Following his big win at the Oscars on Sunday, “Everything Everywhere All at Once”‘s Hui Quan looks back on his early days as a refugee fleeing Vietnam — a journey that would eventually lead him to Hollywood history.
Speaking with Variety the day after the ceremony, Quan, who took home the Best Supporting Actor award, recounted how his family fled after the Vietnam War. Quan said at the time he did not understand why his parents felt it necessary to leave him.
“I was a normal kid in Vietnam and all of a sudden, my parents decided to run away. … It was in the middle of the night. My father and my five other siblings fled on a boat,” said Quan, who His family moved when he was 7 years old. “We arrived in Hong Kong and suddenly I was in a refugee camp surrounded by guards and police officers.”
Kwan, who is only the second Asian to win in his Oscar category, explained that his family lived in a refugee camp for a year before receiving political asylum and making their way to the United States.
In his Variety interview, he explained that he wanted to thank his family for his decision to run away for the time being. Her acceptance speech at the Oscars turned out to be the perfect outlet.
He said, “I grew up in a family where we didn’t share our feelings with each other.” “Last night, I wanted to do this in public. I wanted the world to know how much my parents meant to me. To do it on the biggest stage – that felt amazing.”
Kwan explained that shortly after his family moved to America, he found early stardom, launching his career in the entertainment industry with his role as Short Round in “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom”.
Kwan said, “Four years later, as luck would have it, I got a job on ‘Indiana Jones’ that changed my life.”
During his acceptance speech, he told the crowd that his “journey began on a boat.”
“And somehow I ended up here on the biggest stage in Hollywood. They say stories like this only happen in movies,” Kwan said. “I can’t believe this is happening to me. This is the American dream.
For Quan, the Oscar capped off a highly successful awards season for his critically acclaimed portrayal of Wymond Wang, a doting husband who helps save the multiverse while trying to keep his failing marriage and family together . He won Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role at the first Screen Actors Guild Awards, becoming the first Asian to win in the category. At the beginning of the year, he won Best Supporting Actor at the Golden Globes, Critics’ Choice Awards, and Gotham Awards.
