or they present as a certain age,” she said.
One 2019 report on gendered ageism from the nonprofit Catalyst, whose mission is to promote workplace inclusion for women, found that “in addition to societal biases that older employees are less innovative, adaptive and generally less qualified, older women face marginalization based on ‘lookism,’ gendered youthful beauty standards.”
Pong noted that ageism can be a double-edged sword and can penalize women for either looking too young or too old to be respected and taken seriously. According to a 2021 AARP survey, about 1 in 3 women say they experience age discrimination, and women in the survey who were 50 years or older reported age discrimination at about the same rate as younger women.
Even if gendered ageism hasn’t happened to you in particular, it can affect your career growth. Pong noted that simply witnessing ageism can cause a “chilling effect” in workplaces and make women of color in particular less risk-averse in their job moves.
“They are worried that rug is going to get pulled out from under them as well,” Pong said, noting that a common message she hears is “‘I don’t want to rock the boat.’”
Yeoh’s message to not give up in the face of these daily discouragements is a reminder that it’s critical to staying true to yourself. To individually cope with the societal problem of ageism, “The bottom line is to always make sure that you are clear about what you want to achieve or accomplish in your career if you are [any] woman or woman of color,” Pong said. That way, you can strategize on a plan and connect with people who can help you reach your goals.
In worst-case scenarios, internalizing ageist messages can distract all women from their mission and cause them to give up on their career dreams altogether, Pong said, which is why Yeoh’s encouragement is so important.
“That’s the underlying message of what Michelle Yeoh is saying: ‘Don’t give up and don’t accept this.’ Really, that’s the only way. If we can reach some kind of tipping point where this is no longer as much of a factor, that would ultimately be the goal,” Pong said.
