Among the child actors that defined the 1980s, Ke Huy Quan stands tall – even if he was most famous for playing a character named Short Round. Between Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom and The Goonies, where he played the gadget-packed Data, Quan starred in two of the decade’s greatest adventure movies – but for the past thirty-plus years, he’s been largely absent from our screens. Now, he’s back in a big way inEverything Everywhere All At Once – the new film from director duo the Daniels, previously behind the totally-out-there Swiss Army Man. This one is a multiverse-spanning odyssey, as Michelle Yeoh’s Evelyn is made aware of alternate realities where she pursued different life-paths. Quan plays her husband, who also has multiple variants existing in various timelines.
Though Quan had decided to leave acting behind him, the script for Everything Everywhere All At Once made its way to his door, and was powerful enough to bring him back to the business. “I started reading it at 1am,” remembers Quan, “and I didn’t finish until 5am. I laughed so hard and so long, I woke up my wife. And by the time she came out, I had tears running down my cheeks. She said, ‘Are you okay?’ I said, ‘I love this script. And I think this role is written for me.’”
It was a far cry from the dispiriting roles that led Quan to retire from Hollywood years before. “Those two characters are not your typical stereotype Asian characters,” he says of his iconic ‘80s roles. “Short Round is courageous, he saves Indy’s life. Data is one of the gang. But as I got older, there were not a lot of offers, and even when there was one, it was very stereotypical. It wasn’t fun to audition for those.”
And, really, it’s hard to find a way up from working with some of the greatest filmmakers of all time in your earliest roles. “Being on a set with George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and Harrison Ford, for an actor, is like you’ve died and gone to heaven, basically,” he recalls. And now, with an eye-catching performance in one of the year’s buzziest films, Quan is here to stay. “As the days went by, I realised, ‘I definitely belong here. And I want to be here’.” It’s good to have him back.
Read Empire’s full Ke Huy Quan interview in the Moon Knight issue, on sale now and available to order online here. Everything Everywhere All At Once hits UK cinemas later this year.