The Power of Michelle Yeoh: Ballet, Stunts, Stardom! Part 1

 

A couple of years ago, I decided to do a series of books about the first Asian actresses in Hollywood: Anna May Wong, Nancy Kwan, Frances Ngyuen, Lucy Liu and Michelle Yeoh. 

That didn't seem very feasible at the time, so I decided to focus on one actress: Michelle Yeoh. Why? Firstly, she came from Mum's hometown of Ipoh in Malaysia. Second, her late dad and my mum were cousins (how distant I have no idea). The Yeohs practically populated that small mining town. 

In an age where movies were not readily available in Malaysia, I guess the Yeohs had nothing better to do than populate the town. I think both sets of maternal great grandparents had around nine kids each.

When my Dad was Singapore's Commissioner to Hong Kong, my parents would occasionally meet Michelle at social events in Hong Kong (when she was married to her first husband Dickson Poon) but they did not remain in touch after they left Hong Kong.

I've met Michelle about three times in my life, so I can't say I know her but she's acknowledged we're cousins one of the times we met. But by this stage I must admit she would probably claim I'm sort of nutter and wouldn't know me if she saw me again.

From my cousin Michelle. (How many times removed are we? I don't know)

Mum meets Michelle for the first time in over 20 years

Anyway, Michelle had been in show business for 40 years and in Hong Kong and Hollywood, the only actress from SEA to have achieved that feat, and at the time she didn't have a picture book biography on the market, so I called my illustrator Soefara and asked if she would be interested in illustrating the book.

Soefara  jumped at the chance. She was raving about Michelle's new movie Everything Everywhere All at Once and Soefara is all about featuring strong, empowered women in her artwork. 

preliminary cover concepts

Thing is Soefara takes her time illustrating, so much so that I've given her the  nickname Slowfara.

I started drafting the story. The theme would be "power". How she powered through broken ballet dreams, stage fright and other obstacles in her path to achieve international stardom and the much-coveted Oscar.

Rough sketch

An aunty, one of my mum's friends, had a friend who worked with Michelle on corporate speaking engagements and she offered to broach him with regards to any assistance in getting the book to Michelle. He's a big shot of sorts who is involved in a rather large annual  business summit.  I thought that was a kind offer but wasn't expecting anything. So, I was rather taken aback by the cold, curt, and dismissive response he relayed to aunty. So much so that I felt he had aunty convinced to his point of view. He curtly replied that "IF" I were related why didn't I contact Michelle personally myself. Then he proceeded to be extremely discouraging by telling her that the studios might put a kibosh on the book and loads of other challenges I would face getting the book off the ground. I got the distinct feeling that he found my book a personal affront to him and Michelle.

I almost called it quits right then and there but my mum and Soefara encouraged me to carry on. I also remembered that Michelle didn't give up just because she faced obstacles in her path, she just powered on. I mean the first draft of the manuscript had been finished. Why should I give up because of one person's negative and unhelpful reaction. Would it have stopped Michelle? No.

Bearing in mind that there were certain limitations, I decided to write about Michelle's journey from aspiring ballerina and beauty queen to becoming an actress, proficient stuntwoman and superstar. I would briefly touch on the rest of her amazing 40 year career.

I handed Soefara a preliminary draft  in November 2022. And as Michelle's performance in EEAAO kept gaining accolades, I kept redrafting it. She won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a musical or comedy! What if she went all the way? What if she actually won the best actress at the Oscars?

For a while it was touch and go. She lost the Critics Choice Award and the BAFTA: Two awards that are predictors of who will win the ultimate acting trophy: The Oscar.  But then she won the SAG Award and the Independent Spirit Award, the last awards before the Academy Awards. It was a tight race between Michelle and two-time Oscar winner, Cate Blanchett, but momentum was on Michelle's side.

And so Soefara and I decided to  put the final page of the book on hold until after Oscar night.

When Jessica Chastain and Halle Berry announced: "The Oscar goes to Michelle Yeoh" we were off to the races, well, at Soefara's leisurely pace. I asked one of my publishers if they would be interested in publishing the story, but she didn't get back to me. As time was of the essence, I decided to self-publish the book under my own publishing house: Bonnie Books.

There were numerous hiccups a long the way to publication and but what book hasn't had its fair share of turbulence during production?

The book was finally hot off the press in July 2023. 

Coming July 2023, The Power of Michelle Yeoh: Ballet, Stunts, Stardom!

 

Tea with Peter Chiarelli

It's not every day that a big time Hollywood screenwriter pays you a visit. Hey, who am I kidding, it never happens, especially here in this neck of the woods.

So about two days ago, Mum told me that our friend Russel was going to be stopping by with Peter Chiarelli, screenwriter of one of my all-time favourite movies: "The Proposal". I mean I love the movie and I can't tell you how many times that I've watched it. 

And there's nothing like watching a great comedy, especially when you're down in the dumps and, from personal experience, I can tell you that this movie will always manage to get you smiling no matter how low you feel. So I can't wait to watch the next movie that he writes.

Peter Chiarelli, Mum and me

So before the visit, I ran around town getting things for tea: kueh lapis, ondeh ondeh, char siew pau, curry puffs, sausage rolls and Dad brought eclairs and cake from Island Club.

Peter's incredibly affable, so it's no wonder that he's able to come up with comedic gems.  As for tea, he was pretty game to try the kueh lapis and curry puffs, having already sampled laksa and satay for his lunch. I tried to convince him that the coffee he was drinking was coffee luwak, a coffee that is brewed by beans taken from the droppings of a civet cat. That didn't deter from drinking it. Mum, as usual, was unable to let me tease and immediately told him that I was joking.

Anyway, we spent a good hour and a half chatting before Peter and Russel had to head off for another appointment.  I, of course, had to shamelessly pass some of my books to Peter for his children and was definitely chuffed to get my copy of  The Proposal DVD signed. I don't want to say too much about our visit because that's private but needless to say it was a thrill and pleasure to meet Peter. Thanks for coming by, Peter and thanks for bringing him over, Russel!