Watch Brendan Fraser’s Heartwarming Reaction to Ke Huy Quan’s Critics Choice Awards Win

A video capturing Brendan Fraser’s heartwarming reaction to Ke Huy Quan’s win at the 2023 Critics’ Choice Awards has gone viral. Quan, who appeared opposite Fraser in 1992’s Encino Man, won his latest trophy for his role as mild-mannered Waymond Wang and the alternate-universe Alpha-Waymond in Everything Everywhere All at Once during Sunday’s ceremony. Fraser — named Best Actor for his performance in The Whale — was visibly excited as Quan made his way to the stage to accept the Critics’ Choice Award for Best Supporting Actor. 

A video showing Quan and Fraser’s reactions to the win has gone viral on Twitter, where more than half a million people watched the moment Quan was named the critics’ choice for Best Supporting Actor. Quan’s win comes just one week after the Everything Everywhere star accepted his first Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture for his lauded role in the A24 multiversal dramedy.

brendan fraser in the back 🥹 pic.twitter.com/akwulABvnh

— ad (@goslingsfilms) January 16, 2023

Speaking to press after Sunday’s ceremony, Quan said the awards circuit reunited him with Fraser “almost 32 years” after they co-starred in the 1992 comedy Encino Man. 

“It was great to see him again. I love him in The Whale,” Quan said (via PEOPLE), praising Fraser’s “powerful performance” as a morbidly obese recluse who attempts to reconnect with his estranged teenage daughter (Stranger Things‘ Sadie Sink). 

Fraser “gave me a big hug and put his arm on my shoulder” upon seeing each other “for the first time after 30 years,” Quan said of his reunion with Fraser, recalling what Fraser said to him: “He put his hand on my shoulder and he said this, [‘We’re still here’]. I will never forget those three words and it’s actually right.”

Earlier this month, Quan and Fraser participated in an actors’ roundtable with The Hollywood Reporter, where Quan opened up about his struggle to find work after his breakout roles in 1984’s Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and 1985’s The Goonies.

“Hollywood didn’t want me. There were no roles for me,” Quan said. “I spent the majority of my late teens and early 20s just waiting for the phone to ring, and it rarely rang, so I had no choice but to step away. The difficult part was saying goodbye to the dream that I’d always had, but it was just difficult to be an Asian actor at that time, so I went to film school, graduated and then started working behind the camera and was content doing that.”

After the release of the acclaimed hit Crazy Rich Asians in 2018, Quan said, “I realized that Hollywood had changed dramatically, that they were giving more opportunities to a wider group of people. It was really then that I said, ‘Ah, maybe I should try acting again.’ I was 49, about to turn 50, and I was so worried that I’d reach my 60s and look back and have regrets.”