SAG Awards: Ke Huy Quan Is First Asian Male Film Winner

Ke Huy Quan made history Sunday night at the 29th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards. Quan, who accepted the SAG Award for outstanding performance by a male actor in a supporting role for Everything Everywhere All at Once, is now the first Asian male film winner. Quan is the second Asian actor to win an individual award at the annual guild ceremony celebrating outstanding film and television performances: last year, Lee Jung-jae won at the SAG Awards for male actor in a drama series for television’s Squid Game. You can watch Quan’s speech starting at 1:05:05 in the live-stream video, embedded below.

“Recently, I was told that if I were to win tonight, I would become the very first Asian actor to win in this category. When I heard this, I quickly realized that this moment no longer belongs to just me,” an emotional Quan said. “It also belongs to everyone who has asked for change. When I stepped away from acting, it was because there were so few opportunities. And now, tonight, here we are.”

Quan went on to mention his Everything Everywhere co-stars Michelle Yeoh, James Hong, Stephanie Hsu, and Harry Shum Jr., who were awarded the prize for outstanding performance by a cast in a motion picture along with Jenny Slate and Jamie Lee Curtis. Everything Everywhere went on to win a total of four awards, including best actress for Yeoh, supporting actress for Curtis, and the film ensemble.

“The landscape looks so different now from before, so thank you so much to all of you in this room, and everyone who contributed to these changes,” Quan said. Pointing to Yeoh, Quan continued, “Michelle, I’m so glad that when we both started our careers in 1984, that one day we would meet on the big screen. Love you, Michelle. Thank you to Jamie Lee Curtis, and our entire cast.” 

A teary Quan then addressed the audience watching from home: “Please keep on going, because the spotlight will one day find you.”

Before Everything Everywhere, Quan was once best known for his roles as Short Round in 1984’s Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Data in 1985’s The Goonies. While on the awards circuit for his Oscar-nominated role as Waymond Wang and his alternate-universe counterparts in the multiverse dramedy, Quan opened up about his struggle to find work in an actors’ roundtable with The Hollywood Reporter:

“Hollywood didn’t want me. There were no roles for me,” Quan said of stepping away from acting roles in the early 2000s. “Ispent the majority of my late teens and early 20s just waiting for thephone 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 wentto film school, graduated and then started working behind the camera andwas content doing that.”

After the release of the acclaimed hit Crazy Rich Asians in2018, Quan added, “I realized that Hollywood had changed dramatically,that they were giving more opportunities to a wider group of people. Itwas really then that I said, ‘Ah, maybe I should try acting again.’ Iwas 49, about to turn 50, and I was so worried that I’d reach my 60s andlook back and have regrets.”

Quan next appears in the upcoming second season of Marvel Studios’ Loki, streaming later this year on Disney+. Everything Everywhere All at Once is streaming on Showtime on Paramount+.