She’s the first Asian to win the Oscar for Best Actress, thanks to her role as a Chinese immigrant in the crazy comedy Everything Everywhere All At Once. Michelle Yeoh makes it all the pride of Malaysia. Interview on this historic victory with Jean-Marc Thérouanne, general delegate and artistic director of the Vesoul International Asian Cinema Festival (FICA), the largest festival dedicated to Asian cinema in France, which will celebrate its 30th edition next year .
RFI : For the first time, an Asian woman wins the Oscar for Best Leading Actress. What does this symbolize for the world of Asian cinema – and beyond ?
Jean-Marc Therouanne : In this period of wokism, I think Americans thought it was not fair, that so far no great Asian actress has won this Oscar. And there it was the greatest Asian actress of the moment, Michelle Yeoh. She had already had a huge role in Tiger and Dragonby the Taiwanese director Ang Lee, in 1999, and she has already acted in a lot of films. I also think that the phenomenon of the great success of Crazy Rich Asiansby Jon Chu, it was the first time in Hollywood that they had a movie that was so successful at the box office, it certainly made Hollywood businessmen think that maybe we should fix it an injustice towards this very great international actress.
I would also like that we do not give prices on skin colors, but only, because she is a great actress. And not, because she’s Asian. I still think that we must be wary of wanting to characterize too much, to brand people too much with their ethnic origin. It is not a good thing. We must first look at their talent. Me, I have this very French view, that you always have to look at the man or the woman and not this strategy of quotas which seems to be perverse and which is basically a racial and therefore racist way of organizing prices.
For Malaysian actress Michelle Yeoh, it’s a sign of hope and possibility. In addition, for a woman of a certain age. She is 60 years old. Do you think that we have passed a new stage in the attitude, in the gaze of the Hollywood cinema industry ?
I think that it is not only in the attitude of Hollywood cinema that we are changing this look. Look on a French scale, the immense success of Davy Chou with his Return to Seoul. There, we also realize that there are great French talents of Asian origin, just as there are great French Afro-French talents with the marvelous Saint-Omer by Alice Diop. I think we are in a society that takes into account all the diversity of the world and the diversity of the world is also found close to home.
► Read also : 95th Oscars: a crazy success for the unconventional film “Everything Everywhere All at Once”