Ke Huy Quan made history when he bagged the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. He spent his night taking pictures with fellow Hollywood celebrities and Academy Award winners. However, not everything is alright with the new winner. Quan found initial fame as a child actor but he quickly slipped away from the limelight for about two decades before finding his way in front of the camera again with Everything Everywhere All At Once. So now he again fears that history will repeat itself and he will be left staring at the phone, waiting for it to ring with work news.
Ke Huy Quan Is Worried About His Hollywood Future
Ke Huy Quan found quick fame at a young age with films like The Goonies (1985) and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984). However, he found that the popularity didn’t translate to more work in his adulthood. During an interview with The Telegraph, the actor said that it was difficult for him to get meaningful roles as an Asian man. As per Quan:
“It’s always difficult to make the transition from a child actor to an adult actor but when you’re Asian, then it’s 100 times more difficult. If you were to take 100 scripts, there was a high probability that none of them would feature any meaningful Asian characters. A lot of the time we were the butt of the joke. Your early 20s are supposed to be golden years and all I did was wait for the phone to ring.”
This worry is still in his mind after his Oscar win. In an interview with Variety, the newly awarded winner expressed his worries about fame being just a limited-time thing again. Quan said:
“Everything is still so fresh in my mind. And that’s why moving forward I’m still really scared. Even though I just won an Oscar, I’m still really fearful of what tomorrow brings. I had a conversation with my agent, and I said ‘I’m so worried that this is only a one-time thing. I’ve been down this road before and I’m so afraid that history is going to repeat itself. I said ‘please, whatever you do, please make sure that does not happen.”
The actor’s worry is understandable in an industry where one often gets treated as well as their last release. However, Quan doesn’t have to immediately worry about getting more work. He has at least three projects in his bag currently.
Upcoming Projects Featuring Ke Huy Quan
There’s no guarantee about what the future will bring in a volatile film industry. However, fellow 2023 Oscar nominee and two-time Oscar winner Cate Blanchett had some advice for Ke Huy Quan. He said:
“I attended an event recently and sat next to Cate Blanchett. I told her that I don’t know what I’m going to do next, but I feel I have a responsibility to do something good, and that I don’t want to disappoint all the people that have supported me. And she said, ‘Just go with your heart and be irresponsible: Don’t worry about what other people think. Choose something that you believe in, choose something that you love, and things will work out.'”
Quan will be seen next in the Marvel Disney+ show Loki beside Tom Hiddleston. His character hasn’t been disclosed as of yet. Apart from this, he will also reunite on-screen with Michelle Yeoh and Stephanie Hsu, his Everything Everywhere All At Once co-stars, in American Born Chinese, a Disney+ series based on a famous graphic novel. Thankfully, that’s not all.
He will also appear in The Electric State Netflix film directed by Joe and Anthony Russo. He will star alongside Millie Bobby Brown, Anthony Mackie, Chris Pratt, and more. It remains to be seen what other projects make Ke Huy Quan a part of their cast.
Loki is set to debut in mid-2023 on Disney+ while American Born Chinese will be released on Disney+ on 24 May 2023.