Michelle Yeoh Recalls Supercop Stunt That Nearly Killed Her

Everything Everywhere All At Once star Michelle Yeoh reveals that there was one stunt in Supercop that very nearly killed her. Born in Malaysia, Yeoh is a revered name in action cinema and has starred in hits like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Tomorrow Never Dies, the Supercop franchise, Gunpowder Milkshake, and, most recently, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. Yeoh is also slated to appear in a number of highly anticipated films, including The School For Good And Evil and the Avatar sequels.

Yeoh is well known for her collaboration with Hong Kong action legend Jackie Chan in both 1992’s Supercop and 1993’s Supercop 2. The stunt-heavy Supercop, which is technically a continuation of the story in Police Story and Police Story 2, chronicles a Hong Kong Detective Ka-Kui (Chan), who is forced to team up with Interpol Inspector Jessica Yang (Yeoh) in order to take down a Chinese drug lord. Yeoh would also appear in Supercop 2 in a more central role with Chan only appearing in a cameo.

In a new interview with EW ahead of the release of Yeoh’s upcoming sci-fi film Everything Everywhere All At Once, she reflects on her time shooting Supercop and reveals that there was one stunt that almost killed her. In one memorable sequence, Yeoh’s character is stuck on top of the villain’s van and must jump about six feet down onto the hood of a speeding convertible, which is driven by Chan. Unfortunately, things didn’t go as planned and Yeoh bounced off the vehicle and was nearly hit by two cars following behind. Check out Yeoh’s full comment about the experience below:

“The windscreen was supposed to shatter, and that would have helped me have a break. But the windscreen didn’t shatter, I had nowhere to hold onto, and I kept sliding off the car. All I remember was like ‘Duhn!’ on the ground. Fortunately, I didn’t go head first. Then I hear Jackie. He was like, ‘Okay, okay, that’s it! Enough! We are finished for the day! We’re not doing anymore! This is stupid! This is ridiculous! We’re not doing it!'”

Yeoh explains that in Asian cinema at the time, rehearsals were fairly minimal, with stunts being learned quickly and then performed on camera immediately. Interestingly, it was this same approach that very nearly got Chan killed during his own stunt on Police Story several years earlier. While things seemed straightforward to Yeoh when the two vehicles were standing still, it quickly became a different story when both were speeding down a highway. The experience must have been quite jarring for everyone involved because even Chan, who is known for his dangerous stunts, decided to call it a day.

These days, weeks of preparation go into stunts to ensure the safety of everyone involved, and Yeoh’s story certainly makes it clear that it was a different time back then. Now, of course, it’s likely that a stunt like the convertible jump in Supercop wouldn’t be done entirely practically and that green screen and CGI would be used to make things safer. Although the lax safety precautions in many movies of Chan’s Supercop era have given audiences some of the most breathtaking and thrilling action sequences of all time, Yeoh’s story highlights the extreme danger for the performers involved and the potential for deadly accidents. Fortunately, however, Yeoh lived to tell the tale and, thirty years later, is set to deliver even more slick action in the upcoming Everything Everywhere All At Once.

Source: Entertainment Weekly

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