How Michelle Yeoh went from ballet dancer to martial arts star – and the three 1980s Hong Kong action movies that made her name
- Despite having no martial arts training, Yeoh’s background in ballet dancing gave her the bodily control and flexibility to allow her to play tough action roles
- She gives some of her most impressive performances in three 1980s films – Royal Warriors (aka Police Assassins), Yes, Madam! and Magnificent Warriors
Michelle Yeoh is an anomaly when it comes to martial arts stars – how can someone be so amazing at kung fu without any formal training?
Yeoh, who was born in Malaysia, never studied martial arts, and her first love was ballet. She planned to embark on a career as a dance choreographer after finishing a dance degree in the UK, having dropped any thoughts of acting after she experienced stage fright on a drama course at college.
Yeoh’s film career started by chance. A friend in Hong Kong was dining with businessman Dickson Poon, co-founder of D&B Films with Sammo Hung Kam-bo, and Poon mentioned he was having difficulty finding an actress to appear with Jackie Chan in a commercial he was filming to promote his jewellery business.
The friend suggested Yeoh, who had won the Miss Malaysia beauty contest, and she flew to Hong Kong and got the job. This led to a contract with D&B Films, and a non-action role in the 1984 action-comedy The Owl Versus Bombo.
Watching Hung choreograph the action sequences, Yeoh realised that the bodily control she had learned during her dance training, and her dancer’s flexibility, would allow her to play martial arts roles, and she pressed Poon to let her perform in action films. (Yeoh and Poon were married between 1988 and 1992.)