The actor hadn’t seen ‘Star Wars’ or ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ and thought they were just ‘really nice’

It’s an almost unbelievable Hollywood story.

On the Feb. 3 episode of WTF With Marc Maron, Oscar winner Ke Huy Quan looked back at his first movie, 1984’s Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Though he worked with legends Harrison Ford and Steven Spielberg, Quan, 53, told Maron that he didn’t who they were when he auditioned for the movie.

Quan was born in Vietnam, and at the end of the Vietnam War in 1975, he and his family fled to Hong Kong before gaining entry to the United States and settling in the Los Angeles area. One day, Quan told Maron, 61, a casting director came to school. “I see all these kids lining up to audition for this movie that I know nothing about,” he remembered.

Quan’s brother auditioned, and he tagged along. He looked at the script pages, but could “barely read them.” When it was his brother’s turn, he said, “I thought he could do better, so I was giving him direction as if I was the director … I was just telling him to be scarier, to have bigger energy. I was just like throwing these directions at him.”

The casting director noticed him and had him audition. Though he stumbled over the lines, the casting director saw something in him and they chatted. Years later, Quan heard that as soon as he walked out, the casting director called Spielberg and producer George Lucas and told them he’d found the kid they’d been looking for. “From that day forward, my life has been changed,” Quan said. 

The movie production called Quan’s house and sent a car to drive him and his mom to the studio. The first time, he wore an “uncomfortable” suit, but the second time he went to the studio, he wore normal clothes. “And I walked in the room and there was George Lucas, Harrison Ford and Steven Spielberg,” he remembered.

“It was pretty insane. And to think that only four years prior to that was when I came here as a refugee … and all of a sudden, I find myself on a set with basically the biggest filmmakers on the planet and the biggest movie star on the planet.”

Not that Quan had any clue who they were. “I didn’t know I was in a big thing,” he said. He had never seen Star Wars or Raiders of the Lost Ark. “So to me, they were just guys,” he said. “And I think my lack of knowledge of who they are, made me really comfortable because there was no stakes for me.”

During that first meeting, Spielberg had them improvise the card game Indiana and Quan’s character, Short Round, take part in during the movie. They also read a few scenes from the script.

“To me, it was, ‘Oh, these guys are really friendly, really nice,” Quan remembered. Soon he was in wardrobe fittings. “And I still didn’t know I was making a sequel to the biggest movie of 1982,” he said. His mom had a better idea and was “very proud” of him.

They shot in Sri Lanka for three weeks and then finished filming over five months in London. “I look at that movie now, and I’m still surprised because I had no prior acting experience, never been on a movie set before, and I look at that performance and I said, ‘Yeah, it’s pretty good,’ ” he said. He credits Spielberg for being “so good with kids” because he’s “just a kid himself.” When he would have a “good take,” Spielberg would high-five him. 

When the movie was over, Quan went back to school. “The very first time I watched myself up on the screen was at the premiere with 1,400 people,” he remembered. “I thought it was incredible. I could not believe it was me up there on the screen, and you can understand why I fell in love with acting immediately.”

Key Huy Quan (left) and Harrison Ford in 2023. Charley Gallay/Getty

Quan went on to star in 1985’s The Goonies. However, for years, he struggled to find work as an adult.

In 2023, he won an Oscar for his role in Everything Everywhere All at Once, and last October he told PEOPLE he’s still adjusting to the changes his success has brought.

“Everything that has happened in the last two years, I’m still getting used to it,” he said. “Ever since I won the Oscar, that narrative is slowly changing. I feel like maybe I belong here, maybe I can do this and it’s heading that direction.” Quan next stars in the new movie Love Hurts, which hits theaters Feb. 7.