- Michelle Yeoh was named in Time Magazine's Top 100 influential people of 2022, released on Monday.
- Yeoh's decades-long career consists of roles in "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and "Crazy Rich Asians."
- "Crazy Rich Asians" author Kevin Kwan hailed the 59-year-old Malaysian actress in a tribute.
"Everything Everywhere All At Once" star Michelle Yeoh is achieving "the impossible again and again," Kevin Kwan, the author of "Crazy Rich Asians," wrote in the actress's Time 100 tribute.
The 59-year-old Malaysian actress was named in Time Magazine's Top 100 influential people of 2022, which was released on Monday. Yeoh's decades-long acting career consists of roles in the Bond film "Tomorrow Never Dies" (1997), the critically acclaimed "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" (2000), and the iconic rom-com "Crazy Rich Asians" (2018).
In a profile about Yeoh for Time Magazine, Kwan recalled her achievements throughout her time in the entertainment industry.
"An aristocratic Malaysian beauty becoming the queen of Hong Kong's male-dominated action cinema? Michelle Yeoh did it," Kwan wrote. "Subverting stereotypes in a Bond movie and breaking into the global consciousness with an Oscar-winning kung fu epic? Michelle Yeoh did it."
"Leading the first Hollywood film with an all-Asian cast in 25 years to become the highest-grossing romantic comedy in over a decade? Yes, Michelle Yeoh did it," he continued.
Kwan also mentioned Yeoh's role as Eleanor Sung-Young in the film adaptation of his book, "Crazy Rich Asians," saying audiences were "delighted in watching her turn a would-be villain into a sympathetic portrait of maternal strength and sacrifice in Crazy Rich Asians."
Yeoh most recently captivated audiences with her performance in "Everything Everywhere All At Once," which Vanity Fair has pointed to as a potential Oscar nominee. Variety also predicted Yeoh could earn her first Oscar nomination.
She plays Evelyn Wang, an exhausted Chinese immigrant who owns a struggling laundromat with her husband, whose unassuming trip to her business' IRS audit turns into a bizarre, whirlwind adventure spanning the multiverse.
In an interview with GQ last month, the actress reflected on bringing Evelyn to life on the silver screen — a role that she says gave her the "opportunity" to show people what she's "capable of."
"When I read the script, I thought, 'This is something,'" Yeoh said in the GQ interview, before pausing as she began to tear up. "This is something I've been waiting for for a long time that's going to give me the opportunity to show my fans, my family, my audience what I'm capable of."
"To be funny. To be real. To be sad," she continued. "Finally, somebody understood that I can do all these things."
In the Time 100 tribute, Kwan said Yeoh "truly blows our minds" in the trippy action-adventure, as she has done time and time again in her previous films.
"Without vanity, without fuss, Michelle Yeoh astonishes us with her honesty, humor, and grace, and we realize we will never get enough of her achieving the impossible," Kwan wrote.