Michelle Yeoh Becomes First Asian Best Actress Oscar Winner

Actress Michelle Yeoh, who starred in the Best Picture Oscar-winning film “Everything Everywhere All At Once” is the first woman of full Asian descent to win the Academy Award for Best Actress.

In fact, not only is she the first Asian woman to pick up the Oscar, but she is also only the second woman to win in the lead actress category after actress Halle Berry picked up the win for “Monster’s Ball” in 2002.

In her speech, Michelle Yeoh did not make light up the fact that this was "an historic moment" for the Academy. “I really have to thank the Academy for acknowledging and embracing diversity and true representation,” the Maysian-born actress said in her acceptance speech.

“This is something we have been working so hard towards, for a very long time…I’m still here today. Finally, after 40 years I get this,” she said as she held up her Oscar. “It just goes to show we will win. That’s what we’re doing. Don’t give up, because once you give up that’s a loss."

"Don’t let anybody put you in a box, don’t let anybody say you are past your prime,” she added. Yeoh, who is 60, was the oldest of the Best Actress nominees, which included Cate Blanchett for “Tar,” Andrea Riseborough for “To Leslie,” Michelle Williams for “The Fablemans” and Ana de Armas for “Blonde.”

“We need this because there are so many who have felt unseen and unheard, not just in the Asian community—this is for the Asian community—but for anybody who’s identified as a minority," she added. "We deserve, to be heard, we deserve to be seen, we deserve to have opportunities so we can have a seat at the table. That’s all we are asking for. Give us that opportunity. Let us prove we are worth it.”

Michelle Yeoh wasn’t the only actress to win an Oscar. In addition to picking up the award for Best Picture, Best Film Editing, Best Original Screenplay, Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheiner won for Best Director, Jamie Lee Curtis won for Best Actress in a Supporting Role, and Ke Huy Quan won for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.

Ke Huy Quan, who is best known playing Data in 1985’s “The Goonies” and Short Round in 1989’s “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom,” finally won an Oscar after a lengthy hiatus in Hollywood. The 51-year-old actor, who was born in Vietnam, recalled his emotional story during his acceptance speech.

“My journey started on a boat,” he recalled as he became emotional on stage. “I spent a year in a refugee camp and somehow I ended up here on Hollywood’s biggest stage."

"They say stories like this only happen in the movies. I cannot believe it’s happening to me. This is the American dream!” he exclaimed, which was met with a loud burst of applause from the audience.

“I owe everything to the love of my life: my wife, Echo, who month after month, year after year for 20 years told me that one day my time will come,” he said as he wrapped up his speech. “Dreams are something you have to believe in. I almost gave up on mine. To all of you out there: Please keep your dreams alive!”

“Halloween” actress Jamie Lee Curtis, 64, told Good Morning America that the takeaway from her Oscar win isn’t the “gold statue” but the “goodwill” that the movie has spread.

"The goodwill, that is the takeaway," Curtis said. "Not the gold statue, not the shiny things that I've been talking a lot about. It's the goodwill, the goodwill that the movie engendered with the message of kindness and love and reunification at a time when it feels like we're all really struggling with reunifying. This is a movie that said you are seen and loved."