Living a dream: 'Everything Everywhere's' Ke Huy Quan can't believe the Oscar attention he's getting

LOS ANGELES – If Ke Huy Quan wins an Oscar for his work in “Everything Everywhere All At Once,” he knows who’s on the thank you list – co-star Michelle Yeoh.

“She inspired me to get back into acting,” the Best Supporting Actor nominee says. “She gave me the courage to dream again, to give voice to this dream that I had for a long, long time.”

After making his debut at age 12 in “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom,” Quan got work in “The Goonies” and other kid-friendly films. As he got older, roles disappeared. He figured his acting career was over. Enrolling at the University of Southern California, he got a degree in film and transitioned to work behind the camera.

But acting? It took the success of Yeoh’s “Crazy Rich Asians” to get him to even think about it. When Director Daniel Kwan was searching for someone to play Yeoh’s husband in “Everything Everywhere,” he found Quan’s Twitter page and asked if he’d like to audition.

“I was content (working behind the camera) until I noticed that the landscape had changed drastically,” Quan says. “When I started out as a kid, it was very difficult to be an Asian actor. There were not a lot of opportunities. The last five years, there’s a lot more progress.”

When “Everything Everywhere” was released, Quan got great reviews and a shot at a second career. When “awards” season began, his name was bandied about. At the Golden Globes and Critics Choice Awards (which he won), Quan was one of the most grateful recipients, delighting in the attention Hollywood had offered. At last week’s Academy Awards luncheon, he was quick to meet as many fellow nominees as possible, reuniting with his old boss Stephen Spielberg and taking photos with others who could consider him competition.

To prove “Everything Everywhere” is not a fluke, the 51-year-old has been cast in “American Born Chinese,” a new Disney+ series in which he plays Freddy Wong, a fictional character from a mid-1990s sitcom.

“It’s practically putting a mirror up to yourself and showing the audience what that was like,” Quan says. “When the show comes out, the audience is going to have a range of emotions. Some are going to be very angry with it. Some are going to think it’s funny. And that’s OK because that is something for us to talk about, to make progress, to be better.”

Back to homepage

Subscriber Login

Keep reading with a digital access subscription.

Subscribe now

“American Born Chinese” follows a teenager who moves from San Francisco’s Chinatown to a suburb where there’s only one other Asian student. He struggles with his identity and draws on the journeys of others to find his own path.

When Quan spoke with the series’ producers, he wanted to be assured they would continue to employ him if “people hate my character and nobody wants to hire me again.”

Executive Producer Kelvin Yu was convinced Quan was right for the role: “We needed an actor who (could play) a character that surprises you. Ke Quan is nothing if not an actor who surprises you.”

If he wins the Oscar, he’ll also be a drawing card for the series.

“For the longest time, we haven’t seen a show like this,” Quan says. “It features an entire Asian cast. And that’s why I’m so grateful.”

Even better? Michelle Yeoh co-stars in “American Born Chinese,” too. She plays the Goddess of Mercy.

“She’s the goddess of compassion,” Yeoh says. “She didn’t go back to the heavens because she stayed to look after the people of the world. So all of us have a Goddess of Mercy in our house.”

Just like Quan.