There was a point early on in Michelle Yeoh’s career, 30 years ago, that she nearly walked away from acting. It’s hard to imagine that, given her decades-long successful career that has included awesome stunts, memorable performances, and a 2023 Oscar win.
But as Yeoh recently shared, a stunt gone terribly wrong during her time in Hong Kong cinema pushed her to the brink of quitting. It was an unexpected encounter with director Quentin Tarantino that convinced her to stay in the game.
Before Yeoh made a splash in Hollywood as a Bond girl in Tomorrow Never Dies or the wuxia warrior in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Yeoh was making a name for herself in Hong Kong’s action scene.
But, while shooting the film The Stunt Woman, one of her own stunts led to a terrifying accident. As she explained during an appearance on The Graham Norton Show:
“I had a really bad accident making — I wanted to pay homage to the stunt people, so we made a movie called The Stunt Woman, and in shooting that, I was pushed over a flyover. And we had done the wide shot, where I landed. It was all good.
“Then we wanted to do a close-up, and the fall was maybe from there [points to column above]. But I did not anticipate — the push was so hard. And I tumbled over and nose-dived — and we used cardboard boxes. …
“And all I remember was my head got jammed into the boxes, and my legs came from behind and I heard this [claps] in my back. I flipped over.”
The aftermath left her hospitalized, wearing a full-body cast, and questioning her career: “I was in the hospital. I had a full cast on, and then, I was back home, trying to recover. And, when you get injured, that’s the most depressing time of your life, because you are helpless.
“You can’t do anything. And I think, at that point, I was thinking, ‘Maybe I should just rethink this whole action thing. Maybe it’s time to take a step back, maybe do something else. I don’t know.’”
It’s not hard to see why Yeoh felt that way. The mental and physical toll of such a severe injury can be crushing. But just when she was considering giving it all up, Quentin Tarantino came into the picture.
Tarantino, who is a devoted fan of Hong Kong cinema, was in town and while there he wanted to meet Yeoh, along with Jackie Chan and Jet Li.
When he visited Yeoh, who was still recovering. She went on to say: “It was at that point when Quentin came to town. And you know Quentin, he’s very determined to do certain things. And, when he came to Hong Kong, he said I want to meet Jackie [Chan], Jet [Li] and Michelle.
“So he met with our guys, and I said, ‘OK.’ So I’m sitting in the living room with my neckbrace, very steady. And suddenly, I see this huge guy come bounding down the stairs. ‘Hey, Michelle!’ Then he picks up a pillow, throws it on the ground, literally just sits at my feet and starts to talk about my movies and what inspired him and going frame from frame to the first action sequence I’d ever done, going through a pane of glass and all that.
“So, as I spoke with him, I realized — and I started getting very excited — and then next thing, my people were like, ‘Can you please stop waving your arms around and just sit still?’ And then I realized it’s true. When you love something, you just can’t give up on it, so I have Quentin to thank for that, because he brought it all back to a realization – be smart, don’t give up. Just find a proper way of doing it.”
Tarantino once called a scene from her 1992 film Supercop “the greatest stunts ever filmed in any movie ever.” It was his passion that reminded her why she loved what she did and inspired her to continue.
Thankfully, Yeoh didn’t walk away and kept going! She’s made some incredible films over the course of her career!
