And, despite how some people may feel about award shows overall (that they’re overrated and out of touch), this hope and recognition on the international stage is pretty big, as an acknowledgement of these actors, and the diverse — often overlooked— experiences of the communities they’re representing. It’s a reality that isn’t lost on the nominees and some of the eventual winners themselves. Speaking to Refinery29 ahead of the April 2022 release of Everything Everywhere, Yeoh acknowledged just how important it was to see Evelyn Wang, a middle class Chinese American woman centered in a blockbuster film: “Evelyn has a voice that needs to be heard,” Yeoh said. “She’s a very ordinary housewife, immigrant, mother who’s trying her very best to survive, trying to ensure this American dream that she had so many years ago was not going to just shatter into pieces, and trying to do her taxes on top of all that.”
