Ke Huy Quan: Don’t Stop Believing | 278

Even the Rich

Wondery

Society & Culture

4.3 • 11.5K Ratings

🗓️ 20 May 2025

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Happy Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, Richies! In light of AAPI Month, we have a story about someone who has given “comeback” a whole new meaning. After fleeing North Vietnam as a child with his family, Ke Huy Quan turns to acting and is immediately cast in “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” and then “The Goonies.” He seems to be on a rocket to stardom. But then, in an industry that’s unfair to non-white actors, the acting roles dry up and he can’t find work. So he pivots and turns to stunt coordinating. But 30 years later, just when he thinks he’ll never act again, he’s cast in “Everything Everywhere All at Once” and everything changes. Again. He wins an Oscar. And 50-year-old Ke is a star all over again.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Wonderry Plus subscribers can binge the newest season of Even the Rich before anyone else.
0:04.4	Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.
0:11.5	Brooke, tell me about your first ever audition, if you can even remember it.
0:18.5	Well, my first, like, just regular audition was in high school for Annie Get Your Gun.
0:22.3	Mm-hmm.
0:22.7	And I didn't get a part.
0:25.0	But my first ever professional audition was in Vegas for a dinner show called Tony and Tina's
0:29.1	wedding.
0:30.0	You got to go back to dinner theaters.
0:31.5	I would love to see you in a dinner theater.
0:33.6	I did several.
0:34.9	They're so fun.
0:37.0	Well, today's subject certainly does remember his first audition.
0:41.5	It's such an unbelievable story. It sounds like an idea pitched by some groggy writers in a late-night
0:46.3	writer's room. But then again, everything in this guy's life seems like the stuff of movies.
0:52.5	As a child, his family flees South Vietnam to live in a
0:55.4	Hong Kong refugee camp and then relocates to the United States. Almost immediately, he's cast in
1:01.8	the biggest movie of the year. But despite that fast and unlikely start, his success as a child
1:08.0	actor is short-lived, and he vanishes off the Hollywood radar for decades,
1:12.8	until he's re-inspired to act again.
1:16.6	And that inspiration and his strong sense of belief leads him all the way to the Oscars.
1:22.6	Today we're talking about one of the most grateful men in Hollywood. Actor Kiwi Kuan.
	...

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