Cast your eyes to the floor and you’ll notice: though there are dozens of people here, engaged in as many conversations over afternoon cocktails, virtually all the shoes in the room are angled toward Michelle Yeoh.
It’s mid-November in Los Angeles, which means the city is gearing up for Oscars season, and Yeoh is holding court before an industry screening of her film Everything Everywhere All at Once. Everyone here wants to meet her, to shake her hand, to be remembered by her. Dressed in staggering platform sneakers and an embellished blazer, she’s posing for photos, cracking jokes, throwing her head back to laugh, sipping from a glass of wine—embodying the role of the star—until fellow actor Ke Huy Quan approaches, and she softens. She places a hand on his cheek, brushes something from his shirt. The two played husband and wife in the surreal, action-packed family love story, and through their connection, Yeoh’s warmth becomes visible in the chaos.
“They call it a campaign,” she says later, exhaling in the silence of a private dining room. She’s played her part, and now
