The actor Ke Huy Quan, known for his role in Steven Spielberg's Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Damned and in The Goonies, has been one of the stars of this year's Oscars. The Vietnamese-American actor left his job in the world of cinema at the end of the 90s and in 2020 decided to return to work in the industry for the film Everything Everywhere All At Once, Everything at once everywhere in Spanish.
Harrison Ford has been in charge of giving the Oscar statuette for Best Picture for Everything at the same time everywhere and the two actors have starred in a tender reunion on the stage of the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles. Everything at once everywhere has been the great winner of the night, obtaining the awards for Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actress and Best Film, among others.
Everything at once everywhere has been the big winner of the 2023 Oscars gala held this Sunday at dawn at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles. The film has won in the big Oscar categories, including Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor. The interpreter Ke Huy Quan has been the winner in this last category, an actor who as a young man participated in films such as The Goonies or Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and who, before entering the new millennium, decided to put aside his career in interpretation.
Quan returned to the audiovisual industry in 2020 to work on Everything at once everywhere in the role of Waymond, the husband of the character played by Michelle Yeoh, Oscar winner in the category of Best Actress. This role first earned him an Oscar nomination, which he finally ended up winning at this 95th edition of the American Film Academy Awards.
However, the most tender moment was when Ke Huy Quan took the stage at the Dolby Theater along with the rest of the film crew to receive the Best Film award from actor Harrison Ford. The Indiana Jones star and Ke Huy Quan have melted into an affectionate hug and kiss after meeting again on stage.
The truth is that both actors worked together almost 40 years ago on Steven Spielberg's Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. At that time, Ke Huy Quan was just a 12-year-old boy and he was just starting out in the world of acting. After a lifetime of waiting, the actor has finally gotten his long-awaited Oscar and Harrison Ford has celebrated it as if he had won it.
Quan's story is inspiring, as for years he thought he didn't have an easy path as an Asian actor in Hollywood. After starring in movies like Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom or The Goonies, in his late teens and early twenties, Ke Huy Quan spent a lot of time waiting by the phone for his agent to call him about an opportunity to audition for something.
"I thought he wasn't handsome enough, he wasn't tall enough, there just wasn't a lot of opportunity for Asian actors," Quan recalled in an interview with the BBC ahead of the 2023 Oscars ceremony.
For a long time, Quan buried his desire to act, until he saw the movie Crazy Rich Asians in 2018 and noticed the landscape was changing. "One night I had a conversation with my wife. I told her that I wanted to act again. And when the fear of regret overcame any fear of going back, that's when I decided: I have to do this," said the actor in the aforementioned interview.
Two weeks after making that decision, Quan received a call to be a part of All at Once Everywhere and the rest is history. It has been difficult for the interpreter to find a place in Hollywood again, but in various statements he has assured that he is sure that he would not have been able to play his character, Waymond, in the film if he had had a different path in his life.
