An Oscar winner for his performance in “Everything Everywhere All At Once,” Ke Huy Quan famously got his big break as Harrison Ford‘s sidekick in “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” at age 12.
Quan has just released his memoir, “Never Say Die,” and an excerpt published in Entertainment Weekly reveals how a generous gesture from producers Steven Spielberg and George Lucas literally changed his life.
An Unexpected Letter
GettyIn his memoir, Quan recalled two years after making the movie, finding his parents looking dumbstruck.
“One afternoon, I walked into the kitchen and found my parents standing together at the table,” Quan wrote.
“Mom was holding an envelope with my name printed across it. Dad had the papers that had been inside,” he continued.
“They were both smiling, the kind of smile that comes from surprise and disbelief mixed together,” he recalled. “They handed everything to me. It was a check from Lucasfilm. It was for almost $100,000, an amount that didn’t make any sense to me.”
According to Quan, he “didn’t understand how more money could suddenly appear” after he was already paid for the movie. That was when he discovered that Lucas and Spielberg had added a residuals clause to his contract that paid him a tiny percentage of the film’s profits — which were considerable, given that “Temple of Doom” raked in more than $330 million at the box office.
A ‘Life-Changing’ Gesture
Quan marveled at “a quiet gesture from Steven and George” that meant so much to him and his family.
“Back then, almost no actors got a piece of a movie’s profits,” Quan explained.
“Even today, only the biggest stars do. That a kid like me, making his first film, would be included in something like that was unheard of. And ‘Temple of Doom’ wasn’t some small movie no one was expected to see. It was the sequel to a massive hit, a movie everyone knew would make a lot of money. That made their gesture even more generous,” he wrote, adding that “that small share was life-changing for my family.”
A Special Bond with Harrison Ford
GettyIn “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom,” Quan’s Short Round proved to be indispensable to Ford’s Indy.
Accord to Quan, that dynamic mirrored their real-life relationship on the set.
“Whenever he was in a bad mood, Steven would tell someone, ‘Send Ke over.’ I had no idea any of that was happening,” Quan wrote. “I just knew that whenever I walked up, Harrison softened a little or said, ‘Hey, kid,’ in that warm way he had.”
Quan described his relationship with Ford as being akin to that of an “older brother,” describing the bond they formed while making the movie.
“I just liked being near him,” Quan added, “and he made me feel like he liked having me around too.”
