‘I know my moves’

The Oscar-winning actress Michelle Yeoh cracked history open when she won the Academy Award for Best Actress in Everything Everywhere All at Once last year, but she’s not sitting back to bask in the glow. The actress described her process for a harrowing fight scene in her new series The Brothers Sun, which dropped on January 4 on Netflix.

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She said, “I exercise every day. I do my whole routine of being in shape and knowing my moves. When you are in shape and ready to strike, it’s not difficult.” As a martial arts icon who has made her mark on some of the most influential action movies of all time like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Supercop and Yes, Madam, it’s no surprise she’s prepared for all comers.

The Brothers Sun, ruthless Taipei gangster Charles Sun (Justin Chien) travels to Los Angeles to protect his mother, Eileen (Yeoh), who fled the triad with her younger son, Bruce (Sam Song Li), an average 20-something clueless to the family business.

Eileen is a caring mother who also harbours ambitions of once again ruling the underworld. Yeoh says she created the multidimensional matriarch by making an in-character diary and collaborating closely with the show’s creators, Brad Falchuk and Byron Wu. “They’re always an e-mail away,” Yeoh said “And I’m like, ‘Sit down with me, please. Let’s go through this because once we do, it will be so easy on the day. You will get the emotions that you need from me’.”

Another upside of working with super-producer Falchuk is that he’s a powerful ally in pushing for equality in the entertainment industry, a cause Yeoh has battled for throughout her career. “For the last few years, I have been fighting for different roles and hoping to find the entry point into where we all deserve to have a seat at the table,” she said.

“It’s only in the last couple of years that you see more and more of the Asian stories being told. And also, Brad Falchuk is not Asian, but he championed our story,” she added.