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After years of having “fantasized” about starring in action films, Oscar winner Ke Huy Quan is finally fulfilling that dream with Universal Pictures’ forthcoming Love Hurts, which he revealed he passed up a couple times before Steven Spielberg convinced him otherwise.
In a new cover story with Empire, the Everything Everywhere All At Once star explained he didn’t feel that he had the “look” of an action hero and was initially self-conscious about taking the role.
“When I read it, I thought, ‘Wait, this is not for me. Why are you asking me?’ I was so confused. I thought it was written for somebody like Jason Statham, because I’ve been conditioned to think that when you have an action star, he needs to look like The Rock or Stallone or Schwarzenegger. I didn’t think anybody that looks like me could star in this role,” he said.
Fortunately, he said the film’s creators — which includes John Wick stunt extraordinaire-turned-helmer Jonathan Eusebio — asked for him a third time, and it was at an event with Spielberg that history took its course.
“He was asking me, ‘Ke, how are you doing?’ I said, ‘Steven, I’m not doing so well.’ Because of all the love and support that I had gotten during that whole award season, I was so worried that whatever I was going to do next, I would disappoint. So I was having trouble picking my next project. Steven was very generous. He said, ‘Ke, let’s have lunch.’ And I told him about this project and kind of pitched it to him. He said, ‘Ke, it’s great. Do it.’ I went in and they had these really elaborate slides with me as the main character. That’s when I started to see it a different way. ‘Oh, they’re trying to create a different kind of action hero. Not the type that we’ve seen for decades, but something new.'”
Quan will star opposite Ariana DeBose in a high-octane action flick that sees him thrust back into a world of crime, hit-men and double crosses after a former partner whom he left for dead resurfaces with an ominous letter.
The actor, who will next appear in The Electric State and was just announced as the lead in Lionsgate’s action thriller Fairytale in New York, previewed the role, saying he trained for three months to do all of his own stunts (save the wire-rigged ones where he is thrown about a room).
“But all the punches, all the kicks, I threw myself. Every day, I would soak in a salt bath for half an hour. It was a lot of fun, but it was physically so demanding that halfway through the shoot, I told my wife, ‘I don’t think I can do this again.’ Then, when the trailer came out and I saw how great it is, I told her, ‘I can’t wait to do this again,'” he said laughing.
