IT’S THE FEEL-GOOD STORY OF THE DECADE — A FORMER CHILD STAR BACK ON TOP, AFTER YEARS IN THE WILDERNESS. WITH AN OSCAR UNDER HIS BELT AND HIS FIRST HOLLYWOOD LEAD ROLE INCOMING, IT’S TIME FORKE HUY QUANTOREALLYFLEX HIS MUSCLES

WORDS NICK DE SEMLYEN ART STREIBER

Ke Huy Quan, photographed exclusively for Empire in Los Angeles on 11 November 2024.

KE HUY QUAN IS IN THE EYE OF THE STORM.

He’s been here before, of course. When he was barely a teenager, he was a global icon — we all grew up gasping at his adventures, from battling Thuggees in a cave system lousy with voodoo in Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom, to being menaced by Robert Davi and Joey Pants in The Goonies. Those blockbusters put him on the map. But after decades of quiet, during which a retired-from-acting Quan suspected that his Hollywood journey had stopped for good, that storm is whirling again, fiercer than ever.

As an adult actor, he’s won an Oscar for his comeback role(s) as Waymond in mind-melting multiverse romance Everything Everywhere All At Once. He’s met and taken photos with seemingly every celebrity in Hollywood, including, recently, both Billy Crystal and Mickey Mouse simultaneously. He’s joined the MCU with Loki, played a pangolin in Kung Fu Panda 4. Good things keep happening to him. And it seems like the whole world is cheering him on. When Empire sits down with the immensely likeable star at a seafood restaurant in Calabasas, Los Angeles, for a lunch of oysters and octopus (it’s hard not to think of the moment at the end of The Goonies where Quan’s Data says, “The octopus was really scary!”, despite the scene with the beast having been left on the cutting-room floor), he’s preparing to fly to Taiwan to present at the Golden Horse Awards, Asia’s equivalent of the Oscars. Finally, he’s accepted everywhere, all at once. And, now in his fifties, he wants to do everything, preparing to fulfil some long-harboured dreams.

The first: to star in a high-octane Hollywood action flick. The forthcoming Love Hurts, his first leading role in America, is the culmination of decades of action training by Quan. Directed by John Wick stunt-maestro Jonathan Eusebio, it has been an experience that, yes, hurt — but was worth every bruise. Quan is making up for lost time, and a little pain isn’t going to slow him down.

It’s almost two years on from your Oscar win. Does it feel like life has totally changed?

On a personal level, nothing ’s changed. I still live in the same house. I still drive the same car. I still go to the same places. I don’t have an assistant. My wife, Echo, helps me. But on a professional level, oh, it’s night and day. I spent so many years desperately trying to persuade filmmakers that I’m right for a role: “Please put me in this movie.” But now, filmmakers are coming to me. They’ll say, “We have this script. We think you’re perfect for this.” That’s how Love Hurts started.