Crazy Rich Asians: Michelle Yeoh on how 1980s Hong Kong parties prepared her for role of socialite and glamorous matriarch in film
Malaysian actress can’t wait to see how her friends in Asia react to the film of Kevin Kwan’s novel about Asian high society, and says she worked hard to make her character relatable in a film that’s ‘very representative of who we are’
Michelle Yeoh instantly recognised the material in Crazy Rich Asians without having to turn a single page of the 2013 bestseller.
“I lived in Hong Kong in the heyday of the 1980s, with all those galas and parties and charity organisations,” she tells the Post. “I’ve seen this world and I understand it. So I thought, ‘what’s so unusual?’”
Fast forward a few years, and Yeoh found herself stepping seamlessly into the role of formidable Singaporean-Chinese matriarch and socialite supremo Eleanor Young in the film version of the book, which opens internationally this month.
Her character, never a hair out of place, resplendent in Carolina Herrera and Giorgio Armani, is aghast when her only son, the eminently eligible and dreamy Nick (Henry Golding), brings home Rachel (Constance Wu), an American Chinese girl who, frankly, just isn’t well-born enough.
Yeoh says she could relate; she has friends who never quite approved of their sons’ matrimonial choices. But still, she strove to make her character relatable, and to have the audience understand her choices.
