Ke Huy Quan Explains How ‘Goonies’ Influenced His ‘Loki’ Performance
Ke Huy Quan is a Hollywood veteran with an impressive list of credits to his name. From Goonies to Indiana Jones to Everything Everywhere All at Once, Quan has seen it all.
Still, there was something extra special about joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) for Loki Season 2.
The actor had fallen in love with the Marvel universe following the release of 2008’s Iron Man. After being blown away by Kevin Feige’s (whom Quan had worked with on X-Men) burgeoning universe, the actor followed along and saw every single Marvel Studios movie as they came out.
“It was not until Kevin Feige made the first movie, ‘Iron Man’, and I went to see it and I was just blown away by how entertaining, how fun, it was. I watched every single [Marvel Studios] movie that came out thereafter and became a huge fan of this universe. I know a little bit about this universe, but I can’t say I’m as knowledgeable as Kevin. But I really enjoy these movies. My family are huge fans,” he explains.
A Throwback
In a way, Quan saw the MCU as a continuation of the kind of summer blockbuster movies that appealed to him as a child. Despite being in the business as a child star, Quan had fond memories of watching the “big event” movies of the 1980s.
“I grew up in an era where you go into movies like ‘Back to the Future’” and ‘Indiana Jones’ — all those fun summer blockbuster movies, those big event movies. Those were my happy memories. Going to watch a Marvel movie reminded me of my childhood. Those movies are meant to be shared with a mass audience, that communal experience in a movie theater with 1,000 people. I just love them.”
How Ouroboros Connects to Data
When Quan first read the script for Loki, he instantly fell in love with his character Ouroboros, the brains behind the TVA. When trying to think out how he wanted to play the tinkerer, he realized that there was something familiar about the character.
“I think I know who he is. I have to go back 35 years ago, when I play Data on ‘The Goonies,'” Quan explains.
“So many fans have come up to me, and the most asked question was, “Will there be a ‘Goonies 2’? And what is Data doing as an adult?” This character of Ouroboros is kind of my answer to that. I view him as a variant of Data. What’s really interesting is, on my first day, I’m in full hair and makeup and costume. I’m walking to the Ouroboros set. They built this amazing set on the second biggest stage at Pinewood Studios. I look up and I see the name of the stage is “Roger Moore.” Now as we all know, Data loves James Bond. The character 007 inspires him tremendously. So I feel like there’s some cosmic connections to this character and Data. Playing him was one of the greatest experiences I’ve had.”
How Tom Hiddleston Helped Quan Remember His Lines
Just because Quan had experience playing Data in Goonies, however, did not make the technical jargon that he needed to memorize for Loki any easier to remember.
“In the beginning, I kept messing up my lines. My character is responsible for a lot of the exposition. So it would just be pages and pages of dialogue. I didn’t understand, what is the ‘temporal loom’? What is the ‘throughput multiplier’? I could barely say it in the beginning,” he recalled.
“I had to ask [executive producer] Kevin Wright: ‘You have to show me what it is.’ I have to visualize it in my head in order for me to say this dialogue. So he showed me visuals. There was a miniature model of the temporal loom.”
Luckily, the actor had Tom Hiddleston to lean on.
“I even asked Tom Hiddleston. In Episode 6, he was just spitting out that dialogue at 100 miles per hour. I was blown away by his performance. I said, “Tom, how do you do that?” It comes so naturally for him. He talked about his method. He showed me how to do it. And of course, you know, I practiced it, and it worked.”
Quan’s ‘Loki’ Verdict
So, as a longtime Hollywood veteran and Marvel fan, what did Quan think of the Loki finale?
“We didn’t get access to Episode 6 until later on. When I read it, I was blown away, because it was not the direction I was expecting. I got so emotional because the character arc of Loki is one of the most beautiful arcs I’ve seen in cinema history. He started 14 years ago as a selfish villain, and to end at the Episode 6 of ‘Loki’ Season 2, how he made this tremendous sacrifice without recognition,” Quan says.
“Nobody knows he did this, except the team. Nobody on the sacred timeline knows that he’s given up his freedom, he’s given up all these wants and needs, to be on that throne and hold everything together. That is just beautiful. I just love it. I just think it’s so poetic and so beautiful. It’s a perfect ending to a perfect character.”
Loki is streaming now on Disney+
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