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Wild Card with Rachel Martin

Ke Huy Quan is still proving he's good enough

Wild Card with Rachel Martin

NPR

Society & Culture

4.6991 Ratings

🗓️ 6 February 2025

⏱️ 32 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Ke Huy Quan was born in Vietnam, but his family fled the country and eventually settled in the U.S. as refugees. Not long after arriving, Quan was cast in "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" and "The Goonies." He then struggled for years until "Everything Everywhere All at Once" came along. Quan talks to Rachel about his new action film, "Love Hurts," self doubt and love at first sight.

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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Support for NPR and the following message come from the Walton Family Foundation,

0:05.1

working to create access to opportunity for people and communities by tackling tough social and environmental problems.

0:12.0

More information is at waltonfamilyfoundation.org.

0:15.9

What is something you still feel you need to prove to the people you meet?

0:21.4

Oh, I always feel like I'm not good enough. you still feel you need to prove to the people you meet. Oh.

0:22.4

I always feel like I'm not good enough.

0:25.4

You know, I spent so many years auditioning for stuff,

0:29.3

trying to prove to filmmakers that I'm perfect for this role.

0:34.8

But the internal narrative is slowly changing.

0:37.9

I'm Rachel Martin, and this is Wildcard, the game where cards control the conversation.

0:44.3

Each week, my guest answers questions about their life, pulled from a deck of cards.

0:49.5

They're allowed to skip one or flip one back on me.

0:53.0

My guest this week is Ki Hui Kuan.

0:55.8

Now that I have the success, I worry, honestly, I worry that it will go away.

1:01.0

I worry that it would be, oh, this is just a one-time thing.

1:04.5

I've been down this world before.

1:07.0

There's a moment in Ki-Huan's new movie Love Hurts, where his character, this assassin-turned real estate agent named Marvin, Marvin tells his assistant to find something she loves and then go after it.

1:18.9

I couldn't help but see real parts of Key's life reflected in this idea.

1:23.2

Here's this guy who came to America as a refugee from the Vietnam War.

1:27.0

He lucked into an audition in Los Angeles at 13 years old and got super famous as Harrison Ford's

1:33.0

young sidekick in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

1:36.9

Right after that, he played Dada in Goonies, the kid with all the gadgets.

...

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