Yeoh, who shot to international fame when she starred as a Chinese spy in the 1997 film Tomorrow Never Dies alongside Pierce Brosnan, was stopped at the airport in Burma's main city, Rangoon, and sent back on the first available flight.
No reason was given for her ejection, but the Hollywood actress spent time with Miss Suu Kyi after her release from house arrest last December in preparation for her role in The Lady, as the Nobel peace laureate is universally known in Burma.
The leader of opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) was freed after spending most of the past 20 years in detention just days after Burma's first elections in two decades, widely criticised as a sham the military junta still holds the reins of power.
Miss Suu Kyi's NLD boycotted the poll, and though the military regime handed control to the civilian government in March, few believed it is anything more than a rubber stamp for the will of the generals and their cronies.
The 48-year-old Malaysian actress who filmed the work with French director Luc Besson in neighbouring 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.
Speaking about the role Yeoh, a former Miss Malaysia, said it was an "incredible love story that has political turmoil within", reference to Miss Suu Kyi's marriage to British academic Michael Aris, who died while she was in detention.
Yeoh, who starred in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Memoirs of a Geisha and lent her voice to the animation Kung Fu Panda, travelled to Burma in December with the couple's son, Kim Aris. He was allowed to return to country earlier this month to mark his mother's sixty-sixth birthday.
But when she tried to return to Burma last Wednesday she was held and immediately turned away. Nyan Winn, a spokesman for Miss Suu Kyi, was able to confirm the actress's deportation by had no other details. It is not clear why Yeoh was attempting to get back into the country
"She did not have the chance to enter [Burma] again," said a Burmese official. "She was deported straight away on the first flight after arriving at [Rangoon] International Airport." The film currently being edited is due for release in late August or early September.
No reason was given for her ejection, but the Hollywood actress spent time with Miss Suu Kyi after her release from house arrest last December in preparation for her role in The Lady, as the Nobel peace laureate is universally known in Burma.
The leader of opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) was freed after spending most of the past 20 years in detention just days after Burma's first elections in two decades, widely criticised as a sham the military junta still holds the reins of power.
Miss Suu Kyi's NLD boycotted the poll, and though the military regime handed control to the civilian government in March, few believed it is anything more than a rubber stamp for the will of the generals and their cronies.
The 48-year-old Malaysian actress who filmed the work with French director Luc Besson in neighbouring 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, who starred in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Memoirs of a Geisha and lent her voice to the animation Kung Fu Panda, travelled to Burma in December with the couple's son, Kim Aris. He was allowed to return to country earlier this month to mark his mother's sixty-sixth birthday.
But when she tried to return to Burma last Wednesday she was held and immediately turned away. Nyan Winn, a spokesman for Miss Suu Kyi, was able to confirm the actress's deportation by had no other details. It is not clear why Yeoh was attempting to get back into the country
"She did not have the chance to enter [Burma] again," said a Burmese official. "She was deported straight away on the first flight after arriving at [Rangoon] International Airport." The film currently being edited is due for release in late August or early September.
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