Ke Huy Quan has revealed that an unnamed 'well-known actor' told him he was 'not going to win' at the 2023 Screen Actors Guild Awards because of the playful face he made while posing for a selfie.
The Oscar-winning Everything Everywhere All at Once star recounts the uncomfortable exchange in his new memoir, Never Say Die, released on Tuesday, 15 September. The remark came before Quan went on to win Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role, becoming the first Asian actor to win the category.
Quan, 56, has chosen not to identify the actor. Instead, he says the encounter stayed with him because of what happened next: he refused to let the comment derail a night that became one of the defining moments of his Hollywood comeback.
A Selfie Turned Into an Unexpected Put-Down
Quan writes that he spotted an actor he had admired for years on the red carpet. He leaned into the selfie and made one of the playful faces he had been using throughout awards season, only for the other actor to react sharply.
'You're not going to win tonight with that stupid face,' Quan recalls the actor telling him. The Goonies and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom star says the comment caught him off guard, but he did not confront the person or allow the exchange to take over his evening.
The identity of the actor remains deliberately undisclosed, and Quan has said that naming the person is not the point of the story. That restraint also leaves no factual basis for online guesses about who made the remark, especially given the number of actors and nominees attending the ceremony on 26 February 2023.
Quan Won That Night and Made SAG History
When Quan's category was announced, his name was called over fellow nominees Paul Dano, Brendan Gleeson, Barry Keoghan and Eddie Redmayne. His win for playing Waymond Wang in Everything Everywhere All at Once made him the first Asian actor to take the SAG supporting actor prize.
Onstage, Quan focused his speech on representation and the years he spent away from acting after opportunities dried up. 'This moment no longer belongs to just me; it also belongs to everyone who has asked for change,' he told the room while accepting the award.
Watch below: Ke Huy Quan delivers his emotional acceptance speech after winning at the 2023 SAG Awards.
The moment became part of a record-setting sweep for Everything Everywhere All at Once, which also won acting prizes for Michelle Yeoh and Jamie Lee Curtis, as well as the cast award. Two weeks later, Quan won the Academy Award for best supporting actor, completing one of the most dramatic comeback stories of that awards season.
'I'd Won With That Stupid Face'
In Never Say Die, Quan returns to the selfie exchange after describing his victory. The contrast is blunt: an actor he respected had mocked the expression on his face and linked it to his chances of winning, only for Quan to leave the ceremony with the award in his hands.
The anecdote lands inside a memoir built around a much longer rise, disappearance and return to Hollywood. Quan first became famous as a child in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and The Goonies, later moved behind the camera when acting roles became scarce, then returned decades later with Everything Everywhere All at Once.
His SAG victory was not the end of that comeback. Quan went on to win the Oscar for supporting actor in 2023 and has since appeared in projects including Loki, American Born Chinese and Love Hurts. The unnamed actor's prediction, meanwhile, became one of the rare moments in Quan's story where the outcome arrived almost immediately: he won that night, face and all.
