The Oscar-winner spoke to JOE about her badass lead role in a new sci-fi.
Star Trek: Section 31, a new movie in the legendary sci-fi franchise, is available to stream now.
The film sees recent Oscar-winner Michelle Yeoh (Everything Everywhere All at Once) reprising her role from Star Trek: Discovery as anti-hero and fan favourite character Philippa Georgiou.
This is as she gets swept up in a new adventure with a ragtag group of Starfleet agents and is forced to face “the sins of her past”.
Ahead of the movie’s release, JOE interviewed Yeoh about the latest Star Trek entry and her incredible decades-long career.
The actress rose to fame starring in Hong Kong action films, for which she became renowned for doing her own stunts.
She then went on to star in several major Hollywood flicks, including the James Bond picture Tomorrow Never Dies and 2022’s Everything Everywhere All at Once – for which she picked up the Best Actress Oscar.
During our chat with Yeoh, we noted how Star Trek: Section 31’s director Olatunde Osunsanmi has referred to the film as an action movie.
Indeed, the actress certainly looks like she is kicking ass as Philippa Georgiou, so we had to ask her: Did she get to do much of her own fighting and stunts in the spin-off?
Yeoh confirmed that she did, but made a hilarious admission in the process involving her stunt double Shara Kim.
She replied:
“Oh yes. I work very closely with my team, with Chris McGuire, with Matt and George, and with Shara, who is my stunt double.
“But I will say, now sometimes I look at the thing. If it’s like ‘rolling on the ground’ and things like that, I’m like: ‘Shara, you can do that.’ I’ll go out and have a cup of coffee. [she says laughing]”
Yeoh also told JOE that “the most important thing” is the drama that drives the action and that this can even be seen in her character’s wardrobe.
“That was something that we worked very closely on, and this time with the costumes because that is Philippa Georgiou,” she explained.
“She is a walking lethal weapon. She’s an engineer. She makes her clothes part of the things that could turn into a weapon. So that was what we had fun with.”
Star Trek: Section 31 is streaming exclusively on Paramount+ right now.
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