On Sunday night, Ke Huy Quan won an Oscar for his supporting actor performance in Everything Everywhere All at Once. Quan’s appearance in the film was a sudden reintroduction of a child star who had vanished from pop culture after a debut in 1984’s Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and The Goonies a year later.
An Emotional Quan stated, “My journey started on a boat, I spent a year in a refugee camp and somehow I ended up here on Hollywood’s biggest stage. They say stories like this only happen in the movies. I cannot believe it’s happening to me. This is the American dream!”
He continued to say, “I owe everything to the love of my life: my wife, Echo, who month after month, year after year for 20 years told me that one day my time will come, Dreams are something you have to believe in. I almost gave up on mine. To all of you out there: Please keep your dreams alive!”
Quan is only the second Asian performer to win in the supporting actor category after The Killing Field’s Haing S. Ngor in 1985. The only other Asian men to earn Oscars for acting are lead actor winners Yul Brynner, Ben Kingsley, and F. Murray Abraham.
Quan stated backstage that, “I remember when I was struggling, I would call my agent — I try not to bother them too much; I would call them once every three, six months — and I would say, ‘Hey, is there anything out there for me?’ The answer would always be the same: ‘I’m so sorry, there’s nothing out there but I’ll continue to look,’ So hopefully when I call my agent tomorrow, he will give me a different answer.”
The 2023 Oscars were hosted by Jimmy Kimmel and were held Sunday at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood.
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