Michelle Yeoh almost left the action genre after a life-changing accident, but thanks to Quentin Tarantino, it didn’t happen.
Yeoh suffered a serious injury during a stunt while filming ‘The Stunt Woman’ in 1996. She was pushed off a flyover for a scene, but the impact caused her to land improperly and snap her back. The injury left her in a neck brace and made her question if she should continue performing action scenes. Yeoh even considered stepping away from her demanding career.
“At that point, I was thinking maybe I should just rethink this whole action thing, maybe it’s time to take a step back and maybe do something else,” she recalled. But Quentin Tarantino visited her while she was recovering, and this changed everything. “It was at that point when Quentin came to town… So, I’m sitting in the living room, with my neck brace and all that, very steady. I see this huge guy come bounding down the stairs.”
He wasn’t just there to chat—he came with a deep admiration for her work. Tarantino went through her old action scenes frame by frame sitting on the floor at her feet, analyzing the risks and technical details of her stunts. He talked about how her work inspired him, and their conversation reignited her love for action films.
Yeoh later said that their discussion helped her see that she didn’t have to quit, but instead, she could find safer ways to continue doing what she loved. “I realized it’s true when you love something you can’t just give up on it, so I have Quentin to thank for that and, because he brought it all back to a realization, it’s like, be smart. Don’t give up. Just find a nice way and a proper way of doing it.”
Tarantino’s encouragement came at the perfect time. Yeoh soon made her Hollywood debut in the James Bond movie ‘Tomorrow Never Dies’ and continued to build a career. She starred in movies like ‘Crouching Tiger,’ ‘Hidden Dragon,’ ‘Crazy Rich Asians’, and ‘Everything Everywhere All At Once,’ which earned her an Academy Award in 2022.
