Ke Huy Quan, an icon of many childhoods thanks to his roles in Indiana Jones and The Goonies, has revealed how to return to acting after decades away from being in front of the camera.
The now 51-year-old actor spoke about how he made ‘the difficult decision to step away’ from his career in the 1990s after experiencing a lack of opportunities as he aged out of playing the teenage parts that put him in two of the biggest films of the 1980s.
Stardom had beckoned after he tagged along with his younger brother for an open call in Chinatown, Los Angeles, held by and who were searching for an actor to play wise-cracking (and whip-cracking) archaeologist Indiana Jones’ sidekick Short Round in the franchise’s second instalment, 1984’s Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
Ke – also credited as Joathan Ke Quan – then went straight into playing Data in The Goonies, another classic Spielberg production, the following year.
After a handful more onscreen roles though, including Encino Man and TV series Head of the Class, he carved out a niche behind the scenes, including as a stunt rigger on 2000’s X-Men.
Appearing on Jimmy Kimmel Live, he told the host of his switch to behind camera: ‘It’s not that I wanted to. If I’m honest, it was tough to be an Asian actor at that time, as I got older.’
He added: ‘I’m very grateful for the Asian representation that we have seen the last few years. I made that difficult decision to step away not because I didn’t love it – I really love it – but there just wasn’t a lot of opportunities for me at that time.
‘So I was content working behind the cameras all these years until 2018 when a little movie called Crazy Rich Asians came out.’
Sharing that he had at the cinema and ‘cried every single time’, he joked that not only was he ‘moved’ but he also had ‘serious FOMO’.
‘I wanted to be up there with them, and it was really then that I decided to get back into acting.’
It took just two weeks for Ke to get a call about his new film after an old friend agreed to represent him as his agent.
The actor is starring in Everything Everywhere All at Once alongside , , Jenny Slate and James Hong.
In it he plays three different versions of Michelle’s husband Waymond Wang, after her character Evelyn is swept up in an insane adventure, where she alone can save the world by exploring other universes connecting with the lives she could have led.
‘It was the one of the happiest readings I’ve ever done because it featured a Chinese family and it was a script that I’d wanted to read for many, many, many years,’ he said. ‘It just didn’t exist before.’
It seems Hollywood is ready to eagerly welcome the star back into the fold as he is already onto his next project, TV series American Born Chinese, also with Michelle Yeoh.
The Vietnam-born actor also spilled the beans on his first full meeting with Spielberg, Lucas and at the age of 12.
Having been dressed in a three-piece suit by his mum for the initial meeting with Spielberg, the director told him to come back in ‘something comfortable’.
‘I went back the next day, I walked in the room and there was Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Harrison Ford. We spent an entire afternoon together and three weeks later I was on a flight to Sri Lanka, and it was the best adventure of my life.’
Everything Everywhere All at Once is out now in US cinemas with a UK date yet to be announced.
