“Mom, I just won an Oscar! They say stories like this only happen in movies. I can’t believe this is happening to me.”

An emotional Ke Huy Quan tearfully accepted one of the first awards of the night at the 95th Oscars held this Sunday in Los Angeles.

After thanking his mother and the rest of his family, the Vietnamese-American actor dedicated the award to his wife.

“I owe everything to the love of my life, my wife, Echo, who told me month after month, year after year that one day my time would come,” he said.

“To all of you, please keep your dreams alive. Thank you for welcoming me back.”

Ke Huy Quan was 12 years old when he found out that he was going to act in a movie from the “Indiana Jones” saga. IMDB

an exciting story

Quan has had one of the most incredible stories in this year’s Oscar race.

As a child actor, Steven Spielberg chose him for the second Indiana Jones film (“Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom”, 1984).

His other notable role from that time was that of the resourceful and multi-inventive boy Data in the 1985 movie “The Goonies”.

But he stopped acting in the late 1990s, when the work was sold out.

Harrison Ford and Ke Huy Quan as a child in a scene from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. PARAMOUNT PICTURES

Then in 2020, everything changed when he went to the casting Everything everywhere at once (“Everything everywhere at once”), to play the husband of Michelle Yeoh’s character.

The actor told the BBC before the 2023 Oscars ceremony how happy he was with the film’s success.

“What appealed to people was the message of the film. It’s about kindness, love, family, empathy.”said.

Ke Huy Quan is part of the cast of ‘Everything Everywhere at the Same Time’. LION’S GATE

“I was 12 years old when Steven Spielberg and George Lucas were looking for an Asian kid to star in Indiana Jones opposite Harrison Ford. That was my first movie, and that was 38 years ago! That movie changed my life.”

Quan recalled spending a lot of time in his late teens and early twenties waiting by the phone for a call from his agent letting him know there was an opportunity to audition for something.

“Instead, I saw a dead end. I didn’t see an easy path for me. I thought I wasn’t pretty enough, I wasn’t tall enough, there just weren’t many opportunities for Asian actors,” he thought.

Harrison Ford and Ke Huy Quan starred in a beautiful reunion on the Oscars stage. REUTERS

Then he buried the acting bug “for a long, long time,” until he saw a movie in 2018 called Crazy rich Asians (“Insane Millionaires”).

“I noticed the landscape changing and one evening I had a conversation with my wife. I told him I wanted to act again,” he recalled.

“And when the fear of regret overcame the fear of going back, I decided, I have to do this.”

Two weeks later, as a sign of fate, he received a call to be part of “Everything Everywhere at the Same Time”.

Steven Spielberg was the first to cast Quan in a movie role. GETTY IMAGES

Quan believes he would not have been able to play his character, Waymond, had he chosen a different path in life.

“I needed all those life experiences that I’ve been through all these years.”

“I was so worried about turning 60 and looking back and saying, ‘Wow, how come I didn’t have the courage to get back into acting?'”

“I’m very happy that I made this decision and whatever happens in 10 years, I’m looking forward to it, I’m very optimistic.”