Ke Huy Quan: From forgotten Indiana Jones child star to Oscar hero – BBC News

Ke Huy Quan, a Vietnamese refugee, conquered Hollywood as a child, but disappeared from the scene for decades, until he decided to return to his dream and become an actor again. The original story about him by BBC correspondent Ian Youngs can be read Here.

Ke Huy Quan played star roles as a child in popular 1980s blockbusters The Goonies and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, but then disappeared from the screens. He gave up acting when he was no longer needed by Hollywood. And now he has triumphantly returned, immediately receiving an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.

“They say stories like this only happen in movies,” Quan said tearfully at the awards ceremony. “I can’t believe this is happening to me. It’s the American dream.”

His story would be hard to believe if it were the plot of a movie.

As a seven-year-old child, he fled Vietnam with his family in the late 1970s. He and his father ended up in Hong Kong, and his mother with three brothers and sisters – in Malaysia.

The family reunited, emigrating to the United States in 1979, where in 1984 Quan accidentally auditioned for the role of aspiring hustler Shorty in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

The very next year, he starred as gadget lover Date in The Goonies.

However, as the young man grew older, the roles became less and less, and as a result, Kuan worked as a stunt coordinator and assistant director.

Inspired by the 2018 film Crazy Rich Asians, Quan decided to try his luck again at the age of 50 and return to the stage.

An agent friend agreed to represent him, and a couple of weeks later, Quan received a call from the makers of Everything, Everywhere, All At Once. This film was his second acting breakthrough and earned him an Academy Award.

“My mother is 84 years old and she looks [эту церемонию] from home. Ma, I just got an Oscar!” he said from the stage, choking on emotion and kissing his golden figurine.

“My journey began in a boat. I spent a year in a refugee camp and somehow ended up on the biggest stage in Hollywood.”

Kuan called his experience of emigration traumatic.

“We were refugees,” he told the publication. Guardian last year. – Nobody needed us, we were called “fresh from the boat”. We were laughed at at school. You can imagine what that does to a child’s psyche.”

Quan’s life changed when he went to support his younger brother at the audition for Indiana Jones at the age of 12. Kuan was not going to audition, but the director insisted that he also try.

Three weeks later, he was on his way to Sri Lanka, where filming was about to begin.

“It was one of the happiest periods of my life,” Kuan said.

The portrayal of some of the characters and themes in Indiana Jones is still criticized, but Kuan thinks Spielberg deserves praise.

“Spielberg was the first to show an Asian face in a Hollywood blockbuster,” Kuan says. “Shorty is funny and brave, he saves Indy’s ass.”

He then starred in The Stooges alongside other young stars such as Sean Astin, Josh Brolin, Corey Feldman and Martha Plimpton.

After that, Kuan appeared in television sitcoms – “Together We Stand” and “Class President”. But with the onset of the 90s, there were fewer offers. Any roles that were sent to him were small and stereotypical.

“Going from a child actor to an adult actor is always difficult,” Kuan shared in an interview. Telegraph. “And when you’re Asian, it’s a hundred times harder.”

“If you take a hundred scenarios, there is a high probability that none of them will have significant Asian characters. In most cases, we are the butt of jokes.”

“Usually, when you are twenty-something, these are the golden years of your life. But all I did was wait for the phone to ring,” Kuan admits.

Over time, he stopped waiting, and decided to try to return to the screen only after the success of “Crazy Rich Asians” in 2018.

“I remember watching this movie in theaters three times and crying every time,” says Quan. other Asian actors.”

“That’s when I got the idea to go back to my roots.”

When Quan received the script for All Around All At Once, he may not have expected the film to lead him straight to the Oscars.

On paper, the film does not look very attractive. It’s an inventive mix of immigrant family indie drama, wild sci-fi adventure and superhero action.

Quan plays Waymond Wang, the husband of the laundry manager (Michelle Yeoh), as well as several alternate universe versions of Waymond.

Kuan admits he didn’t know how viewers would react when they saw the former child star as a middle-aged man.

“I was 50 when I decided to get back into acting,” he said. Los Angeles Times. “It took courage to speak out loud about a dream that I had to give up and that I didn’t think would come back.”

Ironically, it was a co-star from previous films who helped Quan land a role in the new film.

Jeff Cohen, who played Chunk in The Goonies, reinvented himself as an entertainment lawyer and helped Quan secure a contract. The film’s producer joked that he never thought he would have to talk to Chunk and Data for his film.

Both Quan and the film he starred in took Hollywood by storm. “Everything, Everywhere” took home seven Oscars on Sunday, including Best Picture and Best Actress for Kuan Yeoh’s on-screen wife.

Kuan was one of the most popular guests at this year’s awards show, with his unbridled enthusiasm and a flood of beaming selfies with A-list stars who seemed just as happy to meet him.

At the Oscars, Quan had a touching reunion with his former Indiana Jones co-star Harrison Ford, who presented the award for Best Supporting Actor.

In his speech, Quan thanked his mother “for the sacrifice she made for me.” He also thanked his brother and wife: “The love of my life, who month after month, year after year for 20 years told me that my time would come.”

He added: “You need to believe in dreams. I almost stopped believing in mine. I appeal to all of you – please do not stop dreaming.”