A family ripped apart from one another as they fled a horrific war. It meant their lives.
Getting to the U.S. was just the beginning for one hopeful young refugee named Ke Huy Quan.
The Quan clan reunited in California, all 9 children attending school in the Chinatown section of Los Angeles. On one elementary school day, his brother was approached by a casting director for an upcoming Steven Spielberg film.
Tagging along to the audition, Ke Huy was noticed and asked to try for the role himself.
Thus Quan’s Hollywood career began in 1984 with his breakout role as Short Round in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom alongside Harrison Ford. Then a year later in The Goonies alongside a trio of boys on their way up.
As he watched his costars rise to greater fame, Quan found it difficult to find work, eventually quitting acting and enrolling in the USC film program.
20 years later, Ke Huy Quan returned to acting, starting in small roles and then most notably in Everything Everywhere All at Once, going on to win the most prestigious award given to actors.
The Academy Award.
Alongside his talented former costar, Brendon Fraser.
And now he’s signed on to many upcoming Hollywood projects.
During the time when we all wondered where Ke Huy Quan was now or even forgot about him entirely, he never gave up.
He took roles that came his way.
He used his martial arts skills as a stunt coordinator on blockbuster hits.
He made the best of each time opportunity in his life.
When asked how he felt about his sudden drop in fame, he said, “I was at the top, I had no place else to go but down!”
THIS attitude is how anyone can survive through times in life they feel unsuccessful.
I want to be like Ke Huy, hoping that when I look back on the lows of life, I was having fun working my way back up to the starring role of my lifetime.