KUALA LUMPUR, March 9 — Oscar hopeful Tan Sri Michelle Yeoh shared, and then deleted a screenshot of an article on her social media as it may have violated the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ “References to Other Nominees” rule.
Yeoh had on Tuesday shared the screenshot of a Vogue article “It’s Been Over Two Decades Since We’ve Had a Non-White Best Actress Winner. Will That Change in 2023?” which highlighted the potential outcome of her becoming the first Asian woman to win the best actress award.
The article also pondered if Yeoh’s stiffest competition, Cate Blanchett, who won the Oscar for the best-supporting-actress for The Aviator in 2005 and best actress for Blue Jasmine in 2014, needs to win for the third time for her role in Tár.
The post was, however, removed hours before Oscar voting closed, Vanity Fair reported.
The story highlighted the lack of diversity in the Best Actress category with Halle Berry remains the only non-white lead actress Oscar winner in 2002 for her work in Monster’s Ball.
“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,” the screenshot of the article from the now deleted Instagram post read.
“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?”
Yeoh and Blanchett are the front-runners for this year’s best actress race.
Blanchett had taken home top honours at the Critics Choice Awards and the BAFTAs while Yeoh bagged the SAG Awards and the Indie Spirit Awards this year.
The Oscars will be aired Monday, March 13, at 8am.