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Michelle Yeoh turned her attention to “Blade Runner 2099” at a Busan International Film Festival press conference on Wednesday, before she flies to New York Comic Con to promote the Prime Video series.
“To be given an
opportunity to take it to 2099 is indeed an amazing journey, and to work with such a great talent like Hunter Schafer is a great joy,” Yeoh said. “Silka Luisa, who is our showrunner, Alcon, Ridley Scott as well, has welcomed us into this world of replicants and humans, and I can’t wait for all of you to watch it.”
Yeoh will join Schafer, Luisa and other members of the team for a panel at the New York event. All eight episodes of the limited series will be released on Nov. 25. Yeoh plays Olwen, a replicant Blade Runner nearing the end of her life, who partners with Schafer’s Cora, a mysterious new recruit.
“I love being an actor; I actually love being a producer, but I think being an amazing, great director, you have no life,” Yeoh said when asked whether directing might be next for her. “There is so much of your vision of that person, that writer, and I think I am not able to rise to that. So I will stick to what I know a little bit better, and hope to support directors who have that vision.”
Yeoh, who received the festival’s Asian Filmmaker of the Year award at the opening ceremony, said she was most looking forward to Lee Chang-dong’s “Possible Love” and would love to work with Park Chan-wook and Bong Joon Ho.
“I hope I have the privilege of working more in Korea as well, because I’m a big fan of K-pop, K-drama, Korean food, and especially Korean movies,” she said.
Yeoh is in Busan with “It’s My Time,” a film based on a true story that marks her return to Chinese-language cinema. She also produced the picture, which is directed by Bai Xue and produced by Wen-Hui Yeh. Peter Lam of Media Asia brought her together with the filmmakers.
“I think I spent quite a few years trying to build a bridge from the East to the West, and then now from the West to the East,” Yeoh said. “And hopefully, the bridge will just stay there and I’m able to cross over whenever I want.”
Yeoh plays Zhao Yanhong, a nursing-home resident in her 70s who discovers a gift for the Rubik’s Cube. The role is inspired by Zhao Wenying, a retired math teacher who became the quickest over-60 competitor to solve the puzzle blindfolded. Yeoh said her mother hates the look because she thinks it makes her daughter seem 80.
The actor said she enjoys working with new, young directors. The Daniels were only on their second film with “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” and Roshan Sethi, who directed her latest film “The Surgeon,” which premiered at Toronto, is also a second-time director.
“If you read their script, you’d wonder if they were actually a little bit insane. The fact is they are, that’s why they’re such geniuses,” Yeoh said of the Daniels.
Yeoh has a long history with Busan. She took part in the festival’s Pusan Promotion Plan as a producer in 2002 and attended in 2011 with “The Lady.” This year’s visit is her first in 15 years. Earlier in 2026, she received an honorary Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival.
Recalling her early Hollywood years, Yeoh said she was shocked to be told she was a minority, and that even after the James Bond film “Tomorrow Never Dies,” the parts on offer remained stereotypical. She waited roughly two years before taking on “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.”
That film brought one of the harder moments of her career, as she had knee surgery partway through the shoot. Yeoh said she now laughs about the scene where Chow Yun-fat dies in her arms. “If you pull back the camera, because I had knee surgery, I couldn’t cross legs and cradle Chow. I had my leg literally on a box,” she said. “So it’s kind of funny looking, with one leg up there and then Chow up here.”
