Burma Expels Hollywood Actress Michelle Yeoh Before Suu Kyi Film Release

Posted on June 28, 2011 by Action for Freedom — 1 Comment

Malaysian actress Michelle Yeoh.

Officials in Burma said Tuesday that actress Michelle Yeoh was deported when she tried to visit the country last week.

Yeoh, who won international fame as a Chinese spy in the 1997 James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies, plays Aung San Suu Kyi in a film about the Burmese democracy activist scheduled for release later this year.

The officials did not explain the reason the 48-year-old Malaysian was turned back when she arrived at Rangoon’s airport on June 22. They said simply that she was on a government blacklist.

Yeoh previously visited Burma in December while preparing for her role in the upcoming film The Lady, which deals with Aung San Suu Kyi’s relationship with her late husband, Michael Aris. At that time, Yeoh was able to visit the Nobel laureate, who had just been released from seven years of house arrest.

Yeoh is a former Miss Malaysia who has was nominated for a BAFTA award for her starring role in Ang Lee’s 2000 film, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. She also starred in Memoirs of a Geisha.