news/240/cpsprodpb/15CBC/production/_128967298_9231575ec27196ff94c40dd2d60a7173606f34ca0_68_3486_19613486x1961.jpg 240w, https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/15CBC/production/_128967298_9231575ec27196ff94c40dd2d60a7173606f34ca0_68_3486_19613486x1961.jpg 320w, https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/15CBC/production/_128967298_9231575ec27196ff94c40dd2d60a7173606f34ca0_68_3486_19613486x1961.jpg 480w, https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/15CBC/production/_128967298_9231575ec27196ff94c40dd2d60a7173606f34ca0_68_3486_19613486x1961.jpg 624w, https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/15CBC/production/_128967298_9231575ec27196ff94c40dd2d60a7173606f34ca0_68_3486_19613486x1961.jpg 800w" alt="كي هوي كوان وكيت كابشو وستيفن سبيلبرغ في حفل توزيع جوائز الأوسكار في حفل توزيع جوائز الأوسكار رقم 95 في هوليوود ، لوس أنجلوس ، كاليفورنيا ، الولايات المتحدة ، 12 مارس 2023" attribution="Archyde.com" layout="responsive" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/15CBC/production/_128967298_9231575ec27196ff94c40dd2d60a7173606f34ca0_68_3486_19613486x1961.jpg" height="549" width="976" data-hero="true"/>
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Ki Hui Kwan with wife Kate Capshaw and director Steven Spielberg at the Academy Awards
Superstar Ki Hwi Kwan starred in two of the biggest films of the 1980s, but gave up acting when Hollywood dumped him, making a stellar comeback by winning an Oscar.
“They say stories like this only happen in movies,” Kwan said, emotionally at the Academy Awards, as he accepted his award for best supporting actor. “It’s the American dream.”
This story is hard to believe even if it is a plot from a movie.
Kwan starred with Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
As a child, Kwan moved from Vietnam to Hong Kong as a refugee, settled in the United States, and then got an audition by chance to play the role of a “Chinese pickpocket” in the movie “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” in 1984, He then starred in The Goonies the following year, but as he got older, the roles shrank, and he settled for working behind the scenes as a stunt coordinator and assistant director.
news/240/cpsprodpb/52AE/production/_128966112_1_2hn4a2e.jpg 240w, https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/52AE/production/_128966112_1_2hn4a2e.jpg 320w, https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/52AE/production/_128966112_1_2hn4a2e.jpg 480w, https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/52AE/production/_128966112_1_2hn4a2e.jpg 624w, https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/52AE/production/_128966112_1_2hn4a2e.jpg 800w" alt="كي هوي كوان في فيلم The Goonies" attribution="Alamy" layout="responsive" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/52AE/production/_128966112_1_2hn4a2e.jpg" height="666" width="976"/>
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The Goonies is still seen as a children’s classic
After watching the movie “Crazy Rich Asians”, Kwan decided to go through another experience to fulfill his dream of acting despite approaching the age of fifty, as a friend of his – who works as an agent – agreed to manage his business, and following two weeks Kwan received a call regarding the movie Everything Everywhere All at Once. “Everything everywhere at once.” Little did he know that this film would land him his second big break and his first Academy Award.
“My mom is 84 and she’s home watching me. Mom, you just won an Oscar!”
Kwan said with a feeling of great emotion as he kissed his golden award and held it aloft.
“I started on a boat and spent a year in a refugee camp, and somehow ended up here on the biggest stage in Hollywood.”
In the late seventies, Kwan and his family left Vietnam on a small boat when he was seven years old, following which he landed in Hong Kong with his father, while his mother and his three brothers went to Malaysia, and when they immigrated to the United States in 1979, the family was reunited in a step he described as “painful.”
“We were refugees,” Kwan told the Guardian last year. “No one wanted us, they called us ‘outsiders from a boat’. Plus they made fun of us when we were at school. You can imagine the effect on a child’s mental state.”
Kwan’s life began to change when he went to support his younger brother in an audition for Indiana Jones at the age of twelve. He had no intention of auditioning, but the film’s director suggested he try.
Three weeks later, Kwan was on his way to Sri Lanka to begin shooting the film. “It was one of the happiest times of my life,” he said of that moment. Despite the many criticisms that circulated regarding some of the film’s images and themes, Kwan believed that the film’s director, Steven Spielberg, deserves recognition.
“Spielberg was the first person to put an Asian face in a Hollywood blockbuster,” Kwan added.
