The 2023 Oscars are almost upon us and everyone is rooting for Michelle Yeoh to bag the Best Actress award for her role in Everything Everywhere All At Once. However, the competition is tough this year, especially because industry behemoth Cate Blanchett is nominated in the same category for her role in Tár. Generally, everyone expects the nominees to respect each other. But It looks like Yeoh was trying to garner more support for her campaign by throwing shade at Blanchett’s acting. However, in doing so she might have caused a blunder and lost the Oscars race altogether.
Michelle Yeoh Disses Cate Blanchett
On her Instagram, Michelle Yeoh posted excerpts from a Vogue article titled It’s Been Over Two Decades Since We’ve Had a Non-White Best Actress Winner. Will That Change in 2023? The article praised her performance in Everything Everywhere All At Once. In one of the slides, Cate Blanchett is mentioned by name and her acting is implied to be subpar to Yeoh’s.
The long quote reads:
“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? 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.”
Here’s the post:
The post has since been deleted. However, the damage might already have been done as Yeoh seems to have violated Academy’s rule no. 11 which states that “any tactic that singles out ‘the competition’ by name or title is expressly forbidden.” Does this mean her Oscar dream is over?
Will Michelle Yeoh’s Oscar Nomination Get Terminated?
Michelle Yeoh’s post has raised concerns among fans and industry insiders alike about the status of her Oscar nomination. However, Yeoh isn’t the first nominee to have done something like this. In January 2023, Andrea Riseborough, who got a nomination for To Leslie, got entangled in a similar violation. During the campaign for her Oscar nomination, the official Instagram account of To Leslie directly mentioned her competition, which again, was Blanchett.
Here’s the snippet of the quote from Best movies of 2022: Richard Roeper’s top 11 article that landed Riseborough in hot water:
“As much as I admired Blanchett’s work in ‘Tár,’ my favorite performance by a woman this year was delivered by the chameleonlike Andrea Riseborough in director Michael Morris’ searing drama about a mom at the final crossroads in her life after she’s lost everything due to her drinking. With an insightful script by Ryan Binaco and fine supporting work by Marc Maron, Andre Royo, Allison Janney and Stephen Root, ‘To Leslie’ ranks with ‘Leaving Las Vegas’ and ‘Crazy Heart’ as modern-day classics about the ravages of alcoholism.”
The Academy decided that her post didn’t want her nomination to be rescinded. As such, if Riseborough’s camp didn’t get penalized for a similar kind of post, it’s expected that Yeoh will be safe as well. However, the Academy reportedly wants to revise and review its policies regarding the use of social media platforms going forth.
The 2023 Oscar Awards ceremony will air on 12 March 2023.
Source: Instagram
