USA (Commonwealth Union)_ Actress Michelle Yeoh’s portrayal in the science-fiction thriller “Everything, Everywhere, All at Once” has already received worldwide applause. Now, the actress is yet to script history as the first Asian woman to be nominated for an Oscar in the category of best actress. But, the truth is rather more complex. There was massive criticism over the Hollywood Reporter’s tweet that Yeoh was the first individual who identifies as Asian to ever be nominated for the Academy Awards.
However, the truth is that before Yeoh there was Merle Oberon, a multiracial actress who was nominated for best actress in 1936 for her performance in the 1935 film “The Dark Angel”. Oberon was born in 1911 in Mumbai, India, to a mixed South Asian ancestry mother and a White British father. But, Oberon hid her birthplace and multiracial status in order to excel in an industry that frequently excluded people of color, particularly women of color. The Hays Code, a set of self-enforced industry standards that outlawed, among other things, interracial relationships, effectively disallowed the casting of non-White performers in many cases.
Oberon, whose birth name was Estelle Merle O’Brien Thompson, grew up in India and began to reinvent herself amid the Bombay nightlife. She started wearing white makeup, which was popular among other mixed-race Indian ladies at the time, and picked up a British accent. According to the podcast “You Must Remember This,” she also underwent skin-lightening treatments, which used chemicals to reduce the concentration of melanin, which is the pigment that makes skin look darker. She continued her disguise when she came to Britain. Oberon brought along her grandma Charlotte Selby and had her masquerade as her maid.
According to the journalist who recorded Oberon’s childhood and life history on a podcast, Selby was once believed to be Oberon’s mother, but it was subsequently revealed that her mother was the woman purported to be Oberon’s sister, who was a teenager when Oberon was born. Oberon generally says that she was born in Tasmania, a remote island state in Australia, and that her birth certificates were destroyed in a fire accident. Oberon said that she relocated to India after the death of her British father. According to Halley, this is where her foreign nature originated.
Alexander Korda, the Hungarian director who cast her as Anne Boleyn in the 1933 film “The Private Life of Henry VIII,” gave her her major break as an actor. She was also nominated for the Oscar for best actress in 1936 for her performance as Kitty Vane in “The Dark Angel,” which depicted a love triangle between Oberon and two soldiers during World War I. However, she was arguably best recognized for her performance as Cathy in the 1939 Samuel Goldwyn picture Wuthering Heights.
Oberon’s roots were disclosed in a 1983 biography titled “Princess Merle: The Romantic Life of Merle Oberon,” which was published after her death in 1979. Oberon had a long and illustrious career and died without revealing her secret. Tasmanians regarded her as a native daughter for many years, even after her masquerade had disintegrated. As only her family and the closest companions knew her actual ethnicity in 1936, it was likely that she was nominated for best actor as a white lady in 1936. However, she was defeated by Bette Davis.
It is accurate to say that Yeoh is the first Asian-origin woman to be nominated for the best actress. This is similar to how LGBTQ sportsmen and politicians are often revealed as the first “openly gay” or “openly bisexual” members in their profession, despite the fact that many before them were later revealed to be closeted. If Yeoh, a dearest of many Asians across the world, bags the award at the Oscars on March 12, she becomes the first actress of Asia origin to win the award openly, 87 years after Oberon secretly began blazing the way.
