“Hang on lady, we going for a ride!” Almost 40 years on from delivering this understatement of a line on a rope bridge in one of the most famous films of the 1980s, actor Ke Huy Quan is now on a wild ride of his own.
The 51-year-old star of Everything Everywhere All At Once is now an Oscarwinner, having picked up the award for best supporting actor – but before his life-changing role in the hit multiverse film, he was best known for his work as a child star.
If you were wondering where you recognise him from, think back and you’ll place him; as young sidekick Short Round alongside Harrison Fordin Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom, and the gadget-loving Data – setter of booty traps and inventor of the suction-cup belt and slick shoes – in The Goonies.
Despite these roles in two of the most beloved films of the 1980s, Quan struggled to find further work in an industry where opportunities for Asian-American actors were scarce. Unable to find roles on screen, he eventually went to film school, began working behind the camera and more or less gave up on his hopes of acting again.
In the past 12 months, he has made not just a comeback, but an award-winning comeback, having picked up a slew of prizes – including a Golden Globe and Critics’ Choice and SAG awards – for his performance as Waymond Wang alongside Michelle Yeoh in Everything Everywhere. Now, he has added an Oscar to that list.
“My mom is 84 years old and she is at home watching,” he told the Academy Awards audience as he collected his statuette. “Ma, I just won an Oscar!”
Quan was given a standing ovation as he took to the stage. “My journey started on a boat,” he continued. “I spent a year in a refugee camp and somehow I ended up here on Hollywood’s biggest stage.
“They say stories like this only happen in the movies. I cannot believe this is happening to me – this is the American dream. Thank you so much to the Academy for the honour of a lifetime.”
Before the ceremony, Quan has been a favourite on the awards show trail, taking selfies with everyone from Tom Cruise to directors James Cameron and Steven Spielberg – who directed him in Indiana Jones all those years ago.
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‘The last time I was on screen, I was a little kid’
“I’m so happy!” he exclaimed as he spoke to Sky News at the London Critics’ Circle Awards in February, wearing his glee on his sleeve. Quan in 2023 is still boyish, his face expressive; the young star still very much there.
“It feels great,” he said of his comeback. “Also surreal. In fact, when I decided to step back into acting, I was so nervous because I didn’t know what the audience would think. The last [time] they saw me up on the screen I was a little kid, and now I’m a middle-aged man. So to have the response of positivity has been incredible.”
In a world where A-listers are usually more reserved, it has been a joy to witness his exuberance.
‘I love selfies’
After the annual Oscars preview luncheon, he shared a series of photos on Instagram, nearly all featuring a grinning Quan in what has become his trademark finger point pose, alongside the likes of Cruise, Angela Bassett and Brendan Fraser.
“I was just so excited to be at the 95th Academy Luncheon today,” he captioned the post. “As we were gathering for the group picture, I looked around me and got very emotional because it finally hit me that I was among this group of nominees… and you probably have caught on by now, I love selfies. Sharing some more from this afternoon.”
And it is all thanks to his critically acclaimed performance in Everything Everywhere.
“When I read the script, I knew it was special,” he said. “I loved it. It was a script that I wanted to read for a long time, and we had the most fun making it. But, we didn’t expect all of this. I mean, all these award nominations and the audience embracing the movie the way they did is beyond anything we ever imagined.
“I’m enjoying [awards season] very much. I’m very grateful for everything that has happened since. And yeah, it’s been a wild ride.”
‘Knowing where I am today, I wouldn’t trade it for the world’
At a UK Oscars preview party, a joyful Quan spoke to Sky News once again, and elaborated on how his comeback correlated with the film’s theme of alternate lives.
“That’s another reason why people love our movie, all these questions about, what if?” he said. “When you are faced with a fork in the road, what path would you choose? And we always wonder, what would our life be had we chosen a different path?
“Sometimes I think about it, especially when I was struggling as an actor. I always think about, could I have done something different? Would I have had more opportunities when I was much younger? Knowing where I am today I wouldn’t trade it for the world.”
Asked then if he was thinking about the Oscar, he said he was simply “trying to be in the moment” and enjoying one day at a time. “Honestly, when I did this movie, when I decided to get back into acting, I didn’t think any of this was possible. I just wanted a job. I just wanted to be in front of the camera again. All these nominations are so, so great. It’s already a win for me.”
Now, after being shortlisted alongside Brendan Gleeson and Barry Keoghan of The Banshees Of Inisherin, Brian Tyree Henry of Causeway, and Judd Hirsch of The Fabelmans, Ke Huy Quan is an Oscar winner.
Hollywood celebrities are among thousands of people to have been evacuated from their homes as fires rip through areas of Los Angeles.
Sky News’ US correspondent Martha Kelner reported that Tom Hanks, Ben Affleck and Reese Witherspoon were all evacuated on Tuesday as wildfires continued to spread in the Pacific Palisades suburb of LA.
The area, which is home to billionaires as well as Hollywood A-listers, is located between Santa Monica and Malibu.
Other celebrities who have fled their homes include the award-winning actor James Woods, who said last night he had been safely evacuated from his home in Pacific Palisades.
But he added in a post on X: “I do not know at this moment if our home is still standing.”
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Actor Mark Hamill, best known for playing Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars films, also posted on social media last night saying he evacuated his home in Malibu and his family were “fleeing for our lives”.
