Everything Everywhere All at Once Oscar winner Ke Huy Quan says Hong Kong’s film industry helped inspire him in his profession
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Quan, speaking publicly in the city for the first time since his Academy Awards triumph, said on Tuesday the city’s film industry and its martial arts movies showed him Asian actors when they were rare in films available in Los Angeles, where he was brought up.
The one-time child actor in March scooped the Academy Award for best supporting actor for his role in the 2022 sci-fi hit, which also starred Michelle Yeoh, a veteran of Hong Kong films who won the best actress Oscar for her performance.
“I used to live in Chinatown and there used to be a local video store that you could rent. So I actually grew up watching a lot of Hong Kong cinema,” the 52-year-old said. “Those were my formative years.”
“Watching movies with Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao … We can be the protagonist. We can be the hero of our own story. That was incredible. So that was really inspiring,” Quan said.
