20 Things You Didn’t Know About Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)
5. “I Could Have Taken Care Of Him!”
A chance meeting between Malaysian actress, Michelle Yeoh and Jack Kleeman, then-Vice-President in Charge of Production at United Artists, led her to audition for the role of Chinese People’s External Security Force agent, Lin Pow. It was the first time that she had had to audition for a role. When she was cast, she asked that the character be renamed Wai Lin instead.
Barbara Broccoli arranged a special dinner between Yeoh and Pierce Brosnan to help acclimatise Yeoh to working on a Western action movie.
Used to performing almost all of her own stunts in the Hong Kong action films for which she was known, Michelle Yeoh tried to do the same in Tomorrow Never Dies, but Roger Spottiswoode was adamant that it was too dangerous.
Nevertheless, aware of Yeoh’s formidable reputation, the stunt team convinced Spottiswoode to hire Jackie Chan’s stunt team. This allowed Yeoh to perform fight scenes alongside Chan’s team, which was managed by Phillip Chung-Fung Kwok (credited as Philip Kwok), who appeared fleetingly onscreen as Carver’s partner-in-crime, General Chang.