Four years after her Oscar-winning turn in Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022), Michelle Yeoh is back to speaking her mother tongue on screen.
And that was what made the Malaysian actress’ latest film, It’s My Time, so special to her.
“I’ve always wanted to return to making Chinese-language films. I’ve mainly been working on English-language productions, so I’m very grateful to producer Wen Muye and director Bai Xue for inviting me to play Zhao Yanhong,” the Ipoh-born star says in an e-mail interview.
In the Mandarin biopic, Yeoh, 63, portrays a woman in her 70s who has to move into an old folks’ home after falling ill, but refuses to let her circumstances define her.
At the nursing facility, Zhao discovers she has the knack for solving the Magic Cube (think Rubik’s Cube) after some lessons from a young instructor (Chinese actor Liu Haoran).
Twisting and turning the cube comes naturally to Zhao, and her newfound ability soon transforms her uneventful life, bringing her unexpected recognition.
Yeoh says when she initially read the script, the character “immediately appealed” to her as it presented a new set of challenges.
“Zhao Yanhong is an extraordinary woman, and she’s very different from any role I’ve played before. It’s such an inspiring story about having the courage to pursue your dreams, and I really fell in love with it.”
The protagonist is based on Zhao Wenying, a real-life former mathematics teacher from China who discovered the puzzle cube in 2014 after her granddaughter introduced it to her.
She went on to teach herself solving techniques through online tutorials. Zhao would later become the fastest person aged over 60 to solve the puzzle while blindfolded.
Malaysian actress Michelle Yeoh at the Chanel Women Haute Couture Fall/Winter 2026-2027 collection as part of the Paris Fashion Week in Paris on July 7.
PHOTO: AFP
“The biggest challenge, of course, was speaking Mandarin again,” Yeoh says.
But like muscle memory, the language soon returned.
True to her reputation as a consummate professional, Yeoh also paid close attention to the finer details.
“I spent a lot of time observing and learning the small movements, body language and walking style of an elderly woman to make the character as authentic as possible.
She was also dedicated to learning how to actually solve the Magic Cube so that her movements would look effortless on camera – and trained for almost two years to master the skill.
“The director wanted my movements to look fast and natural, so I carried a Magic Cube with me almost everywhere on set and practised whenever I had the chance,” says Yeoh, who is married to retired French motor racing executive Jean Todt.
Yeoh adds that she could see the parallels between Zhao’s journey in It’s My Time and her own life.
Having won the Miss Malaysia beauty pageant at the age of 20 before moving to Hong Kong to pursue a career in showbiz, the actress has also experienced moments when she had to take a leap of faith without any safety nets.
“I feel almost every new chapter in my life started with uncertainty.
“When I left Malaysia, when I began in Hong Kong, even later in Hollywood, there were no guarantees.
“I’ve learned you can’t wait for someone else to tell you it’s your time. You have to believe in yourself and be ready when the opportunity arises,” she says.
Yeoh has always marched to the beat of her own drum.
At a time when Bond girls were often portrayed as either seductive femme fatales or damsels in distress, she made history as the first Asian Bond girl to stand as an equal to Agent 007 (Pierce Brosnan) in Tomorrow Never Dies (1997).
And when actresses of a certain age – particularly Asian actresses – were often overlooked for leading roles, Yeoh continued to defy expectations, taking on one major project after another (Crazy Rich Asians, 2018; A Haunting In Venice, 2023; Wicked, 2024 to 2025).
Then, at 60, she shattered another glass ceiling by becoming the first Asian woman to win the Oscar for Best Actress.
She philosophises: “When you’re younger, you think life is about reaching the next goal. But today, I treasure the journey much more than the destination.
“I hope audiences who watch this movie leave with a feeling that it’s never too late to discover a new passion or to surprise yourself.” THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
It’s My Time is showing in Singapore cinemas.