Michelle Yeoh To Receive Greatest Award Possible

Michelle Yeoh is receiving the award because she, like the other recipients, has “made exemplary contributions to the prosperity, values, or security of the United States, world peace or other significant societal, public or private endeavors.”

While the specifics of why Michelle Yeoh was selected for this prestigious achievement will likely be announced at the awards ceremony, the actress made history in 2022 by becoming the first Asian woman to receive an Oscar for Best Actress, which she won for her film, Everything Everywhere All at Once. 

Michelle Yeoh has maintained a 36-year-long career in filmmaking, beginning with her first acting gig when she played the character Miss Yeung in The Owl vs. Bumbo in 1984.

For most of her career, the actress has starred in martial arts movies, including the 2000 classic, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. She has also appeared in numerous franchises, including Tomorrow Never Dies, from the James Bond universe, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, and Star Trek: Discovery. 

Michelle Yeoh will be returning to the Star Trek universe in Star Trek: Section 31, the first television film in the Star Trek franchise. In the film, Yeoh’s Emperor Philippa Georgiou becomes a member of a clandestine sector within Starfleet, charged with safeguarding the United Federation of Planets and confronting the shadows of her own history. It’s directed by Olatunde Osunsanmi and written by Craig Sweeny and is expected to be released on the streaming service Paramount+ in 2025.

While the Presidential Medal of Freedom may be the most prestigious award ever offered to Michelle Yeoh from the US Government, it’s hardly her first accolade.

The actress has been nominated for dozens of awards over the course of her career and won more than 60 of them. The most prestigious of the actress’s awards include the Academy Award for Best Actress for Everything Everywhere All At Once, the Kering Women in Motion Award at the Cannes Film Festival, and a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Motion Picture — Musical or Comedy, also for Everything Everywhere All At Once. 

19 individuals will be honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In addition to Michelle Yeoh, other esteemed individuals include Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire and former mayor of New York City; Phil Donahue, the esteemed talk-show host and journalist; Nancy Pelosi, former House Speaker Al Gore and former U.S. Vice President.

Plus, there is Katie Ledecky, Olympic gold medalist swimmer, Ellen Ochoa, the first Hispanic woman in space and the second female director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center, and Judy Shepard, co-founder of the Matthew Shepard Foundation, who will be established in honor of her son who fell victim to one of the nation’s most infamous anti-gay hate crimes.

Michelle Yeoh and the other recipient will receive their awards at the White House on Friday, May 3.

Source: Variety