It’s like something from an alternate universe: After a 30-year absence, Ke Huy Quan is America’s sweetheart once again. In Marvel’s Loki, he plays yet another affable guide to multiple realities, a character that bears a passing resemblance to his Oscar-winning role in Everything Everywhere All At Once, but this time he inhabits a different world with different rules and, more importantly, different desires. “He always wants to have friends,†Quan says of his TVA (Time Variance Authority) tech-wiz Ouroboros, lovingly called O.B. by his friends. In the show’s penultimate episode, the eponymous god of mischief (Tom Hiddleston) learns to time-travel through the power of friendship, a plot contrivance that works surprisingly well within the series’ confines.
Loki hones this ability with the help of sci-fi writer (and physics Ph.D.) A.D. Doug, an alternate version, or “variant,†of O.B. focused more on the poetry of stories than on temporal nuts and bolts, but both roles represent something familiar for Quan. In between his stint as a child actor in the ’80s and his triumphant comeback last year, he worked behind the camera on several major productions, including as an assistant director to Hong Kong maestro Wong Kar-wai (on the movie 2046) and as a fight choreographer for the original X-Men. Like filmmaking, time travel turns out to be both an emotional and a technical endeavor, and A.D. and O.B. tap into these different sides of it as Loki learns to slip through time, eventually sacrificing his newfound happiness in the finale and saving his pals by taking his place on a lonely throne.
The show offers no official designation for this version of Loki, but fans have taken to calling him “the god of stories†after an arc in the comics, a moniker befitting the musical grandeur with which he ascends to the role. Music is a key part of the series; Quan seems to agree. When we began speaking over Zoom, he disabled his camera at first, for a bit of impish fun. “We’re going to start the interview in a way that I’ve never done before. You ready?†he asked, before scoring his own entrance with the show’s thundering musical suite, blaring from a bright-blue pill-shaped speaker.
Natalie Holt is one of my favorite composers. Thank you so much for that.
I’ve got to tell you this little story. When we were shooting Loki, every morning Tom Hiddleston would come to set with a portable speaker and play a different piece of music. Before we saw him, we would hear the music as he made his way onto set. Because it’s really early in the morning, he just wakes everybody up, lifts everyone’s spirits, and everyone is all gung-ho and ready to do the best work they can that day. So that’s why I was thinking of starting the interview with this wonderful piece of music by Natalie Holt.
Would he play music from the score specifically?
He would pick something different every day. Those big sequences where you see the entire cast, when we were in the Temporal Loom chamber, he would pick a piece of music that was appropriate for the emotion of the scene. And he would play it really loud for everybody to hear, to get in the mood.
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Music is a part of the process for a lot of actors. Was this something you used to do before Loki, or was getting in the mood musically new for you?
The first time that I noticed this was when I was working for Wong Kar-wai. He loved playing music on set to help the actors get in the mood, and I loved it. He would pick all this beautiful music. Not only that, it also helps the cameraman and the DP. If the camera is moving, it helps the pacing and rhythm of it. I love music, so when you need to get in character, or get into the drama of a scene, it really helps.
I’m fascinated by the question of how much O.B. knows, and over how many years and lifetimes he’s acquired all that knowledge. How did you approach carrying all that with you?
Kevin Wright, our showrunner, and our head writer, Eric Martin, they did such a magnificent job creating this character, because it’s not based on the comic books. They created him from scratch. I immediately fell in love with him, and it wasn’t that hard. I remember the first day I walked to the O.B. set, I was in costume and hair and makeup, and it was the second stage at Pinewood Studios. I looked up and, believe it or not, the name of the stage is “Roger Moore.†When I read O.B., I realized that there’s something about this character that I’m familiar with. I approached him as if he was a variant of Data from The Goonies.
It’s been 38 years. We always talked about The Goonies II, or I would get asked, “What do you think Data would be doing?†And to me, that’s who he is. So, it was such a wonderful coincidence that out of all the stages where they could’ve built the O.B. set, they happened to choose the one that’s called “Roger Moore.â€
I love O.B. so much, because he has so much passion for his work. He’s been working in the basement for 400 years by himself, and yet every single day, he loves his job, he loves to contribute, he loves being part of a team.
Since you’ve re-entered the public consciousness, the multiverse has been everywhere. Why do you think people gravitate towards this idea in storytelling?
