Ke Huy Quan

explains why he doesn’t consider himself a martial artist, despite his action-heavy background. Though he was previously best known for playing Short Round in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) and Data in The Goonies (1985), Quan has recently experienced a major resurgence in his acting career, winning an Oscar for his role as Waymond Wang in Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022) before headlining his very own action movie, Love Hurts (2025). Before these recent roles, during a long break from acting, Quan remained active in Hollywood as a stunt coordinator and ᴀssistant director.

Even though Quan has a great deal of experience doing his own action scenes and coordinating others, he reveals in a recent Wired video that he doesn’t consider himself a martial artist. While answering questions suggested by Google’s autocomplete search function, Quan addresses his relationship to martial arts, explaining that, to him, a true martial artist is someone who works every day to hone their craft. Check out his explanation below:

“I studied martial arts for a long time. I have a black belt in Taekwondo, but I don’t consider myself a martial artist. And the reason is because, to me, a martial artist is someone who practices their craft every single day, who’s really good at it. They live and breathe martial arts. That’s a martial artist.

“To me, I know martial arts. I’ve done it many times. I know how to do fight scenes for movies. So I appreciate the art form, but there are incredible, incredible martial artists out there and I have tremendous respect for them.”

What Ke Huy Quan’s Comment Means For Action Movies

How Martial Arts In Movies Is Different

Quan’s comment about not being a martial artist highlights an important distinction in the world of action movies: there’s a big difference between being a martial artist and doing martial arts on camera. That’s not to say there isn’t overlap. Quan himself, with his black belt, is an example of this, but so too are action movie stars like Donnie Yen and Scott Adkins, who both recently made big splashes as part of the cast of John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023) as they both continue to star in their own lower-budget action flicks.

Historically, actors like Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee, and Jet Li have also walked this line. While all of these actors, and many others, such as Iku Uwais, Tony Jaa, and Jean-Claude Van Damme, have accolades proving their proficiency in various martial arts, action scenes on camera require certain amounts of exaggeration when it comes to fighting. What works in a real fight may not look good on camera, and many actors have described movie fighting as closer to a dance routine than an actual fight.

Our Take On Quan’s Martial Artist Comments

It’s A Matter Of Perspective

Some would surely consider anyone with a black belt to be a martial artist, while others, like Quan, would not. Ultimately, it may just be semantics, and one’s perspective on the matter probably depends on their own training in martial arts. As someone with a black belt, Quan has evidently trained very hard at this craft, and he can probably see the different levels of skill, commitment, and dedication differently than a layman would.

When it comes to his on-screen persona, however, Quan certainly looks the part of a martial artist. His inventive fight scenes in the acclaimed Everything Everywhere All At Once were a testament to this, and even though Love Hurts earned poor reviews, it also really showed off his martial arts physicality. As Quan‘s acting comeback continues, hopefully there are more projects on the horizon in which he can show off his action chops.

Source: Wired

Ke Huy Quan

Birthdate

August 20, 1971

Notable Projects

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Everything Everywhere All at Once