Ke Huy Quan accepted the award for best supporting actor with a powerful speech at the Golden Globes on Jan. 10. The actor was honored for his role in “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” and he gave a special shout-out to Steven Spielberg, who gave him his first big role in “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.”
“I was raised to never forget where I came from, and to always remember who gave me my first opportunity. I am so happy to see Steven Spielberg here tonight,” he said. “When I started my career as a child actor in ‘Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom,’ I felt so very lucky to have been chosen,” he said. However, in later years, his career slowed. “As I grew older, I started to wonder if that was it, if that was just luck. For so many years, I was afraid I had nothing more to offer,” he said. “No matter what I did, I would never surpass what I achieved as a kid. Thankfully, more than 30 years later, two guys thought of me. They remembered that kid, and they gave me an opportunity to try again. Everything that has happened since has been unbelievable.” He went on to thank “Everything Everywhere” directors Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert. “Thank you so much for helping me find my answer,” he said. “You have given me more than I could have ever hoped.”
Quan played Indiana Jones’s sidekick Short Round in 1984’s “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom,” and also starred in “The Goonies” in 1985. However, opportunities stagnated for him after those roles. “I love acting and I couldn’t get a job. Hollywood didn’t want me. There were no roles for me so I spent the majority of my time in my late teens and early 20s just waiting for the phone to ring and it rarely rang,” Quan told The Hollywood Reporter on Jan. 9. “I had no choice but to step away and the difficult part was to say goodbye to the dream that I always wanted but it was just difficult to be an Asian actor at that time.”
“Everything Everywhere All at Once” marks Quan’s first nomination and win at the Golden Globes. Quan played Michelle Yeoh’s compassionate husband, Waymond Wang, and his performance has already won him awards from the Gotham Awards, National Society of Film Critics, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, and New York Film Critics Circle.
Watch the speech above.