Hong Kong and Hollywood have often siloed Yeoh's talents to slot into specific genre lanes. But even with stardom, there's still pigeonholing that happens in east and west casting. She helped elevate women into being box office draws in martial arts cinema and her style is a paragon of physical form and fluidity in the genre. When you look at her CV today, it's a murder's row of instantly recognizable IP including James Bond, Star Trek, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Witcher, and the upcoming Avatar sequels, with more coming.Īnd while Yeoh has a robust career in Hollywood and European films, western audiences tend to be woefully ignorant to the fact she's been a major star in Hong Kong cinema since the '80s. Be it in serious pieces ( Sunshine) fantastical tales ( Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings) villainous takes (as Emperor Philippa Georgiou in Star Trek: Discovery) or as an action icon ( Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), Yeoh has pointed her talents at multiple filmmaking cultures, from Hong Kong action films to Hollywood blockbusters and beloved global franchises, and left them all better for having her participation. Over five decades, Yeoh boasts the rare acting career that's bypassed country, cultural, and language barriers across multiple genres. But, when you really crunch the numbers in terms of the sheer number of vital genre roles played by one actress, there's a clear winner that remains woefully under-cited: Michelle Yeoh. There's no question that these actresses, and their characters, have certainly done a tremendous amount to shift the contemporary discourse around the impact of women in the sci-fi genre for the better. Whenever critics and pop culture bloggers tend to bandy about the actresses who have indelibly changed the sci-fi landscape, the same names often get invoked: Sigourney Weaver.