Ke Huy Quan brought the crowd to tears with his emotional acceptance speech at the 95th Academy Awards on Sunday night. Quan received the award for Best Supporting Actor in honor of his work on Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s Everything Everywhere All at Once. Quan began his speech by thanking his mother who was watching from home.
“My mom is 84 years old and she’s at home watching. Mom, I just won an Oscar!” he said while fighting off tears. “My journey started on a boat. I spent a year in a refugee camp. And somehow I ended up here on Hollywood’s biggest stage. They say stories like this only happen in the movies. I cannot believe it’s happening to me. This, this is the American dream.”
Ke Huy Quan On Stage At The Oscars
From there, Quan thanked his “Goonies brother for life,” Jeff Cohen, with whom he appeared in the 1985 film, The Goonies. He also thanked his wife, Echo. “I owe everything to my wife, Echo,” he said, “who, month after month, year after year, for 20 years told me that one day my time will come. Dreams are something you have to believe in. I almost gave up on mine. To all of you out there, please keep your dreams alive.”
Other actors nominated in the category included Brendan Gleeson for The Banshees of Inisherin, Brian Tyree Henry for Causeway, Judd Hirsch for The Fabelmans, and Barry Keoghan for The Banshees of Inisherin. Later in the night, Quan’s co-star, Jamie Lee Curtis, took home the award for Best Supporting Actress. By the end of the night, Everything Everywhere All at Once will compete for the highly-coveted Best Picture award. Other nominees include All Quiet on the Western Front, Avatar: The Way of Water, The Banshees of Inisherin, Elvis, The Fabelmans, Tár, Top Gun: Maverick, Triangle of Sadness, and Women Talking.
Ke Huy Quan’s Acceptance Speech
[Via]