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Michelle Yeoh's Surgical Skills Shine in 'The Surgeon' at Toronto Film Festival
Confirmed
In Short: Michelle Yeoh's performance as a kidnapped surgeon in 'The Surgeon' has impressed critics at the Toronto International Film Festival, with her martial arts skills and surgical training elevating the action thriller.
Yeoh's character, Eliza Lim, is a recently retired surgeon forced to operate on a criminal at gunpoint. "The Surgeon isn't a character study, but we instantly know who that character is," Sethi told TheWrap. Yeoh's training for the role was extensive, involving a pig dissection at the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin, where the movie was shot.
Oscar-winning Yeoh took her training quite seriously, wanting the surgical movements to come off as authentic as possible. "My brother sent some very funny short films where I had asked him to cut toast like a surgeon, just so everything felt like a surgeon," Sethi said. Yeoh's dedication paid off, as her character uses her exceptional ability to turn every key body part into a death sentence, particularly in a clock-ticking demonstration of how lethal her hands can be when she sets about slicing and dicing with her scalpel.
What's confirmed
- Yeoh's character, Eliza Lim, is a recently retired surgeon forced to operate on a criminal at gunpoint. "The Surgeon isn't a character study, but we instantly know who that character is," Sethi told TheWrap. Yeoh's training for the role was extensive, involving a pig dissection at the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin, where the movie was shot.
- Oscar-winning Yeoh took her training quite seriously, wanting the surgical movements to come off as authentic as possible. "My brother sent some very funny short films where I had asked him to cut toast like a surgeon, just so everything felt like a surgeon," Sethi said. Yeoh's dedication paid off, as her character uses her exceptional ability to turn every key body part into a death sentence, particularly in a clock-ticking demonstration of how lethal her hands can be when she sets about slicing and dicing with her scalpel.
What's still developing
- Yeoh’s martial arts skills really come into play in battling these guys by manipulating their mobility in delightfully paralyzing ways.
- Although Freeman creates a fairly dimensional character while the other baddies are strictly stereotypes, it is Yeoh that makes this enterprise worth watching.
- There can be no doubt this film, which had its world premiere tonight at the Toronto International Film Festival, is a tailor made vehicle guaranteed to turn up the temperature for Yeoh fans everywhere all at once.
- Yeoh, of course, started out in martial arts films, but that is not the kind of action displayed here.
- Sethi’s film is perfectly in sync with Yeoh’s strengths.
- TIFF 2026: “It was really important for me, so that when I did the movements and all that, it looked real,” the actress tells TheWrap For her role as a kidnapped surgeon forced to perform one last operation in the action thriller “The Surgeon,” Oscar-winning actress Michelle Yeoh took her training to the next level by learning how to actually perform surgery.
- “She ran Michelle through everything, like how to scrub in, how to operate, how to do the knots, everything,” Sethi told Jada Yuan at TheWrap’s studio at the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival.
- As part of her training, Yeoh also observed a pig dissection at the Royal College, much to the surprise of the medical students who also watched the pig dissection with the Oscar winner.