Don’t bother opening Instagram to look for the post that had Cate Blanchett fans turning against Michelle Yeoh at the flick of a switch, because you won’t find it. The Everything Everywhere All At Once actress has since deleted the controversial publication, not because of the angry Blanchett-heads in her comments, but because it might have broken Academy campaigning rules.
The post in question consisted of screenshots from a Vogue article calling for Yeoh’s win on Sunday, while criticizing the film industry’s historical racism in the Best Leading Actress category — namely the fact that in 94 years, only one non-white woman has won the Oscar. Yeoh captioned it with “This is not just for me, this is for every little girl that looks like me.”
The real culprit, however, was the very last screenshot shared by Yeoh, where TÀR star Cate Blanchett is mentioned by name, in an argument that poses that Blanchett’s career wouldn’t be much impacted by a third Oscar win, while for Yeoh it would be “life-changing.” This extract didn’t just trigger Blanchett fans, who thought the Malaysian actress was defending identity politics over merit, but also may have violated the Academy’s regulations for the promotion of films during the voting period. Yeoh shared the article a few hours before voting for the upcoming Oscars was set to close.
In a Best Actress race that has been plagued by controversy, another possible breach of conduct was the last thing the Academy needed. When members of the Academy were voting for who they thought should be nominated back in January, Titanic actress Frances Fisher also campaigned for Andrea Riseborough’s much-disputed nod while referring to her competition by name.
The Academy explicitly states that “any tactic that singles out “the competition” by name or title is expressly forbidden.” Since Fisher wasn’t directly involved in Riseborough’s nominated film To Leslie, her misstep didn’t result in her peer’s disqualification, but Yeoh’s post — albeit deleted — still could.
The argument could also be made that Yeoh didn’t write the article herself, so she wasn’t technically the one mentioning Blanchett’s name. The two actresses have been extremely supportive of one another throughout this award season, so any actual intention by Yeoh to put her fellow nominee down would be shocking.
The post instantly pitted fans of both actresses against each other, with those on Blanchett’s side saying they lost respect for Yeoh, among other borderline racist comments. A lot of voices came in defense of the history-making SAG winner, though, by highlighting that the point of the Vogue piece wasn’t to negate Blanchett’s claim to the coveted award but to call out the Academy’s shameful racist past.
Neither the Academy, Yeoh nor Blanchett have commented on the mishap. We Got This Covered has reached out to both the Academy and Michelle Yeoh for comment.
The 2023 Oscars air Sunday, March 12, on ABC.
Editor’s Note: This article has been amended to reflect the most accurate information regarding Academy rules and Yeoh’s Instagram post.