Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Michelle Yeoh

On my Yahoo! homepage, I read this headline, "Hollywood actress blacklisted, deported from Myanmar," and I immediately thought of Patricia Arquette. Why? She did an independent film many years ago called Beyond Rangoon that was about the house arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi. And, of course, because she is white. Hollywood actress most often means white in America.

And then I clicked on the link and it turns out it's a story on Michelle Yeoh, who went to Myanmar to visit the former prisoner, apparently for an upcoming film role. I thought, "Wow, Michelle Yeoh, Hollywood actress!" Yeah, maybe you thought, "Wow, she's gonna portray Aung San Suu Kyi in a movie!" Me, I'm still on Maslow's lowest hierarchy of needs.

I met Ms. Yeoh when she was first entering her role as Hollywood actress. My roommate at the time was a photographer and he was shooting her for the cover of a magazine I was working for. I didn't do the interview, but I did get to be there for the photo shoot. She was lovely and amazing in all of her photos. I tell you, not a bad one in the entire lot! And she was professional and courteous. You could tell, she was going to be sticking around. And, oh, not a trace of a Malaysian accent, which I have to admit, literally causes my ears to bleed.

She had a firm, strong handshake, and looked you right in the eyes, not to eyeboink you, but probably to let you know she could Wing Chun your ass. She was also not young. I had to be about 10 years younger than her at the time, but now, it's as if I've aged and she hasn't changed at all.

About her photo shoot: She was as graceful as a ballerina or dancer, and knew how to move her hair and body. She was not afraid to be a fun and sexy woman, and she could own that in a moment's notice. No pose was like the previous one, and she was athletic too, yo. I mean, she could do the splits, lift one leg up in the air, or twirl her body around several times in a row, and look good doing it all.

Anyway, I just had to write all that. She just had that kind of impression on me.

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