While I’m so proud of Ke Huy Quan and his Oscar win, his journey is so bittersweet. The anti-Asian racism within the film industry, the lack of roles for a talented Vietnamese immigrant, his decades of struggle to find work within the industry he loves. Ke covers the post-Oscars issue of Variety and while they take pains to say that Quan has several projects already in post-production, he also talks about how there’s nothing on his plate right now after winning an Oscar. It reminds me slightly of Lupita Nyong’o post-Oscar career, at least in the first few years: will Hollywood figure out what to do with a talented Oscar winner who isn’t white? Some highlights from Quan’s Variety cover story:

Talking to Steven Spielberg: During a commercial break in the Academy Awards telecast, Quan, 51, went over to where Spielberg was sitting with his wife, actress Kate Capshaw, whom Quan hadn’t seen since they co-starred in “Temple of Doom” four decades earlier. After hugs all around, Spielberg put his hands on Quan’s shoulders and said, “You are now an Oscar-winning actor.”

30 years of little to no work: For 30 years, Quan suffered through countless failed auditions. He later attended USC film school and took odd jobs working as the fight choreographer on “X-Men” and developing projects for director Wong Kar Wai at his production company, Jet Tone Films. That’s where he met his wife, Echo, whom he regards as the unsung hero of his recent success. Every month for the past 20 years, Echo has told her husband, “Trust me, your time will come.” “At times, I was frustrated with her,” Quan says, tearing up as he remembers their conversations. “I told her, ‘You keep saying that, and it’s never going to happen.’ I didn’t believe it. Twenty years isn’t a short time.”

A refugee in America: “I was just a normal kid in Vietnam in 1978, and all of a sudden my parents decided to flee the country. I didn’t understand what was happening. All I knew was I was separated from my mom, from my little brother and a couple of my sisters. It was in the middle of the night when my dad, five of my siblings and I escaped in a boat. We got to Hong Kong, and I was in a refugee camp surrounded by guards and police officers for an entire year until we were granted political asylum. Then I got on a plane and landed for the first time in Los Angeles. This was in 1979. I didn’t have the maturity to process the sacrifices that my parents made so that we could have a better future.”

The future in terms of Asian representation: “Forget about 30, 40 years ago — even 10 years ago. Look where we are now: The landscape looks so different. We have a seat at the table. Our voices are being heard. Our faces are being seen, and it feels amazing.

Harrison For presenting Best Picture: “When he opened that envelope and read the title, it made our win for best picture even more special. And when I ran up onstage, I pointed at him and he pointed back at me and I gave him a hug. I just couldn’t help myself. I just want to shower this man with all my love. I gave Harrison Ford a big kiss on the cheek.

Whether he hoped Short Round would come back for The Last Crusade: “I was secretly hoping. But honestly, Steven has given me so much — not one movie, but two movies. And they were the first ones to put an Asian face in a big Hollywood movie.

Struggling to find roles for 30 years: “I was taught never to blame anybody. If something doesn’t go the way you want, it’s either because you didn’t work hard enough, you weren’t good enough or you didn’t try hard enough. So when I couldn’t get a job, I blamed myself: I thought I wasn’t tall enough, I wasn’t good-looking enough, or I wasn’t a good enough actor because I wasn’t classically trained. I never blamed anybody — even to this day. We talk about Asian representation, but I don’t like to look at the past and say, “Oh, my God, how bad it was!” I’d rather focus on the present and moving forward. A lot has changed.

His worries about what comes next: “I had a conversation with my agent. I’m so worried that this is only a one-time thing… I attended an event recently and sat next to Cate Blanchett. I told her that I don’t know what I’m going to do next, but I feel I have a responsibility to do something good, and that I don’t want to disappoint all the people that have supported me. And she said, “Just go with your heart and be irresponsible: Don’t worry about what other people think. Choose something that you believe in, choose something that you love, and things will work out.”

[From Variety]

The part where he talks about blaming himself for not booking roles… that might have actually broken me. Like, how much weight he was carrying on his own shoulders, how he never said to himself “this industry is just fundamentally racist.” It’s sad. In case you’re wondering about his completed projects, he’s in the second season of Loki, he’s in the series American Born Chinese and he’s filmed the sci-fi movie The Electric State. But yeah, people need to write roles for him or cast him in interesting projects. The fact that he’s in a Marvel series is interesting to me – if he gets in with Disney/Marvel, he could have work coming in for the next decade.

Cover & IGs courtesy of Variety.