Ke Huy Quan Answers The Web's Most Searched Questions

WIRED

13-03-2025

Hi, I am Ke Huy Quan,
and this is Wired Autocomplete Interview.
Come on, let's do this now!
[bright upbeat music]
Actually, I don't Google that much.
I've heard other celebrities say they Google themselves.
Maybe I should, I don't know. [laughing]
[bright upbeat music]
What did Ke Huy Quan win an Oscar for.
Of course, Everything Everywhere All at Once.
I played Waymond Wong.
It was the first movie I did after I got back into acting.
I was so grateful
and I was so excited to step in front
of the camera again after a 20-year hiatus.
I was just happy to be there,
to be working with Michelle Yeoh, Jamie Lee Curtis,
James Hong, love the Daniels.
Never think I would win anything.
I thought Winning the role was winning the lottery to me.
So when the movie came out
and when we won all those accolades, that was the,
it was not something that I expected, pretty incredible.
That movie brought me back, and I'm so, so, so happy,
so grateful to the Daniels.
What languages does Ke Huy Quan, oh shit,
I just did the bottom one, but it's okay, it's okay,
we'll get back to the top, speak.
I speak Cantonese, Mandarin, and English.
And as you can tell, not great in all three languages.
I can't read Chinese, I can only speak it.
To this day,
I'm so happy my parents make me speak Cantonese at home,
and that's how I still remember to speak it.
And of course,
Mandarin was not a language that we spoke at home.
But when I went to China to work,
I started to speak more and more,
and that's how I learned Mandarin.
What did Ke Huy Quan do for 20 years?
I think these 20 years was really difficult in my life
because it was been a time
where I decided to step away from acting,
went to college, got back out,
and started working behind the camera
as an assistant director, action choreographer.
And I was content for a little while doing all of that,
and I thought I'd be happy.
And then later I found out I wasn't, I was lying to myself!
And I'm so glad I found that out;
otherwise, I wouldn't be here talking to you!
The knowledge that I gained going to film school,
and having this appreciation for the cast and the crew,
and really finally understanding
that movie making is a collaborative process
cause as an actor, we get pampered.
So having gone to film school
and having done various different jobs
in different departments made me appreciate
that process a lot more.
And then also after graduating from college,
having done action, and all that stuff,
and also part of the development process,
really gave me the knowledge
that I needed to be a better actor,
and also life experience.
Life experience makes you a better actor.
What is Ke Huy Quan doing now?
I'm doing this now.
I'm working on, well,
I have a movie that's coming out called Electric State
for Netflix with Chris Pratt, Millie Bobby Brown;
the Russo Brothers are the directors, incredible cast;
Giancarlo Esposito, Stanley Tucci, Woody Harrelson;
I mean, the list just goes on and on, getting slayed.
And that incredible actor, what's his name?
Yes, Ke Huy Quan is in it too, and Zootopia 2 for Disney!
I play Gary the Snake, and this is the year of the snake,
so it's really special.
We're done with this board!
You know what? I'm gonna go gently right now.
[board bangs]
Here it is, ta-da!
Who was Ke Huy Quan in X-Men?
I wasn't in X-Men.
I worked behind the camera.
I was one of the action choreographers,
part of the action team.
And I helped choreograph the Wolverine,
Mystique fight at the end of the movie,
and I'm very proud of that.
That was my first job right outta college!
Who did Ke Huy Quan play in Indiana Jones.
My character's name was a Short Round.
I tried to pick Indiana Jones' pocket when I was little.
I got caught, but I think he liked me,
so I ended up going on this incredible adventure with him.
I was 12 years old, it was my first movie ever.
And that movie is also the reason
why I fell in love with acting.
Come on,
how often do kids get to ride a elephant in Sri Lanka?
That was the beginning of the movie,
and then walked on these incredible sets!
They were all practical back then.
And I didn't know who I was working with at that time,
so I wasn't nervous.
Not until after the movie, I go,
Holy shit, these people are really famous.
Who did Ke Huy Quan play in The Goonies?
I love this character, I played Richard Data Wong.
And he's this incredible character
that has these amazing gadgets, but his gadgets never work,
unless his life depends on it.
He's part of this incredible gang who found a treasure map
and go on water slides, and set booty traps,
and finally found the treasure
they were looking forward to save the home.
Incredible movie, very proud of it.
And to this day,
so many people have come up to me
and told me that Goonies
is part of their childhood memory.
And we might get to do a Goonies 2, who knows?
Who does Ke Huy Quan play in Kung Fu Panda?
I play Han, the pangolin.
Had a lot of fun, I love that franchise.
It was also my first voiceover, never done it before.
It was foreign to me,
so being in the booth recording these lines by myself,
that was something interesting, and I loved it.
I'm doing more now.
I'm in Zootopia 2.
I'm gonna do what everybody does,
so here it is, nobody gets hurt!
[board bangs]
Oh shit!
So first one, is Ke Huy Quan a martial artist.
I study martial arts for a long time.
I have a black belt in Taekwondo,
but I don't consider myself a martial artist.
And the reason is because, to me,
a martial artist is someone
who practices their craft every single day,
who's really good at it.
They live and breathe martial arts,
that's a martial artists.
To me, I know martial arts, I've done it many times.
I know how to do fight scenes for movies,
so I appreciate the art form,
but there are incredible,
incredible martial artists out there,
and I have tremendous respect for them.
I like to clarify stunts and action.
Stunts, to me, is people falling off 10-story buildings
or getting run over by cars,
that is very dangerous.