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This Is Us actress Mandy Moore was also forced to leave her home due to the fires.
She said in two Instagram stories she had fled the Eaton fire, which is raging near Altadena, with her children, cats and dog. They have found temporary refuge with friends.
The actress said: “Trying to shield the kids from the immense sadness and worry I feel.
“Praying for everyone in our beautiful city. So gutted for the destruction and loss. Don’t know if our place made it.”
According to Velvet Ropes, which maps celebrity properties, Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson, Matt Damon, Steven Spielberg, Hilary Swank and Sally Field all have homes close to where fires are raging.
Dr Dre, Adam Brody and Leighton Meester, Tyra Banks, Martin Short, Anna Faris, Milo Ventimiglia, Linda Cardellini, Mary McDonnell, Adam Sandler, Miles Teller, and Jennifer Love Hewitt are also said to have houses in affected areas.
In neighbouring Malibu, which was also affected by fires in December, stars including Beyonce and Jay-Z, Kim Kardashian, Lady Gaga and Billie Eilish are said to be among the celebrity residents.
The Palisades blaze has already burnt through more than 11,000 acres of land while the Eaton one has caused the death of two people, Los Angeles County fire chief Anthony Marrone said on Wednesday.
The two other fires are known as Woodley and Hurst, after the main areas affected.
All four blazes are still growing, Mr Marrone said.
A reality TV personality known for appearing on shows like The Hills and Made In Chelsea has told Sky News her family have lost their homes in the California wildfires.
Stephanie Pratt, a model and the sister of fellow reality TV celebrity Spencer Pratt, lives in the Pacific Palisades in Los Angeles, where more than 30,000 people have fled their homes due to the fast-moving blaze.
Los Angeles fire chief Anthony Marrone said on Wednesday that the Palisades fire is still growing and that “well over 5,000 acres” have been burnt.
At least two people have been killed so far, with around 1,000 buildings destroyed.
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House surrounded by flames during wildfire
California governor Gavin Newsom earlier declared a state of emergency over the four wildfires in the south of the state.
Speaking to Sky News from London, an emotional Ms Pratt said: “It’s just so crazy, I had no idea what was happening.
“I talked to my dad yesterday and he said ‘The Palisades is burning’. He said that he was at my brother’s house on Chautauqua [Boulevard] and they were just watching the flames come.
“The firefighters came and said you got to leave.”
‘I don’t know if my house is there’
Ms Pratt said her parents and brother Spencer, who like her starred in the reality series The Hills, were safely evacuated from the area.
However, the 38-year-old added that “all of the phones are disconnected” and that she doesn’t know what had happened to her home.
“I talked to my neighbour last night and she told me that [Palisades Charter High School] had burnt down, and that’s directly behind me, and so had Gelson’s Supermarket which is adjacent,” she said.
“I just can’t reach anyone to see if my house is okay. I just Googled it and it said that it’s destroyed and terrible… I don’t know if my house is there.”
When she asked her dad about Spencer, 41, who is married to 38-year-old Heidi Montag – another co-star of The Hills – Ms Pratt said he told her “I’ve never seen him like this”.
“I’m assuming he’s just completely catatonic,” she added. “We don’t care about the material things or anything like that, but this was their family home.
“This is where they raised their two little kids.”
The Palisades fire is one of five blazes currently burning in southern California– evacuation orders were in place on Tuesday in Altadena after another fire, called the Eaton fire, started near a nature preserve.
A third blaze, called the Hurst fire, also ripped through Sylmar in the north of the city.
And according to the state department Cal Fire, two more blazes – the Woodley fire in Los Angeles and Tyler fire in Riverside – broke out on Wednesday.
Two School Of Rock co-stars, who met at the age of 10, have got married.
Caitlin Hale and Angelo Massagli, who played Marta and Frankie respectively in the 2003 classic alongside Jack Black, tied the knot in New York on Saturday.
The couple brought some of the original cast of the film, which centres on a pretend substitute teacher turning a group of musically gifted school children into a rock band, together to celebrate their nuptials.
Posting on Instagram, Hale, 33, shared various images of the day, including a photobooth picture with a handful of their former cast mates.
The former actress, who now works as a sonographer, wrote under the post: “Special thank you to everyone who contributed to an unforgettable day!”
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Rivkah Reyes, who played bass player Katie in the film, also posted about the wedding, sharing a video on TikTok.
The clip, set to Stevie Nicks’s Edge Of Seventeen, included cameos from Brian Falduto, who played Billy, Joey Gaydos Jr, who played Zack, and Aleisha Allen, who played Alicia, among others.
The use of the song was a nod to one of the scenes from the film where Black and Joan Cusack, who plays headteacher Rosalie Mullins, sing the song in a bar.
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“Celebrating the marriage of Caitlin & Angelo with my forever fam #schoolofrock #wedding,” Reyes wrote alongside the video, which showed them all dancing together.
After appearing together in the film the only contact Hale and Massagli had was through a WhatsApp chat set up with the entire cast, according to The New York Times.
The pair then both left show business and coincidentally reconnected while studying in schools in Florida.
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Massagli, 32, who now works as a lawyer for TikTok, according to The Times, told the paper the familiarity they both had due to working together when they were younger “cut through some of those early relationship hurdles”.