Actress Michelle Yeoh said that playing the role of Aung San Suu

Actress Michelle Yeoh said that playing the role of Aung San Suu Kyi in the “The Lady” was an opportunity of a lifetime, as the film about the Myanmar democracy leader made its debut in Hong Kong today.

But the Hong Kong-based, Malaysian-born star refused to be drawn on the film’s likely reception in Myanmar, otherwise known as Burma, where Suu Kyi’s recent release from house arrest has ignited the democracy movement.

“When I first heard that someone wants to make a movie about Aung San Suu Kyi, instinctively I knew as an actor that this is a role of a lifetime,” the former Bond girl told reporters ahead of the film’s Hong Kong premiere.

“She is such a revered person, she is such a good human being (who) would be very inspirational for me not just as an actor but for my audience as well.”

The 48-year-old star of films including “Tomorrow Never Dies” and “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” said the pressure of playing a Nobel Peace Prize winning icon of democratic struggle was a weight on her shoulders.

“The Lady” is a two-hour biopic that focuses on the private life of Suu Kyi, her late British husband, Michael Aris, and their two sons as she assumes the mantle of democracy leader in a country ruled by an iron-fisted junta.

While there is no scheduled release of the film in Myanmar, pirate copies of “The Lady” have flooded the streets of Yangon, which its French director Luc Besson described as an “excellent news”.

Besson filmed the movie in Thailand near its border with Myanmar, as well as secretly in Myanmar itself, and used footage shot by pro-democracy activists.

Source AFP