Posted in: A24, Movies | Tagged: a24, Daniel Kwan, Everything Everywhere All at Once, Jonathan Ke Quan, Ke Huy Quan

Everything Everywhere All at Once Star Ke Huy Quan on Acting Return

Ke Huy Quan (aka Jonathan Ke Quan) was one of the biggest emerging faces in Hollywood back in the 1980s as a child star with his breakout role in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) as Short Round, the young traveling companion of Indy (Harrison Ford) who helped him battle a death cult in India. Quan followed up the performance with the equally memorable role as the resourceful genius Data in The Goonies (1985). Steven Spielberg not only directed him in the Ford-starred film but also co-wrote with Christopher Columbus on the Richard Donner film. Regularly acting throughout the 80s and 90s, Quan decided to take a break from acting in 2002, opting for more behind-the-scenes work until re-emerging in front of the camera. While promoting his latest film Everything Everywhere All at Once, the cast and crew spoke with Entertainment Weekly about how the actors return to the screen.

The story follows an aging Chinese immigrant (Yeoh) who 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. Director Daniel Kwan and co-writer and co-director Daniel Scheinert were trying to cast the role of Waymond in the Michelle Yeoh-starred science fiction-comedy drama. The role called for someone who could play three parts from alternate dimensions. One version of Waymond was the mild-mannered husband of Evelyn Wang (Yeoh), the second was a martial arts expert, and the third was a romantic lead. "With this character, we needed someone who could do the drama, do the comedy, [be] bilingual, maybe even trilingual, a martial artist, and then on top of that, be able to be convincingly dopey and sweet," Kwan said. "A lot of people who do martial arts tend to skew in the other direction, and so we struggled for a while." He found Quan on Twitter in his iconic role from the second Indiana Jones film. "I started doing the math in my head. I was, like; he would be the right age. What is that guy up to? I went down a rabbit hole and found out he had quit acting because there weren't that many roles for him. So he moved on."

"It was not until the year 2018, when 'Crazy Rich Asians' came out, [that] the idea of getting back to my roots started percolating in my head, and I decided to get back into acting," Quan said." So I called a friend who is an agent, and I said, 'Hey would you like to rep me?' and this is decades without an agent. He says yes. Two weeks later, I got this call about this project that's written and directed by the Daniels and stars Michelle Yeoh. I was like, oh my God! I mean, Michelle is the reason why I'm even thinking about getting back into acting in the first place."

Quan recalled his time getting back into the acting horse after learning the craft more behind the scenes and studying film at USC. "I did 'Finding 'Ohana' after I got the role of Waymond for 'Everything Everywhere All At Once,'" says Quan. "The reason I got 'Finding 'Ohana' was, I was with some friends, and one of my friends started talking to the director Jude Weng. I'm listening to this conversation, and I hear Jude Weng talking about how she's getting ready to do a movie for Netflix called Finding' Ohana; it's kind of like Indiana Jones-meets-'The Goonies'. I'm hearing this, and I'm like, wait a minute, I think I'm in both of those movies! So I got up, and I introduced myself, and four months later, I got a call from her saying, 'Hey, would like to be a part of this?' It was a small role, but it was a really nice and much-needed warm-up for Everything Everywhere…, so I was just really happy to do it." For more on Quan's journey to Hollywood with Spielberg and George Lucas, his success on TV, work behind-the-scenes, comments from co-star Yeoh and director Kwan, and upcoming projects, you can go to EW. A24's Everything Everywhere All at Once, which also stars Stephanie Hsu, James Hong, Harry Shum Jr, and Jamie Lee Curtis, comes to theaters on March 25.

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!