“I’ve already talked to my agent about it,” says Quan, who is still delighted with his Oscar. “I’m concerned that this may have been a one-off.”
Quan immigrated with his parents from Vietnam as a child and was unexpectedly offered a film role in the United States. He appeared in two major films in quick succession: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom in The Goonies.
After that his career was a lot more difficult. While Quan took on work as a fight choreographer and producer, his auditions usually came to nothing. His wife kept saying reassuringly that his time would come.
“Sometimes I got frustrated with that,” says the recent Oscar winner. “I didn’t believe it would ever happen. Twenty years is not a short period of time.”
‘I blamed myself’
“I’ve learned never to blame anyone else,” Quan continues. “If something doesn’t go the way you want it to, it’s because you didn’t work hard enough, because you weren’t good enough, or because you didn’t try hard enough. So when I kept failing, I blamed myself .”
Quan has now completed several new projects, including the second season of Loki and the new sci-fi movie The Electric State. There are no further plans yet.
“I just sat next to Cate Blanchett at an event,” says the actor. “I said I didn’t know what I was going to do next, but I felt a responsibility to do something good. I don’t want to disappoint the people who supported me.”
“Her answer was, ‘Just follow your heart and be irresponsible. Don’t worry about what others think. Choose something you believe in, choose something you love and you’ll see it work.'”
