Ke Huy Quan Took His Fanny-Pack Combat Training For Everything Everywhere All At Once Very Seriously
One of the most rewarding things to come out of the phenomenal success of "Everything Everywhere All At Once" is witnessing the glorious renaissance of actor Ke Huy Quan ("The Goonies," "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom").
A24's highest grossing film is an engrossing action fantasy that transports Quan's character Waymond Wang and his family into a world-saving expedition spread across multiple dimensions. At its heart, "Everything Everywhere" is really all about possibilities. After his stellar performance, Quan has a seemingly endless number of options and his career could go in a number of different directions. For now, Quan will be seen next in season 2 of "Loki," which is rather fitting since the Marvel series also deals with the myriad of possibilities within the multiverse.
Quan does it all in "Everything Everywhere All At Once," playing multiple versions of the same character. The Waymond Wang in our world is a quiet, unassuming family man running a struggling laundromat with the help of his wife Evelyn (Michelle Yeoh); Alpha-Waymond, his multiverse counterpart, is a martial arts master who can easily navigate the complex paths of the multiverse.
Both characters come together in a pivotal action scene early on when Alpha-Waymond verse-jumps into Waymond, allowing him to gain fighting skills that help him and his family escape the clutches of some security guards. However, the only weapon Waymond has in his arsenal is a fanny-pack.
In the December 2022 issue of Empire, Quan talked about being nervous to film the fanny-pack fight scene even with his martial arts background. "I studied Taekwondo for many years," Quan said. "But the style of the fanny-pack fight is called 'Wushu Rope Dart.' It's a completely different style."
Quan was joined at the hip with the fanny-pack
Wushu rope dart, also called the rope javelin, is one of the most delicate styles in Chinese martial arts. Directors Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (professionally credited as Daniels) insisted that each fight have its own unique, singular fighting style. Per that edict, Quan trained for weeks with stunt coordinator Tim Eulich and the Le Brothers stunt team to make sure he nailed his big, show-stopping action sequence. While preparing, the fanny-pack literally never left his side, as Quan told Empire:
"I would be watching television standing up, swinging it around my neck, around my shoulder, just trying to get the moves down, so it became muscle memory. I would keep hitting things: the lamp would fall over, the glass would break, to the point where my wife was like, 'Honey can you please go practice in the backyard?'"
No one could have predicted the box office success of "Everything Everywhere" during production, and the modest budget reflected that fact. With only a single day of filming scheduled, and around 60 shots needed for the fight scene, Quan had only a few chances to get each take right. The last shot, in which Quan makes a phenomenal martial arts move and hits his hero pose, was especially difficult.
"I swing my fanny-pack around my shoulder, around my neck, and then kick it. It has to fly towards the camera in a certain way. It was such a complicated move. In that instant, everything was like in slow-motion. My heart was pumping so fast. When I saw it fly towards the camera, I was screaming with joy inside, but I had to stay in character!"
That crowd-pleasing moment shows why Quan is back as an in-demand actor. Look for him on season 2 of "Loki" when it eventually airs on Disney+.