Never Say Die

Ke Huy Quan's memoir traces his life from his childhood as a refugee fleeing Vietnam through his rise as a child star, his decades away from Hollywood, and his return to acting, which culminated in an Academy Award.

In 1977 Saigon, Ke's father carried seven-year-old Ke out of their home in the middle of the night. The family, ethnically Chinese, lived above a plastic bag factory in Chợ Lớn, the Chinese quarter of the city. After the Vietnam War ended in 1975 and the Communist North took over, ethnic Chinese families were increasingly targeted, their businesses confiscated. On this first escape attempt, Ke, his father, and teenage brother Jeff boarded a fishing boat but were intercepted by police; Ke and his father spent three weeks in jail. On the same night, his mother escaped with three younger siblings on a separate route and reached a refugee camp in Malaysia.

A second attempt in 1978 failed when police arrested Ke and his father at a train station and confiscated sheets of gold sewn into the father's undershirt, the family's last savings. A third attempt came in December 1978, when the government began charging families in gold for permission to leave. Ke's father borrowed from friends and secured passage on the Huey Fong, a cargo ship carrying more than 3,000 people. After a month at sea and intervention by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Hong Kong allowed the ship to land.

The family entered the Hong Kong refugee camp system in January 1979. Ke's father's health deteriorated; Ke later learned he had nose cancer, delaying their departure. During a visit to a maternal aunt's home, the aunt poured boiling water over chopsticks Ke had used, as if to disinfect them. At eight, Ke understood the gesture as confirmation that he was considered dirty, cementing the shame he associated with the word "refugee."

In November 1979, the family flew to Los Angeles and reunited with Ke's mother and siblings, settling in Chinatown. By 1982, while attending English as a Second Language classes one Saturday, Ke and his younger brother David noticed an open casting call. David auditioned first, and Ke's sideline coaching in Cantonese caught the casting directors' attention. Invited to try out, Ke impressed them with his charisma. After callbacks, he auditioned alongside Harrison Ford and producer George Lucas; during an improvised card-game scene, his English ran out and he switched to Cantonese, making the room laugh. Director Steven Spielberg offered him the role of Short Round in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

Ke and his mother traveled to Sri Lanka for filming. Spielberg's directing style was warm: He crouched to Ke's eye level and celebrated good takes with high fives. Ford taught Ke to swim, which terrified Ke because of his traumatic sea crossing, showing him that men could express tenderness. During the mine-cart chase at Elstree Studios in London, Ke experienced genuine panic; Ford pulled him to safety and held him until he calmed down. By the end of the shoot, Ke felt a deep sense of belonging.

The Temple of Doom premiere at Mann's Chinese Theatre in May 1984 was transformative: The audience erupted when Ke's name appeared on-screen. During the press tour, a Hong Kong reporter asked how it felt to return as a movie star to the city where he had been a refugee. At 13, Ke decided he wanted to act forever. He was then cast as Data in The Goonies, produced by Spielberg and directed by Richard Donner, forming his first real friendships with fellow child actors including Jeff Cohen. A profit-sharing check from Lucasfilm for nearly $100,000 allowed Ke to help his family buy a house and invest in his father's dream of reopening his plastic bag factory.

Then Ke's father suffered a massive stroke, losing most of his speech and mobility. The factory machines arrived from Taiwan, but the father could no longer run the business. Ke's mother took over, but the factory failed within two years. CBS did not renew Ke's sitcom Together We Stand, and audition calls stopped. Ke returned to school at 16, socially isolated. Small roles came after graduation, but none generated momentum. After failing to land even a two-line soldier role, Ke quit acting, feeling relief rather than failure.

Ke enrolled in film school, graduating from the University of Southern California (USC) in 1999, then worked as an assistant action choreographer. His father suffered additional strokes and died. In late 2001, Ke took a position with director Wong Kar-wai in Shanghai, where he met Echo, a young coworker. When Ke developed Bell's palsy, a condition causing temporary facial paralysis, Echo took charge of his care. Their relationship deepened; when Ke transferred to Hong Kong, Echo quit her job and showed up at his apartment with two suitcases. They married in 2005.

In his mid-40s, the 2018 release of Crazy Rich Asians stirred an unexpected longing: Ke wanted to be on-screen again. On his 48th birthday, he realized that 50 would look exactly like 48 if nothing changed. Echo reframed his fear of auditions, telling him to think of each one as a chance to perform. Through his friend Steve Muller, Ke signed with a junior agent.

Less than two weeks later, he received an audition for the lead role of Waymond Wang in Everything Everywhere All at Once, an A24 film directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert and starring Michelle Yeoh. Ke read the script overnight, laughing and crying. He hired an acting coach for the first time. After a strong first audition and months of silence, a callback focused on the "Be Kind" speech; Ke drew on his years of loneliness, crying on camera. His agent and Jeff Cohen, now Ke's entertainment lawyer, called to confirm he had gotten the part.

Filming began in January 2020, with Echo hired as the film's Chinese translator. After 37 of 38 shooting days, the COVID-19 pandemic shut production down; the cast reassembled eight months later. The film premiered at South by Southwest in March 2022. Ke booked roles on the Disney+ series American Born Chinese and in Loki season 2. At Disney's D23 fan convention, Ke reunited with Ford for the first time since Temple of Doom; Ford asked whether Ke was Short Round, and they embraced.

Awards season brought a succession of honors, including the Golden Globe and the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Award; Ke became the first Asian actor to win in his SAG category. On March 12, 2023, Ke attended the 95th Academy Awards with Echo; David; David's wife, Kendyl; Jeff Cohen; and Steve Muller. When presenter Ariana DeBose called his name for Best Supporting Actor, Ke turned to Echo first. At the microphone, his voice breaking, he told his mother he had just won an Oscar. He spoke about the boat, the refugee camp, and the long road, and closed by urging anyone watching to keep their dreams alive.

In the epilogue, Ke describes a trip to Geneva, where fellow actor Cate Blanchett invited him to open the Global Refugee Forum. At the UNHCR archives, Ke viewed the passenger log of the Huey Fong on microfiche and found his family's names and his own. He reconciles with the label "refugee," recognizing that erasing that part of his story would mean erasing his parents' sacrifices. He concludes that winning an Oscar felt not like an ending but like an unexpected arrival after years of wandering.