I think the attractiveness of multiverses is the question of “What if?†What if I’d have chosen a different path? What would my life be like? Or had I been with somebody else, or if I had taken different roles. A lot of times, things don’t always go the way we want. And when that happens, you tend to question, “Oh, did I make the right decision? Did I marry the right person, or did I make the right friend? Did I choose the right profession?†All of those questions become very fascinating, and you don’t really have an answer, because we’ve already moved on. And the multiverse, in a way, allows you to fantasize about that.
You also worked on 2046, which has its own interesting view of time. I was wondering what you might’ve learned working with someone like Wong Kar-wai?
I’ve made some interesting choices in my life. When I decided to become an actor again only a few years ago, little did I know I would be part of this wonderful MCU family as Ouroboros. Working with Wong Kar-wai was one of the greatest experiences of my life because nobody makes movies the way he does. He spends five years making one movie, and a lot of filmmakers would make five movies in one year, and one thing that I really learned from him that has stuck with me today is perseverance. You have to have dedication in order to continue your vision for five years.
This show is also a full-circle moment for you since you were a fight choreographer on the original X-Men, which was Kevin Feige’s first Marvel project.
It was right out of college. I got a phone call from Corey Yuen, who was the action director on X-Men. And I was just so happy to be offered a job because I didn’t know if I would have a career behind the camera. This was right after I couldn’t get a job as an actor. I decided to step away and go to college, and once I graduated, I didn’t know if I would be happy doing that. And here comes this wonderful filmmaker who took me under his wing and gave me this amazing opportunity, and my first movie out of the gate was X-Men. And that’s where I met Kevin Feige. He was so passionate about the Marvel Universe; he was like a walking encyclopedia. Little did I know that we were going to end up working together again after 23 years.
When you say you “didn’t know if you would be happy doing that,†do you mean acting?
I was 49 years old, and I could see the next 10 years of my life, and I was so afraid that I would turn 60, because all this time, there was something missing. I didn’t know what it really was until I realized I wanted to be an actor again. That passion of wanting to step in front of the camera was still there. Even though I buried it for many years, it crawled itself to its surface, and it screamed really loudly to me. At that time, I didn’t have the courage to do this, because I didn’t know if I was going to be any good. I didn’t know if people were going to want me. But there was one thing that I did know, which was that if I didn’t give this a try, I would regret it for the rest of my life. And sure enough, when I did, when I stepped in front of the camera again, I felt alive. I felt happy. I’m so glad I made that decision.
This question of “Will I be happy?†seems to be at the core of so many of the projects that you’ve been doing.
If you look at Loki, the character, he’s a god. But at the end of the day, he possesses all these human traits that make him real and relatable. He just wants to fit in. He wants to be part of the gang. He was never part of the Avengers, and he always feels like an outsider. And because of my unique background, having been born in Vietnam to Chinese parents, I identify myself as Chinese. I immigrated to the United States when I was a little kid. I was American, but I didn’t look American. So my entire life, I felt like an outsider. I felt like I didn’t belong. And it was not until recently that I found my happy place. Hollywood has welcomed me back with wide-open arms in the biggest way possible by giving me an Oscar. It doesn’t get any bigger than that.
For the first time in my life, I felt like I finally belonged to this wonderful, big family with all different kinds of people, all different colors of people who share the same passion, which is storytelling. Loki, if you look at his character, was not happy until he came to the TVA, and he found himself there, and he made a difference. People cared about him finally. I think Loki is the ultimate hero. He always wanted to be on a throne, and to make that sacrifice at the end of episode six is really, truly remarkable.
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It’s like something A.D. Doug might write.
Yes, it’s not the “why.†It’s not the “what.†It’s the “who.†Because we all need friends in life. I love how in episode five Sylvie asks him, “What do you want? What do you really want?†And you can see it in Tom’s performance. He wants to be with his friends, because they care about him. They love him.
What do you, Ke, want going forward out of the roles you choose?
That’s a great question. What do I want? It’s happening now. I want to make more great movies and television shows that can entertain people. But one of the things that really got me emotional this entire last year is so many people have come up to me and said my story really resonated with them. That it really inspired them to keep going. The Daniels were very courageous. They thought outside the box, and they gave an actor who hasn’t acted in more than 20 years an amazing opportunity.
There are a lot of Ke Huy Quans out there who are just waiting for their opportunity, waiting for their spotlight to shine. My dream came true, so what I really want is: I hope that the people who are waiting patiently in the shadows will one day get their spotlight. That’s what I really want.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.