Michelle Yeoh Instagram post about ‘Non-White Best Actress Winner’ sparks debate over Oscar rules

Michelle Yeoh has sparked some controversy online with an Instagram post some say may have gone against the Academy’s rules, raising concerns about the status of her own Oscar nomination.

The “Everything Everywhere All at Once” star and best actress nominee shared screenshots, which she later deleted, of a Vogue article that mentions a fellow nominee, as reported by Variety.

The article titled “It’s Been Over Two Decades Since We’ve Had a Non-White Best Actress Winner. Will that change in 2023?” mostly highlights a historic lack of representation at the Academy Awards. However, there is a part of the story that commends Cate Blanchett’s performance in “Tár” while emphasizing the “life-changing” opportunities for Yeoh if she snatches the gold statue.

Yeoh posted the whole story, which highlights a historic lack of representation at the Academy Awards, in a carousel post on Instagram, but one fragment has caught the attention of fans.

The portion shared by Yeoh reportedly read: “Detractors would say that Blanchett’s is the stronger performance — the acting veteran is, indisputably, incredible as the prolific conductor Lydia Tár — but it should be noted that she already has two Oscars (for best supporting actress for The Aviator in 2005, and best actress for Blue Jasmine in 2014). A third would perhaps confirm her status as an industry titan but, considering her expansive and unparalleled body of work, are we still in need of yet more confirmation?”

And continues, “Meanwhile, for Yeoh, an Oscar would be life-changing: her name would forever be preceded by the phrase ‘Academy Award winner,’ and it should result in her getting meatier parts, after a decade of being criminally underused in Hollywood.”

This seemingly goes against an Academy policy on referencing other nominees online, some argue. The policy states that “any tactic that singles out ‘the competition’ by name or title is expressly forbidden.”

Fans have taken to Twitter expressing their opinions on the matter.

One user argues Yeoh should not be punished for her post.

Another fan took issue with the controversy itself, arguing that the response to the post is exactly why the article was written in the first place.

Similarly, a fan argued that the post has been taken out of context, with only a small portion of the article discussing Blanchett.

Yeoh’s Everything Everywhere All at Once is leading the awards this year with 11 nominations among them Best Picture, Best Director (Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert), Best Actress (Michelle Yeoh), Best Supporting Actress (Jamie Lee Curtis and Stephanie Hsu) and Best Supporting Actor (Ke Huy Quan).

Yeoh is widely believed to be the front-runner in the Oscar category for lead actress, having cleaned up during awards season so far with wins at the Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild, and the Independent Spirit Awards. Yeoh was the first Asian actress to win in that category at the SAG awards.

Yeoh, Quan and Hsu, three of the film’s four Oscar-nominated actors (Jamie Lee Curtis is the fourth) have all discussed feeling overlooked and undervalued by the industry before this breakthrough.

A win on Oscar night would make her the second woman of colour and first Asian person to win in the lead actress category.

The movie was made for less than $25 million and grossed more than $107 million internationally.

The 95th Academy Awards will be taking place on Sunday, March 12 in Los Angeles.

Ana Pereira is a breaking news reporter, working out of the Star’s radio room in Toronto. Follow her on Twitter: @anabpereiraa

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