Ke Huy Quan opened up about how Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom changed his family’s life. The 55-year-old actor recalled learning as a child that his first residual check from the 1984 film was for nearly $100,000. Quan was 12 when he was cast as Short Round in Steven Spielberg’s movie.
Ke Huy Quan recalls receiving a $100,000 residual check after Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
The Oscar winner looked back on the life-changing moment in his new memoir, Never Say Die, which will be released on September 22. According to Entertainment Weekly, Quan recalled finding his parents in the kitchen one afternoon.
“One afternoon, I walked into the kitchen and found my parents standing together at the table. Mom was holding an envelope with my name printed across it. Dad had the papers that had been inside.”
He continued, “They were both smiling, the kind of smile that comes from surprise and disbelief mixed together. They handed everything to me. It was a check from Lucasfilm. It was for almost $100,000, an amount that didn’t make any sense to me.”
Quan said the payment was especially significant because residual arrangements were not common for actors at the time.
“Back then, almost no actors got a piece of a movie’s profits. Even today, only the biggest stars do. That a kid like me, making his first film, would be included in something like that was unheard of. And ‘Temple of Doom’ wasn’t some small movie no one was expected to see. It was the sequel to a massive hit, a movie everyone knew would make a lot of money. That made their gesture even more generous.”
The payment made a significant difference to Quan’s family, who had immigrated to the United States before he began acting. Quan has continued to express gratitude to Spielberg for giving him his start as a child actor.
He later thanked Spielberg during his 2023 Golden Globes acceptance speech after winning Best Supporting Actor for Everything Everywhere All at Once. Quan also reunited with Spielberg at the 2023 Oscars, where he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the same performance.
As a young actor, Quan also played Data in Richard Donner’s 1985 film The Goonies. He later stepped away from acting for several years and worked behind the camera as a stunt choreographer and assistant director. His other credits include the 2000 film X-Men and several movies directed by Wong Kar-wai.
