Nothing could warm my heart the same way Ke Huy Quan did when he won the Oscar for best supporting actor on Sunday.
Quan was given the Oscar for his role as Waymond Wang in “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” where he played Michelle Yeoh’s character Evelyn Wang’s husband.
“Everything Everywhere All at Once” is a 2022 science fiction film about Evelyn, who is stuck in a time loop until she realizes she can travel through parallel universes. The film took home seven Oscar awards out of 11 nominations.
Quan is already a recipient of a Golden Globe, a Screen Actors Guild Award and an Academy Award among others yet he is so humble.
On his Instagram, Quan frequently posts selfies with celebrities pointing at them
in awe.
Can someone please remind this precious man that he’s also famous?
I have never seen Quan in his films from the 1990s like “Indiana Jones” or “The Goonies,” but after a 25-year-break from the casting industry, I believe his comeback role was a powerful representation for Asian Americans.
It led to Quan being the first Asian actor to win an Oscar in this category in 38 years and he is the first actor of Vietnamese descent to win an Oscar at all, which is huge news.
Quan’s portrayal of Waymond Wang is the opposite of what’s required from leading men, especially ethnic men, in movies and TV shows these days: young, hot, macho.
His character stands out to me because Asian people deserve to be represented in all stages of life. If actors like Harrison Ford are still booking roles, the doors should be open for older Asian actors too.
I remember being so happy when Marvel Studios released “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” in 2021 with Simu Liu as the leading superhero. I even vowed to see it multiple times because an Asian superhero was finally given a standalone movie in a film media franchise that I love.
Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy watching a majority Asian American cast in recent movies, but it seems that Asian actors are still casted based on harmful stereotypes.
Even though I adored Shang-Chi, there were still aspects of the film that were problematic.
Growing up, the only Asian representation I had on television was Jackie Chan, who did his own dangerous stunts in every single movie he starred in.
Despite the fact that Chan is the lead character in “The Spy Next Door,” the audience knows more about his girlfriend’s family than they do about his character, Bob. His only personality trait is in the title of the movie.
Hollywood continues to produce movies centered around Asian characters and their martial arts skills because of this.
It pushes a harmful stereotype that this is the
full Asian experience, while I’ve never taken a kung fu or karate class a day in my life.
You’re telling me in a huge universe that is in Marvel Cinema, the best superpower the writers could come up with for Shang-Chi is martial arts?
Also, why did Liu’s character have to be named Shang-Chi? Why couldn’t his name be Steve like Captain America or Tony like Iron Man?
And don’t even get me started on the dragon fight scene towards the end of the movie.
Another recent movie with an all Asian cast was “Crazy Rich Asians” in 2018 and the title just speaks for itself. While I am a sucker for rom-coms, and Singapore was absolutely beautiful to see on screen, it bothered me how Nick’s disapproving mother, Evelyn, taunted and bullied his girlfriend Rachel until the end of the movie.
Portraying Asian people as evil in small, one-dimensional roles reinforces the stereotype that they will always be different from Americans. This is harmful because it limits roles in media for Asian American actors since audiences are only used to seeing them in that narrative.
Up until I watched “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” I truly believed that people who look like me could only attain roles where they are either a martial artist or the villain. Even worse, I thought that Asian American actors could only star in films where the plot is centered around race.
I want to see Asian actors in more leading roles that are written for anyone to portray, especially movies with an original script. There is nothing stopping them from doing so except the box that Hollywood has restricted them to.
Quan’s return to the big screen is iconic and shows that there are talented Asian male actors past the age of 35 who don’t have washboard abs and that’s okay.
As a fellow Vietnamese American, it was refreshing to see Quan tackle a complex character in a genre like science fiction.
He played a co-owner of a laundromat, and in terms of the Asian American immigrant experience, that is more realistic to me than turning into a dragon or meeting your boyfriend’s powerful and rich family in Singapore.
I hope to see more underrated Asian American actors star in new movies that defy lazy writing, now that “Everything Everywhere All at Once” proved itself as a critically acclaimed success.
Per Quan’s recent Instagram post, he expressed his love and gratitude for his Oscar win from the Academy.
Although Quan’s return was remarkable, Hollywood has built a bad habit of casting the same Asian American actors instead of letting new, diverse actors take the stage.
“I hope that everyone who watched on Sunday night will find hope in our wins because the impossible was just made possible,” Quan said in the post. “Although it took a long time to get here, I would not have changed a thing. I never thought that I would be in a position to inspire others.”
