Ke Huy Quan stopped by Good Morning America to discuss his new memoir.
The actor’s Never Say Die is set for publication Tuesday by Grand Central. The book tells the story of Quan’s life, first as a refugee from South Vietnam, and later as a young actor known for his roles in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and The Goonies. He made a memorable career comeback in 2022 with the film Everything Everywhere All at Once, for which he won an Academy Award for best supporting actor. A critic for Kirkus called the book “a touching account of a life with more than its share of ups and downs.”
Quan talked about the title of the book, which was inspired by a line from one of his best known movies. “When it was suggested to me, I thought it was brilliant,” he said. “You know, there’s that wink to The Goonies and, also, just what my story represented, perseverance and all of that. But it was not really until I sat down to write the book [that] I realized that it was my dad who has been showing me this example of never giving up his entire life.”
Asked about the hardest part of writing his memoir, Quan said it was the exploration of “the quiet years” between his success as a child actor and his comeback in Everything Everywhere All at Once.
“The most difficult thing for me to share was those really personal stories of what actually happened in those years,” Quan said. “Those are the kind of years that really shaped who I am as a person: the rejection, the disappointment, the not knowing who you are when there’s no work, and what it actually feels like to hang on when nobody’s paying attention to you anymore.”
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
