Michelle Yeoh deletes controversial Oscars post about Cate Blanchett

Michelle Yeoh has deleted an Instagram post where she shared an article about the Oscars race for Best Actress, which referred to fellow nominee Cate Blanchett.

The actor, who is in the running for her performance in Everything Everywhere All At Once, spotlighted the Vogue article “It’s Been Over Two Decades Since We’ve Had A Non-White Best Actress Winner. Will That Change in 2023?” on Tuesday (March 7).

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While most of the article highlights the lack of representation at the Academy Awards, a paragraph – included in Yeoh’s Instagram post – specifically refers to Blanchett who is nominated for her performance in Tár.

“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 article reads. “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?

“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.”

According to The Daily Beast, the post was shared hours before Oscars voting was set to close at 5.30pm ET on Tuesday. The post, however, was deleted shortly afterwards.

It’s believed the deleted post may have been a potential violation of the Academy’s campaign rules. Under the ‘References to Other Nominees’ section, Part B reads: “Any tactic that singles out ‘the competition’ by name or titles is expressly forbidden.”

The same rule received attention earlier this year when the Academy conducted a review into accusations of unfair tactics regarding the nomination of Andrea Riseborough for film To Leslie. Following the review, the Academy upheld her nomination but discovered “social media and outreach campaigning tactics that caused concern”.

NME has reached out to the Academy for comment.

Yeoh and Blanchett are the frontrunners to take the Best Actress Oscar at this year’s ceremony, against Riseborough, Michelle Williams and Ana de Armas. The 95th Academy Awards take place on Sunday, March 12 in Los Angeles.

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