Michelle Yeoh is TIME's 2022 Icon Of The Year, in this universe and all others
The 60-year-old industry vet finally landed her first top-billing role in A24's Everything Everywhere All At Once, which premiered earlier this year
If the multiverse is real and there actually are an infinite number of possible realities floating around out there, we are pretty damn lucky to be living in one where Michelle Yeoh not only exists, but has risen to the level of major movie star. The word “iconic” gets tossed around on the internet a lot these days, but Yeoh now has a bona fide claim to the title: TIME announced today that they’ve named her 2022 Icon Of The Year, a special category in the magazine’s annual Person Of The Year issue.
Yeoh, who is 60 years old and has been in the industry since the mid-’80s, has appeared in a number of major hits (including Crazy Rich Asians, Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and even Kung Fu Panda 2, among many others) but had never enjoyed the kind of household name, dare we say “iconic” level of success she is currently experiencing until being cast as struggling laundromat owner Evelyn Wang in A24's multiverse dramedy Everything Everywhere All At Once, which premiered earlier this year.
In her TIME interview, Yeoh discussed the power of representation, specifically the (appalling) fact that no Asian woman has ever won Best Actress at the Academy Awards. Yeoh, however, is very much in the race. “I’ve thought about it,” she said. “And not just me—I feel like my full Asian community has thought about it. They come up to me and they say, ‘You’re doing it for us.’”
She continued: “When you get an opportunity like this, you have to pour your heart and soul into it, because you don’t know when the next chance is… I think that is my biggest fear: Please don’t let this be the one and only.” After 2022—a.k.a. the year where Michelle Yeoh truly was Everywhere All At Once—that doesn’t seem like a possibility in this or any universe.
TIME also named Blackpink Entertainer Of The Year and country artist Mickey Guyton Breakthrough Artist Of The Year. Person Of The Year (which may or may not be Elon Musk for the second year in a row) will be announced tomorrow.