Yesterday the Academy Awards announced the nominations for every category. One film that got various nominations was Everything Everywhere All At Once, with 11 Oscar nominations.

Tuesday morning, Michelle Yeoh made Academy history as the first self-identifying Asian to have a nomination as a Lead actress.

Right after the announcement, an article written by Deadline spoke with Yeoh about what she was going through:

“I think what I, What it means to me, is all those Asians out there go, ‘You see, it’s possible. If she can do it, I can freaking well do it as well.’ That is the most important thing. I’m very ordinary. I just work very hard. There are so many brilliant actresses, actors out there who know that they have a seat at the table. All they have to do is find an opportunity and get there.”

Yeoh also tells the audience how she felt grateful when she heard for the first time her name being called out in the Academy Awards nominations. Deadline who spoke with Yeoh, writes,

“I was so terrified, sitting here thinking, what if I don’t get nominated? What about all those people who have such hopes and they’ve pinned their hopes and aspirations on you to tell us that we should be there? … Sometimes you don’t do things for yourself. You tell stories because it’s important for that story to be told. And you need need it to be out there. And I understand the need for our Asians to turn around and say, ‘We need this,’ because it just validates that we deserve to have a seat at the table, and we deserve to be part of all this.”

Another actress who was nominated was Yeoh’s co-star Stephanie Hsu. Hsu was nominated for Best Actress in a Supporting Role. When the nominations began, Hsu was on a plane from Sydney, where her wifi was cut-off, and she had to ask the stewardess if she could reset it. Hsu says, “She probably thought I was a tech-obsessed millennial who couldn’t be with her phone,” wrote Deadline.

Ke Huy Quan also made history when he was nominated for the first time for the Academy Awards for Best Support Actor. Quan has explained how hard it has been for him to find roles that he even lost his health insurance, then he was cast in Everything Everywhere All at Once. In the same article, Deadline also writes about Quan’s feelings “I was just so worried that [getting hired for Everything Everywhere] was a one-time thing, and that’s it. Nobody wants to hire me again. Then the movie came out, and it changed my life. Everything that has happened since has been unbelievable.”

The Academy Awards will premiere on March 12 at 8 pm.