- Michelle Yeoh deleted an Instagram post about the lack of diversity among best actress Oscar winners.
- She shared screenshots of a recent Vogue article that mentioned two-time winner Cate Blanchett.
Michelle Yeoh, the Oscar-nominated star of "Everything Everywhere All At Once," has deleted an Instagram post containing screenshots of an article about the Oscars that referred to fellow best actress nominee Cate Blanchett, and may have violated voting rules.
According to The Daily Beast, Yeoh shared a post that included screenshots from a Vogue article titled "It's Been Over Two Decades Since We've Had a Non-White Best Actress Winner. Will That Change in 2023?" a few hours before voting for this year's awards closed at 5:30 p.m. ET Tuesday.
The post, which as of 8:00 p.m. ET the same day had been deleted, was captioned: "This is not just for me, this is for every little girl that looks like me…✨ We want to be seen. We want to be heard."
While the majority of the article highlighted the lack of representation at the Oscars — given the fact that Halle Berry is currently the only woman of color who has won the best actress award in the institution's 95-year history (she won in 2002 for her role in "Monster's Ball") — one paragraph, in particular, drew a lot of attention because it named Yeoh's fellow nominee — and past two-time winner — Blanchett.
"Detractors would say that Blanchett's is the stronger performance — the acting veteran is, indisputably, incredible as the prolific conductor Lydia Tár — but it should be noted that she already has two Oscars (for best supporting actress for 'The Aviator' in 2005, and best actress for 'Blue Jasmine' in 2014)," the paragraph begins.
"A third would perhaps confirm her status as an industry titan but, considering her expansive and unparalleled body of work, are we still in need of yet more confirmation?"
The article continues: "Meanwhile, for Yeoh, an Oscar would be life-changing: her name would forever be preceded by the phrase 'Academy Award winner,' and it should result in her getting meatier parts, after a decade of being criminally underused in Hollywood."
Despite being removed after just a few hours, the deleted post has gone viral on Twitter, where users questioned whether the specific excerpt violated the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Oscars campaign rules.
Under the "References to Other Nominees" section, the Academy states that social media from people associated with an eligible film casting a "negative or derogatory light on a competing film or achievement will not be tolerated. In particular, any tactic that singles out 'the competition' by name or title is expressly forbidden."
Representatives for neither Yeoh nor AMPAS immediately responded to requests for comment.
As well as Yeoh and Blanchett, who is nominated for "Tár," the best actress nominees also include Ana de Armas ("Blonde"), Michelle Williams ("The Fabelmans"), and Andrea Riseborough ("To Leslie").
Riseborough became embroiled in a controversy concerning the same rule — as well as a few others — earlier this year after an aggressive grassroots campaign for her small-budget movie came to light. A now-deleted Instagram post on the official "To Leslie" account also included a screenshot of an article that referred to Blanchett, this time in the Chicago Sun-Times.
Following a review by AMPAS, Riseborough's nomination was upheld, but Academy CEO Bill Kramer said in a statement that social media and outreach campaigning tactics were "being addressed with the responsible parties directly."
Appearing on BBC Radio 4's "Today" show in February, Yeoh dismissed the suggestion that Riseborough's campaign had broken any rules.
"The Academy has always prided itself on having regulations and playing by the rules and if [cheating them] was so easy it would have done before," she said, per The Independent.
"We are always evolving on how to protect our integrity and I have great faith we will continue to do that."
Meanwhile, last Sunday, Blanchett and Yeoh were seen sharing a warm embrace on the red carpet of the Independent Spirit Awards before Yeoh won in the gender-neutral best lead performance category for her role in the multiverse flick.