Before he became an Oscar-winning actor, Ke Huy Quan lived above his father’s plastic-bag factory in Saigon with his parents and eight siblings. Born in Vietnam to ethnic-Chinese parents, he emigrated with his father at age seven, enduring a harrowing boat trip to Hong Kong. Quan recounts that journey in his new memoir, Never Say Die—a nod to his breakout role in The Goonies—and revisited the memory on a recent morning in lower Manhattan as he boarded a ferry named the Miss Liberty.
Recalling the Voyage to Freedom
As the ferry climbed the harbor, Quan gazed at the Statue of Liberty, which he had never visited before. Tourists in foam crowns filled the seats, and he leaned against the upper-deck railing, his expression earnest.
“This brings back memories of the Huey Fong, except that we were way more crowded,” Quan said, climbing the stairs. “And, instead of going up, we went down.”
“I get a bit emotional thinking about this, and remembering some movie scenes that I’ve seen,” he said. “Especially ‘The Godfather Part II.’ ”
He fell quiet, then added:
“All the people coming here, hoping for an opportunity. I think if my dad was alive he’d be very proud.”
Up Close with Lady Liberty
On Liberty Island, the path approaches the statue from behind, offering a view of the folds of its enormous cloak.
“I wonder what it was like transporting that across the ocean,” Quan said.
Reaching the front, he beamed up at the green head.
“Ooh, look at that!”
He struck a “Wow!” pose for a selfie, pointing at the monument. He wore a black Uniqlo T-shirt of his own design, yellow script reading “Keep Smiling.” (Proceeds benefit the U.N. Refugee Agency and the Displacement Film Fund.)
“I’m going to post that to my I.G. later,” he said.
From E.S.L. Class to Hollywood
After arriving in the United States, Quan’s family reunited in Los Angeles’s Chinatown. In 1983, while he and his younger brother David attended an E.S.L. class, they saw kids heading to an open-call audition at their school. David wanted to go; Quan accompanied him, coaching him in Cantonese.
“Bigger! Look at me—like this!”
Quan’s charm caught the casting directors’ attention. Soon he was at the Warner Bros. lot, auditioning before Harrison Ford, George Lucas, and Steven Spielberg, who cast him as Short Round in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. David was happy for him, Quan said.
“I didn’t know who they were,” Quan recalled, sitting on a wall. “I hadn’t seen ‘Star Wars’ or ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark.’ In fact, I’d never been to a movie theatre. The first time I went to a theatre and watched a movie with a live audience, I was in it.”
In the memoir, he recalls the nurturing kindness of Spielberg and Ford, who taught him to swim.
“‘Temple of Doom’ helped me kind of reshape what I went through as a kid in a positive way,” he said. “I was having fun and playing a character who was courageous and funny and really enjoying the ride, versus terrified and worried about surviving.”
Fan Encounters and Career Resurgence
Behind him, tourists posed with the statue; one teen mimicked Lady Liberty, arm raised, holding a novelty torch-shaped lemonade cup. A young blond man did a double take when he recognized Quan.
“I literally was, like, Oh, my God, my favorite actor from ‘The Goonies’!”
Quan posed for fan photos, then headed to the lemonade stand. As a child, he loved being recognized, but when his career slowed—subsequent roles were smaller, and he eventually worked as a creative consultant for Wong Kar-wai—he felt differently.
“I thought I’d peaked at twelve.”
(He did meet his wife while working for Wong.) Since the release of Everything Everywhere All at Once in 2022, for which he won the Oscar, his perspective has shifted.
“I am no longer uncomfortable,” he said.
More substantial roles followed, including in last year’s Zootopia 2.
“I play Gary De’Snake, a pit viper,” he said. “He may look intimidating, but he’s actually a kind and funny guy with a big heart.”
Ellis Island: A Personal Connection
After a second ferry ride, Quan sipped from his own torch-shaped lemonade cup while walking through the Ellis Island museum.
“So this is the building where all the immigrants came through!” he said, in the sunny hall.
He admired sepia-toned photos of immigrant children holding American flags.
“What an incredible thing America did”
He took in exhibits about restrictions and bigotry, peering at cartoons from 1882.
“The first group of Chinese immigrants to this country were lied to—they ended up doing hard labor,” he said. “I would love to do a movie about that one day.”
