Watch Ke Huy Quan and Harrison Ford's Emotional Reunion at the 2023 Oscars
To quote Dr. Jones: "Fortune and glory, kid." There was time for love at the 95th Oscars on Sunday night, where Oscar-winning actor Ke Huy Quan had a heart-tugging reunion with his Indiana Jones co-star Harrison Ford. In a viral moment that fans are likening to Ford's Indy hugging Quan's Short Round in 1984's Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, the two actors embraced when Ford presented Everything Everywhere All at Once with the Academy Award for Best Picture. (Earlier in the night, Temple of Doom director Steven Spielberg proudly looked on as Quan accepted his first Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his performance as Waymond Wang in Everything Everywhere.)
A viral video captured by Variety co-editor-in-chief Ramin Setoodeh and shared on Twitter shows Quan taking the stage with his Everything Everywhere cast, including first-time Oscar winner Jamie Lee Curtis, before excitedly enveloping Ford in a hug. Watch the video below.
Ke Huy Quan freaks out and hugs his ‘Indiana Jones’ co-star Harrison Ford as #EverythingEverywhere wins best picture at the Oscars. pic.twitter.com/nXh700iKbe
— Ramin Setoodeh (@RaminSetoodeh) March 13, 2023
The shot I was hoping for, the show's director missed, but Getty's Kevin Winter got pic.twitter.com/0AHd3mRJgA
— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) March 13, 2023
"I'm so happy for him. He's a great guy," Ford said of Quan in a pre-show interview. "He's a wonderful actor. He was when he was a little kid, and he still is. I'm glad. I'm very happy for him."
For Quan's first major acting role since 1992's Encino Man — where he starred opposite Brendan Fraser, who also recently stepped back into the spotlight before winning his first Best Actor Oscar for The Whale — Quan collected the Critics' Choice Award, the Golden Globe, and the Screen Actors Guild Award before taking home the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.
As a child actor, Quan was best known for his role as sidekick Short Round in 1984's Temple of Doom and as kid inventor Data in 1985's The Goonies. The 51-year-old actor has opened up about his difficulty finding work after transitioning to behind-the-camera roles in the late 1990s, telling The Hollywood Reporter: "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."
When Quan made history as the first Asian male film winner at the 2023 SAG Awards, an emotional Quan said in his acceptance speech: "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. 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 next reunites with his Everything Everywhere co-stars Michelle Yeoh and Stephanie Hsu in Disney+ original series American Born Chinese and will appear in the upcoming second season of Marvel Studios series Loki, streaming later this year on Disney+. Everything Everywhere All at Once is streaming now on Showtime on Paramount+.