Yeoh says one of the times she decided to speak up was when in talks to work on Danny Boyle’s “Sunshine,” the 2007 cosmic horror sci-fi film about a group of astronauts who attempt to save the earth by fixing the dying sun. On their journey toward the fireball, they begin to develop a sort of space madness, and their mission becomes the least of their worries as some shipmates begin acting erratically. According to Yeoh, Boyle had already approached her with an open mind. “When I first received the script, it was written for a man to start off with,” she says. “So that was already such a joy that Danny thought, ‘Well, you know, I would change it for you.'”
The actress decided to take a chance and share some feedback on the script, despite the fact that it would’ve been easy for a director to respond, as she puts it, “‘Okay, bye, thank you but no thank you!'” Yeoh pointed out that in a futuristic setting, it would make sense for a coalition of global astronauts to try to save earth, as opposed to two largely white demographics. She shared:
“At that point I said to him, ‘Why do you think at that time it’s still the Russians and the Americans going to space? Wouldn’t you have more Japanese, Chinese, and it would be a more united group going up to save the earth. It’s not like a mission to Mars on your own, right? It would be a more collaborative effort.'”