Ke Huy Quan, a onetime child star who gave up acting for two decades, and Hollywood veteran Jamie Lee Curtis won Academy Awards on Sunday for their roles in offbeat, dimension-hopping adventure Everything Everywhere All at Once.
A weeping Quan, who was born in Vietnam, kissed his gold Oscar statuette as he held it on stage at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles in front of the biggest names in show business.
"My journey started on a boat. I spent a year in a refugee camp. Somehow I ended up here on Hollywood's biggest stage," Quan said.
As a boy, Quan starred in a 1984 Indiana Jones movie and The Goonies in 1985. The 51-year-old said he had quit acting for years because he saw little opportunity for Asian actors on the big screen.
"They say stories like this only happen in the movies," he added. "I cannot believe it's happening to me. This is the American dream."
Quan's co-star Jamie Lee Curtis, who built a career in horror films such as Halloween, won best supporting actress for playing a frumpy tax auditor named Deirdre Beaubeirdre.
Curtis, 64, looked upward and addressed her late parents, Oscar nominees Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh. "I just won an Oscar," she said through tears.
Among the other early awards, Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio was named best animated feature.
Michelle Yeoh of Everything Everywhere faces off in the best actress category with Cate Blanchett, who played a devious orchestra conductor in Tar. Best actor may be a toss-up between Elvis star Austin Butler and Brendan Fraser, who played a severely obese man in The Whale.
Winners are voted on by the roughly 10,000 actors, producers, directors and film craftspeople who make up the film academy. – Reuters
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