Actors don't do that, we don't do that.
If we tell you we do that, we're lying!
We do action,
and that's the difference between stunts and action.
Are Ke Huy Quan and Harrison Ford friends?
See, every time I say his name,
you see how happy I am because I love this man.
And yes, we are friends.
Is Ke Huy Quan in Loki?
Have you not seen the show on Disney Plus?
What are you doing?
Yes, of course, Loki Season 2!
I am so proud of the show!
Finally,
I get to be part of this incredible
and humongous MCU family.
I play a character named Ouroboros.
He works in the basement.
I love this character so much.
I also think that he's the grownup version
of Data from The Goonies.
That's how I played him.
Is Ke Huy Quan Chinese or Vietnamese?
So I was born in Vietnam to Chinese parents,
so I consider myself Chinese.
Yeah, that's where I was born, thank you.
[board bangs]
Where did Ke Huy Quan grew up?
I immigrated to the United States in 1978,
so I grew up in a little place called Chinatown,
Los Angeles.
That's also where I got discovered as an actor.
I loved it there, that's my childhood.
And then eventually,
my family moved to a little city called Monterey Park,
so that's my, that's where I grew up.
How to say Ke Huy Quan's name.
I'm so glad you asked this question.
My name is pronounced Ke Huy Quan, Ke Huy Quan.
As long as you're saying my name, I'm fine.
How did Ke Huy Quan meet his wife?
We were both working
for a Hong Kong filmmaker named Wong Kar-wai.
And my beautiful wife, Echo, was in Shanghai.
And I flew there from America, walked in the office.
There was so many people there,
but my eyes immediately darted to her.
I remember she had long hair, beautiful eyes,
a big smile just radiating with incredible energy.
And she was just so lively.
And I fell in love with her right then and there.
And honestly,
I feel like the day I walked into that office
was the luckiest day of my life.
How did Ke Huy Quan return to acting?
So the year was 2019,
right after I've seen a movie called Crazy Rich Asians.
And this was at a time where I have stepped away
from acting for more than 20 years,
and something was missing.
I didn't know what it was, until I saw that movie.
And it was then that thought
of getting back into acting started percolating.
And I consulted with my wife for an entire year.
I guess,
the big reason why I wanted to be an actor again
was because that I kinda saw what my life
would be like when I was much, much older,
and I can see myself regretting
and having these horrible feelings
of not giving this another try.
Yeah, so I finally got the courage,
and called a friend who was an agent,
and ask him if he wanted to represent me,
and he did, luckily.
Two weeks later,
I got that call
from Everything Everywhere All at Once producer.
Do you have more? Okay, let me do this for now.
[board bangs]
I'll save the best for last.
Ke Huy Quan Everything Everywhere All at Once.
This is, when I think about this movie,
I first think of the Daniels.
They gave me this incredible second opportunity
at acting again.
I owe everything to this movie.
It's a, professional-wise, my life was changed two times.
The first time was when I started
in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
Never thought I wanted to be an actor.
I was just a kid, being a kid, happy being that.
And then destiny called, became an actor.
And for various reasons had to step away.
And when I came back, this movie changed my life again.
I owe everything to the Daniels.
Ke Huy Quan and Jackie Chan. [laughing]
You're not gonna believe this,
but everywhere I go, people think I am Jackie Chan!
I love Jackie Chan, I'm a big fan of his.
When I was a kid, I love watching his movies.
They inspired me to learn martial arts.
I love the action genre.
It has a lot to do with him and his brothers,
Sammo Hung, Yeun Biao.
And so I don't mind it.
I think I take it as a compliment,
but it also mean that I need to work a lot harder.
Because one day, I want people to say, That's Ke Huy Quan!
Not That guy looks like Jackie Chan! [laughing]
Ke Huy Quan acceptance speech.
I've been very lucky to be able
to give a lot of acceptance speeches
when Everything Everywhere All at Once came out
during the whole awards season.
They were very personal.
Every speech that I gave,
I was so scared to give
because they they were way too personal.
Jeff Cohen is my brother from a different mother.
We are best friends, we see each other all the time.
What's incredible about him is,
he started his law firm at a very young age,
and I was actually one of his first clients that he signed.
And for more than 20 years,
I never made him any money, never did!
But every time I called him,
he would pick up
and he would give me any legal advice that I needed.
So when, on Oscar night, I invited him, I got him a ticket.
I wanted him to be there just in case if I did win,
I wanted him to see that I can thank him in person.
And yeah, I love him.
He's my Goonies brother.
And like we said in the movie, Goonies never say die.
Ke Huy Quan GlamBOT! [laughing]
I think I put way too much thought in GlamBOT.
I've seen people do it, I love it, they're very cool.
So I think I did one, and on Oscar knight,
which came in number two for the entire year.
I was very proud of it.
It's, yeah, I love Cole.
I love what he does, he's really cool.
And yeah, they're really fun to do.
They just needs to be timed right, and lots of movement.
I think it's because of my martial arts background,
so I'm able to do kicks, or punches, or jumps,
and they turn out really well in super slow motion.
Actually, I was so afraid that I would rip my pants.
[laughing] I kid you not, when I jumped up,
I thought I was gonna rip my pants!
Luckily it didn't, but yeah, that was a lot of fun.
I'm not gonna throw this.
You know what I'm gonna do?
[board bangs]
[Ke Huy Quan grunting]
I'm gonna try again, hold on, let me see.
Ready? And no, they don't break.
[Ke Huy Quan grunting]
[cast laughing]
[grunting] Oh shit! [laughing]
Oh, yeah, that was a lot of fun!
Thank you so much, guys, that was a lot of fun.
[bright techno music]