The Goonies’ Ke Huy Quan got emotional after visiting the film’s set for the first time in decades

Ke Huy Quan’s performances as Richard “Data” Wang in The Goonies and Short Round in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom may be iconic in the canon of ’80s family-oriented adventure cinema, but Quan is an Asian actor in 1980s Hollywood Years, these roles did not lead to as fruitful an acting career as it should have been.

“I didn’t grow up wanting to be an actor,” Quan revealed to The New York Times in April 2022. “However, as I got older and realized I wanted to do that, there just weren’t many offers.” When there was one, the role was very stereotypical and every Asian in Hollywood fought for it. By the time I was in my early 20s, the phone had stopped ringing.”

Quan eventually quit acting, but not wanting to retire from film altogether, decided to apply to the University of Southern California film school, from which he graduated in 1999. In the years that followed, he worked as a stunt crew member and assistant director in the United States and Hong Kong. Then, in 2018, the success of Crazy Rich Asians inspired him to return to acting. He called his agent friend and asked if he wanted to represent him; two weeks later the offer for the role in “Everything at once” came about. The rest, of course, is the history of this universe.