He was the undisputed favorite in the category of best supporting actor and in the end the Oscar went to the hands of a very emotional Ke Huy Quan. The 51-year-old Saigon-born performer has had an unstoppable career collecting every award in this category since he received the Golden Globe for his Waymond Wang in All at Once Everywhere. Only the Irishman Barry Keoghan won the Bafta for his role in Inisherin’s Banshee.
“My mom is 84 and she’s at home watching this. Mom I just won an Oscar! They say stories like this can only happen in movies, but it happened to me. This is the American dream! (. …). I owe it all to the love of my life, to my wife, who told me day after day that one day my time would come. To all of you who are there, keep dreaming. Thank you for this new welcome,” he said between tears as the attendees applauded him heartily.
The actor was at odds with Brendan Gleeson and Barry Keoghan (The Banshees of Inisherin), Brian Tyree Henry (Causeway) and Judd Hirsch (The Fabelmans). His has been a big comeback in Hollywood after more than two decades away from the cameras. At the age of 12 he became a child prodigy thanks to Steven Spielberg for his Stopper in Indiana Jones and the Cursed Tempo (1984), accompanying Harrison Ford, and a year later he was Data in the adventure film The Goonies. But the job offers dwindled over time and Ke Huy Quan decided to give up acting and go behind the camera.
He graduated from the School of Cinematic Arts and, thanks to his knowledge of Taekwondo, he choreographed action scenes in movies like X-Men and collaborated with Wong Kar-wai in 2046. But it was watching the romantic comedy Crazy Rich Asians (2018) and the bug bit him again. He spoke with his agent and it didn’t take long for him to receive the intrepid script from the Daniels, who signed him to play the husband of Michelle Yeoh -in the end star of Crazy Rich Asians- in Everything at the same time everywhere thanks to his skill with the Martial Arts.
In it he gives life to Waymond Wang, the husband of a Chinese immigrant in the United States who is forced to save the world after an interdimensional rupture. In addition to the Golden Globes, her name has triumphed in the Critics Choice, the Spirit and the Screen Actors Guild, among others.
The actor has already signed up for the new season of Loki and will accompany Chris Pratt and Millie Bobby Brown in The Electric State, an adventure film directed by the Russo brothers. “2022 is the year that I will always remember as one of the happiest of my life,” he said in an interview.
