Ke Huy Quan shares the career advice Cate Blanchett gave him on next steps post-Oscar
By Dan Heching, CNN
Newly crowned Oscar-winner Ke Huy Quan is thoroughly aware that success doesn’t come easy, and is open to ideas on how to make his good fortune last.
In a new interview with Variety published on Wednesday, the “Everything Everywhere All at Once” star mentioned how he doesn’t yet have his next roles lined up after winning the Academy Award for best supporting actor on Sunday and revealed some career advice he recently got from Hollywood luminary 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,” he said.
Quan then shared Blanchett’s advice: “‘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.'”
Elsewhere in the interview, the Vietnam-born Quan made reference to his beginnings in Hollywood, and how he arrived in Los Angeles after being in a refugee camp in Hong Kong as a child.
“I didn’t have the maturity to process the sacrifices that my parents made so that we could have a better future,” he said. “And as fate would have it, four years later, I landed a job on ‘Indiana Jones,’ which changed my life.
That “job” was his role as Short Round to Harrison Ford’s Indiana Jones in the 1984 Steven Spielberg-directed film “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom,” which quickly led to another classic ’80s movie, “Goonies,” one year later. (“Goonies was conceived and co-executive produced by Spielberg, as well.)
And on Sunday, Quan made sure to find both Spielberg as well as Ford during the starry Academy Awards telecast to share the moment.
He recalled approaching Spielberg during a commercial break, where he was seated next to his wife Kate Capshaw — who costarred with Quan in “Temple of Doom” 40 years ago. The director put his arms on Quan’s shoulders, he said, and told him, “You are now an Oscar-winning actor!”
Later, when Ford presented the best picture Oscar to “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” Quan made a bee-line to the septuagenarian star and gave him an emotional embrace onstage.
“When he opened that envelope and read the title, it made our win for best picture even more special,” Quan shared, later adding that he gave him a hug. “I just couldn’t help myself. I just want to shower this man with all my love. I gave Harrison Ford a big kiss on the cheek!”
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