Ke Huy Quan was overcome with emotion on Sunday night when he won the Academy Award for best supporting actor for his performance in “Everything Everywhere All at Once.”
After coming on stage and kissing his golden statuette, Quan started by thanking his mother, who he said was at home watching.
“Mom, I just won an Oscar!” he said.
He then referenced his past, saying that his “journey started on a boat” before spending “a year in a refugee camp.”
“Somehow, I ended up here on Hollywood’s biggest stage,” he said. “I cannot believe this is happening to me. This is the American dream.”
Quan thanked his mother for the “sacrifices” she made to get him to this point. He also acknowledged his little brother David, “who calls me every day just to remind me to take care of myself.”
The actor got his start as a child actor in popular ’80s films “Goonies” and “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.” He then left acting for a period of time. On stage, he thanked his wife, “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,” he said. “To all of your out there, please keep your dreams alive.”
He added to the room, full of his peers: “Thank you so much for welcoming me back.”
“Everything Everywhere All at Once,” directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, is the most nominated film of the evening.
After Quan won, his costar Jamie Lee Curtis won the best supporting actress Oscar for the same film.
