Ke Huy Quan reveals actor told him he had a 'stupid face' during uncomfortable moment before he won award
Ke Huy Quan has spoken about a lukewarm remark directed at him by a celebrity at the 2023 SAG Awards, telling him he had a 'stupid face'.
Quan first came to international attention as a child when he starred in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom as Indy's sidekick Short Round, as well as playing Richard 'Data' Wang in cult classic The Goonies.
Following an acting hiatus of some 19 years, Quan came back onto the scene triumphantly, with his performance in 2022's Everything, Everywhere, All at Once going on to scoop him several awards, including an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, as well as at the Actor Awards, known as the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards until 2025, with Quan scooping his award in 2023, Entertainment Weekly reports.
At the award ceremony Quan recalled in his memoir Never Say Die how he had been posing for selfies with other celebrities when he had an uncomfortable exchange with one actor.
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“I spotted a well-known actor I’d respected for years standing right behind me,” he recalled in the book, "without thinking too much about it, I asked if we could take a picture together.
"I held the phone out between us, angled it back toward our faces, and leaned in.”
Quan said that he 'made one of my silly faces', as many of us have while taking selfies out and about, but the star, who was not identified, reacted in an unexpected way.
“He looked at me for a beat, then said sharply, ‘Why did you make that stupid face?’ I laughed, a little surprised and not quite sure what to make of it,” Quan wrote.
“He shook his head and added, ‘You’re not going to win tonight with that stupid face'."
Quan recalled that this 'wasn't loud', adding: “No one else seemed to notice. We went our separate ways.”
He went on to say that he had seen the person sat 'a few tables away' from him during the ceremony, and had 'tried' to forget about the strange interaction.
And of course, the prediction that he was not going to win was ultimately proven to be entirely wrong, not only once, but twice.
Quan would win the award for both Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role, and a joint award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture, both for Everything, Everywhere, All at Once.
“When my category came up, I wasn’t thinking about anything in particular," he said. "Then my name was called. For a second, I didn’t move.
“Then I stood, that familiar disbelief rushing back in. I walked to the stage and accepted the award, feeling the weight of it settle into my hands.”
He continued: “I went back to my seat, holding the statue, and smiled to myself. I’d won with that stupid face. I wasn’t going to let someone else’s comment touch that night. It was too big for me.”
Quan's win made him the first asian actor to win Best Supporting Actor at the SAG Awards, as they were known at the time.
“I recently was told that if I were to win tonight, I would become the very first Asian actor to win in this category,” Quan said in his acceptance speech. “When I heard this, I quickly realized that this moment no longer belongs to just me, it also belongs to everyone who has asked for change.”
He added: "Thank you, everyone, for rooting for me; I will be rooting for you.”
Topics: Celebrity, Oscars, Film and TV, US News
Kit Roberts