Michelle Yeoh

In Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), Michelle Yeoh makes staying composed look almost as demanding as the fighting. Her Yu Shu Lien and Chow Yun-Fat’s Li Mu Bai have affection they cannot readily express, and director Ang Lee gives them time. We were moved by the tenderness they managed without an open declaration. Yeoh makes those quiet passages worth waiting for, even in a film with such clear, persuasive combat. The pauses matter as much as the bouts of action.

Her early Hong Kong action work depended on physical commitment. She performed her own stunts in Yes, Madam (1985), drawing on ballet training rather than a formal martial arts background. Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) brought wider recognition, before Hollywood supporting parts including Crazy Rich Asians (2018). The lead in Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022) brought those physical and dramatic skills into a major Hollywood leading role, with comedy to handle as well. That combination offered considerably more scope than another demonstration of her ability to take charge.

A Haunting in Venice (2023) gives her the medium Joyce Reynolds and too little time. Yeoh keeps her voice low and her eyes level during the séance, making us attend to her without any visible strain. John Paul Kelly’s peeling palazzo looks suitably unwelcoming through Haris Zambarloukos’s wide lenses. Hildur Guðnadóttir’s low strings help, while Lucy Donaldson’s quick cuts between faces give Yeoh’s steady gaze its unsettling effect. The mystery is thin, and we wanted more of Yeoh; her casting is more interesting than much of the investigation.

Jon M. Chu casts her as Madame Morrible in Wicked (2024) and Wicked: For Good (2025). She glides through the sequel with a menace we believe, though the script gives her little else to play. Once the threat is established, there is little pleasure in having it repeated. Even her voice role as Airazor in Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (2023) gets a welcome quiet scene amid the machinery. For the next formidable authority figure, we would like the script to work as hard as the actor.