It must be nice to feel so appreciated as an actor that a filmmaker would change the story of their movie to make a role work for you, and that’s exactly what happened for Michelle Yeoh when she was offered a part in Danny Boyle’s science fiction movie Sunshine.
Yeoh has recently found herself in the limelight after putting in an incredible performance in the equally brilliant time travel movie Everything Everywhere All At Once. The A24 movie is one of the big success stories of 2022, and is a project which put Yeoh front and centre.
The same happened for Yeoh when she collaborated with Boyle for the 2000s movie Sunshine, as she revealed in a recent roundtable with The Hollywood Reporter.
“A lot of the times I get the script, and it’s not written for a woman like me. I remember doing Sunshine with Danny Boyle. It’s a story about the astronauts going to the sun, trying to save us. When I first received the script, it was written for a man to start off with, so that was already such a joy that Danny thought, ‘Well, I would change it for you.'” Yeoh recalled.
“Then, at that point, I said to him, ‘Why do you think at that time it’s still the Russians and the Americans going to space? Wouldn’t you have more Japanese, Chinese?’ It takes a director with great confidence of who they are and their vision, and he changed it. We had Hiroyuki Sanada, Benedict Wong and myself,” she added.
The thriller movie was all the better for Yeoh’s presence, as is usually the case when you put her in a film. The same can be said for the comedy movie Everything Everywhere, which is one of the best movies of 2022 thanks to Yeoh’s terrific star turn.
For more from Danny Boyle check out our list of the best ‘90s movies and see if you can spot any of his films. Or, dive into our Everything Everywhere All At Once review to see what we thought of Yeoh’s performance.