Michelle Yeoh has hit the promo trail in Thailand, following the success of the much-anticipated Aung San Suu Kyi biopic The Lady at Hua Hin International Film Festival’s closing ceremony last week.
Speaking to reporters in Bangkok, the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon star conveyed her admiration for the Myanmar (Burma) democracy icon and told why she believed she was ideal for the weighty role in the Luc Besson directed film.
“I’ve been in the business long enough to recognize what an amazing story that she has that we can tell. If anybody should play her, it’s me,” she told the AP. Yeoh went on to call Suu Kyi “a very big hero” of hers, and said she’d been following the Nobel Peace Prize winner’s story for years.
Filmed almost entirely in Thailand, the film details Suu Kyi’s dedication to Myanmar’s political struggles and how her determination for change and the impact it had on her private life.
Suu Kyi was still under house arrest during filming of The Lady, giving Yeoh a sense of responsibility over her story. When, in November 2010, Suu Kyi was finally released after 15 years, Yeoh describes the joy she and Besson felt; “We were so crazily happy that finally she was freed,” she said.
While researching for the role, Yeoh travelled to Myanmar in December 2010 to meet Suu Kyi, for which she was later deported and blacklisted from the country for. “I was extremely nervous because I was afraid she would look at me and go ‘Whoa, my god, why are you portraying me?’ But when she was in front of me, all she did was she open her arms,” she said. “She’s one of those people that you meet and you’ll never forget.”
While Suu Kyi has been supportive of the film, she has said it will be a few years before she’s ready to watch the biopic.
The Hua Hin Film Festival ran last weekend, kicking off with a special appearance by superstar Ryan Gosling.
