Post your questions for Ke Huy Quan
Comeback kids don’t come much more extraordinary – or well-loved – than Ke Huy Quan. After starring, aged 13, as Short Round in 1984’s Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and then the following year as Data in The Goonies, he struggled to forge a career in acting as an adult and took a 19-year break from the profession.
It was only this decade he returned, and won an Oscar for his trouble – for his best supporting turn in Everything Everywhere All at Once. The victory was significant not just personally but in terms of awards history, as he became the first Vietnam-born actor to win an Academy Award and only the second actor of Asian descent to win in that category.
Since then he has starred in the Disney+ series Loki, contributed voice work to Kung Fu Panda 4 – and can soon be seen in his first leading role in a long time. Action thriller Love Hurts is about a successful estate agent who must return to his first job as a violent hitman.
There is a lot to ask Quan, a man whose origins and unusual career mean he has lived a lot more than many actors. He was born in Saigon; his family left Vietnam three years after the end of the war. He went with his father and five of his siblings to Hong Kong, while his mother and three other siblings went to Malaysia.
After a spell in a refugee camp, they all went to the US as part of the Refugee Admissions Program – an initiative that makes 1979 feel a long time ago. Cast by Steven Spielberg in 1984, Quan later described filming Temple of Doom with Harrison Ford as “one of the happiest times of my life”. The pictures of all three men reuniting were the highlight of the awards circuit two years ago.
The Goonies brought more joy, and Quan made good on his promise to his mother not to swear on screen – hence his character having to spell out the S word.
After struggling to break through as an actor after high school, Quan did a film degree then worked as a fight coordinator on the likes of X-Men and 2046. But his slew of wins in 2023 – including a Golden Globe and a Screen Actors Guild award – changed the game for him.
Perhaps you might like to ask Quan about his two vertiginous rises to fame, or the period in between. Or about being honoured by Joe Biden at the White House in 2023, the possibility of a Goonies sequel, or his deeply moving tributes to his wife in some of his many teary podium speeches.
Please get your questions for Quan in by 6pm on Friday 31 January.
• Love Hurts is released in the UK on 7 February