Ke Huy Quan Talks About How THE GOONIES Inspired His Performance in LOKI and Reveals Tom Hiddleston's Acting Advice
Academy Award-winning actor Ke Huy Quan (Everything Everywhere All At Once) has made quite a comeback with his career, but he will also forever be known as Short Round in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Data in The Goonies. These are favorite films that will continue to be rewatched and loved by fans everywhere, so Quan will continue to identify with them. Luckily, he loves these roles, and he even carried some of his character Data into his most recent appearance as Ouroboros, or “OB,” the head (and seemingly the sole employee) of the Repairs and Advancement Department of the Time Variance Authority in the Marvel series Loki.
The actor recently sat down with Variety to talk about his role in the series, which he was excited to do now that the SAG/AFTRA strike is over. Quan is the most high profile new addition to the second season cast, which includes Tom Hiddleston in the title role and Owen Wilson as the TVA operative Mobius, and he was anxious at first about joining such a well-regarded show for its second season.
“They already have this camaraderie going on, this beautiful relationship,” he says. “So coming in, I was a bit intimidated. I didn’t know how I would fit in. From the get go, I felt this warmth, this beautiful acceptance with everybody’s wide open arms. They brought me in, and I felt right at home. It was wonderful.”
He went on to talk about how much he loved this character, and how much it reminded him of his Goonies character, Data, saying:
When I first read the script, I instantly fell in love with Ouroboros. You can see who this character is right away — his quirkiness, his humor, his passion for his job jumps right out of the page. In the process of trying to fine tune how I want to play him, something dawned on me. I realized that this character is familiar to me. I think I know who he is. I have to go back 35 years ago, when I play Data on “The Goonies.”
So many fans have come up to me, and the most asked question was, “Will there be a ‘Goonies 2’? And what is Data doing as an adult?” This character of Ouroboros is kind of my answer to that. I view him as a variant of Data. What’s really interesting is, on my first day, I’m in full hair and makeup and costume. I’m walking to the Ouroboros set. They built this amazing set on the second biggest stage at Pinewood Studios. I look up and I see the name of the stage is “Roger Moore.” Now as we all know, Data loves James Bond. The character 007 inspires him tremendously. So I feel like there’s some cosmic connections to this character and Data. Playing him was one of the greatest experiences I’ve had.
That’s so awesome! What a full-circle moment for the actor, and what a tribute to Data. Quan went on to talk about the technical dialogue he had to memorize for the role, and he said he asked MCU boss Kevin Feige to actually show him what some of the parts were that he was describing so that he could put a name to what he was looking at, and understand what he was saying. Another helpful tool was given to him by Loki himself, Tom Hiddleston, who he asked for help when he watched him perform his lines with ease:
I even asked Tom Hiddleston. In Episode 6, he was just spitting out that dialogue at 100 miles per hour. I was blown away by his performance. I said, “Tom, how do you do that?” It comes so naturally for him. He talked about his method. He showed me how to do it. And of course, you know, I practiced it, and it worked.
He went on:
Well, I mean, there’s no secret to it. It’s really looking at the dialogue and reading it very, very slowly the first few times, and then as you become more comfortable with it, then you start picking it up. It’s just that repetition, but start very slow. I do the opposite. I jump right in and I’ll practice it as if I will be saying it in camera. But his process is just start very slow and familiarize yourself with every single word. That’s the method that I’ve been using ever since.
Quan was fantastic in this role. I really enjoyed him this season, and I look forward to his bright future as an actor. Quan can be seen next in the Russo Brothers-directed film The Electric State, in which he will star alongside Chris Pratt, Millie Bobby Brown, and Stanley Tucci.