At this year’s D23 Expo, the actor, who played the iconic role Short Round in the 1984 film Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, reconnected with his former co-star Harrison Ford, 80, for the first time in 38 years. Harrison Ford was also in attendance at the convention.
During an interview with a reporter from the New York Times named Kyle Buchanan, Quan, who is 51 years old, disclosed that his heart was “racing as he approached Ford, and he wondered to himself, “Is he going to know me? When he had seen me most recently, I was just a young child at the time.”
On Wednesday, Buchanan posted a snippet of the interview that he had conducted for an upcoming piece on Twitter.
In it, Quan stated that as he began to draw closer to Ford, the Oscar contender looked to him with his “classic, renowned, grumpy Harrison Ford look,” and recognised who he was. Quan’s comments were made in reference to the fact that Ford was grumbling at the time.
Quan said: “I thought to myself, “Oh my gosh, he most likely considers me to be a fan, and he’s going to tell me to not get close him.” But then he turns his head to me, points the finger at me, and asks, “Are you Short Round?” Instantaneously, I was taken back to 1984, when I was a young child, and I said, “Yes, Indy.” And with that, he pulled me close to him and gave me a bear hug.”
Quan, who was a kid actor at the time, filled the role of Indiana Jones’s sidekick in the second edition of the Indiana Jones franchise. According to Quan, the get-together wasn’t anything that had been planned.
“I was told Harrison was going to be there,” he related to Buchanan while they were at the D23 event. “We were there,” “We are gathered in this green room with a large number of actors, producers, and directors, and the person whose job it was to assist me just informed me that Harrison Ford is standing just outside the green room. Would you like to stop over and say hello?'”
When the two former co-stars embraced, Quan claimed that it brought back “all those lovely memories” from when they were working together and that it “felt so comfortable.” He had this to say about Ford: “He’s a fantastic man. One of the most charitable persons on the globe.” [Citation needed]