Kwan starred in The Goonies, alongside fellow young stars Sean Austen, Josh Brolin, Corey Feldman and Martha Plimpton.
news/240/cpsprodpb/3F94/production/_128967261_gettyimages-1329514430.jpg 240w, https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/3F94/production/_128967261_gettyimages-1329514430.jpg 320w, https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/3F94/production/_128967261_gettyimages-1329514430.jpg 480w, https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/3F94/production/_128967261_gettyimages-1329514430.jpg 624w, https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/3F94/production/_128967261_gettyimages-1329514430.jpg 800w" alt="كي هوي كوان ودرو باريمور في حفل توزيع جوائز الشباب في السينما ، في لوس أنجلوس ، كاليفورنيا ، ديسمبر 1984" attribution="Getty Images" layout="responsive" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/3F94/production/_128967261_gettyimages-1329514430.jpg" height="549" width="976"/>
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Kwan and Drew Barrymore at the 1984 Young Adult Film Awards
Kwan then went on to appear in the TV sitcoms Together we stand and Head of the Class. But in the late 1990s, the offers started to dwindle and the roles Kwan was offered became stereotypical and unimportant.
In an interview with The Telegraph, Kwan said, “It’s always difficult to go from a child actor to an adult actor, but when you’re Asian, it’s 100 times more difficult.”
“If you were to take 100 scenarios, there is a good chance that the scripts did not contain meaningful Asian characters. Many times we were ridiculed.”
“Your early 20s are supposed to be your golden years but all you did was wait for the phone to ring.”
Kwan decided not to wait, not even the success of Crazy Rich Asians in 2018, to return to the screen.
Fear of missing out
Kwan said, “I watched this movie in the theater three times. I cried every time, not only because it’s beautiful, but because it reminds me of my fear of missing out. I wanted to be there with my fellow Asian actors, and at that time the idea of going back to my roots started.”
When Kwan received the script for Everything Everywhere All at Once. , He did not expect that this script would bring him to the Oscars and bring the movie to stardom, because the events of the film revolve around an innovative mixture between an independent drama regarding an immigrant family, a funny science fiction adventure and a superhero action movie.
Kwan plays Waymond Wang – the husband of Michelle Yeoh’s laundromat attendant – as well as multiple roles for the same character in alternate universes, but was apprehensive regarding viewers’ reaction to seeing a star, as a child, play a middle-aged man. .
news/240/cpsprodpb/1065E/production/_128966176_ke.jpg 240w, https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/1065E/production/_128966176_ke.jpg 320w, https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/1065E/production/_128966176_ke.jpg 480w, https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/1065E/production/_128966176_ke.jpg 624w, https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/1065E/production/_128966176_ke.jpg 800w" alt="كوان في فيلم "كل شيء في كل مكان دفعة واحدة"" attribution="Lionsgate" layout="responsive" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/1065E/production/_128966176_ke.jpg" height="549" width="976"/>
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Waymond Wang plays an ordinary husband and action hero
“I was 50 when I decided to go back to acting,” Kwan told the Los Angeles Times.
It was fate that a longtime star would help Kwan secure a return to acting. Jeff Cohen, who played Chunk in The Goonies, has reinvented himself as a lawyer, helping Cowan negotiate his contract. Kwan never imagined he would have to talk to Chunk for his movie, said the film’s producer.
Make your dreams come true
Eventually, Kwan won and his movie Everything Everywhere All at Once won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actress for Michelle Yeoh, and Kwan became one of the most popular characters of the night. Oscars this year, to capture his enthusiasm, joy, and selfies along with the stars who seemed happy to meet him.
news/240/cpsprodpb/4F98/production/_128967302_48eb2401ea838541d4dd9eda1d7e2c99c07b9f740_81_1633_16321633x1632.jpg 240w, https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/4F98/production/_128967302_48eb2401ea838541d4dd9eda1d7e2c99c07b9f740_81_1633_16321633x1632.jpg 320w, https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/4F98/production/_128967302_48eb2401ea838541d4dd9eda1d7e2c99c07b9f740_81_1633_16321633x1632.jpg 480w, https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/4F98/production/_128967302_48eb2401ea838541d4dd9eda1d7e2c99c07b9f740_81_1633_16321633x1632.jpg 624w, https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/4F98/production/_128967302_48eb2401ea838541d4dd9eda1d7e2c99c07b9f740_81_1633_16321633x1632.jpg 800w" alt="حول كوان على جائزة الأوسكار لأفضل ممثل مساعد خلال حفل توزيع جوائز الأوسكار 12 مارس 2023" attribution="Archyde.com" layout="responsive" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/4F98/production/_128967302_48eb2401ea838541d4dd9eda1d7e2c99c07b9f740_81_1633_16321633x1632.jpg" height="976" width="976"/>
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Harrison Ford presents Kwan with the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor
During the award ceremony, Kwan met Harrison Ford, his former Indiana Jones co-star, who presented him with the Best Supporting Actor award. In his speech, Kwan thanked his mother for the sacrifices she made for him to get him to where he is now.
He also thanked his brother and his wife, who had stood with him over the past years for 20 years.
Kwan added, “You must believe in dreams, keep them and never give up on them. Thank you very much.”
