This combo shows file photos of Myanmar’s newly-released opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi (L) as she arrives at the National League for Democracy (NLD) headquarters in Yangon on November 15, 2010 and Malaysian actress Michelle Yeoh (R) arriving to attend the Amfar auction on May 21, 2009 in Antibes, southern France. Yeoh is playing the role of Aung San Suu Kyi in a film about the life of Myanmar’s pro-democracy champion
Former James Bond girl Michelle Yeoh has reportedly been deported from Myanmar, also known as Burma, after meeting with freed democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, whom she portrays in an upcoming film.
The former Miss Malaysia, who plays Suu Kyi in the Luc Besson film "The Lady," to be released later this year, was blacklisted by the Myanmar's ruling junta and can no longer enter the country, the Times of India reports.
Yeoh, who earned international fame starring as a Chinese spy in the 1997 Bond film "Tomorrow Never Dies" alongside Pierce Brosnan, and then in Ang Lee's "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon," had met Nobel Prize winner Suu Kyi in December.
Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won the Myanmar election in 1990. But she was put under house arrest for 15 of the next 20 years.
Suu Kyi was released in November last year, a week after military-controlled elections marked what the government called a return to civilian rule, the BBC reports.
According to the Telegraph:
The 48-year-old Malaysian actress who filmed the work with French director Luc Besson in neighboring Thailand, said she hoped the piece would raise awareness about Ms Suu Kyi, 66. Yeoh felt that many people had forgotten or misunderstood Miss Suu Kyi's story after almost 20 years cut off from the world in detention.
Yeoh has called the film an "incredible love story that has political turmoil within," a reference to Miss Suu Kyi's marriage to British academic Michael Aris, who died while she was in detention, the Telegraph reports.
Yeoh visited the Nobel Peace Prize winner on December 8 and spent the afternoon at her crumbling lakeside mansion in Yangon, Nyan Win, a spokesman for Suu Kyi, reportedly said.
Yeoh was reportedly stopped at the airport in Myanmar's main city, Yangon (Rangoon), trying to re-enter the country last Wednesday, and sent back on the first available flight.
No official reason was given for her ejection.
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