A Surprise Envelope in the Kitchen
At age 12, Ke Huy Quan acted in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. In his memoir Never Say Die, with an excerpt published by Entertainment Weekly, the Oscar winner recalls that director Steven Spielberg and producer George Lucas looked after him in a manner he only discovered once shooting wrapped. Quan describes coming into the kitchen one afternoon to see his parents together at the table: his mother held an envelope bearing his printed name, his father held the contents, and both wore expressions of startled disbelief as they passed it all to him. Inside was a Lucasfilm check worth nearly $100,000, a sum that struck him as impossible.[S1]
A Rare Share of the Profits
Quan had already received his payment for the film. Yet the movie earned over $300 million globally, and its director and producer ensured the young actor got a portion of those earnings. In the book, Quan observes that at the time virtually no performers received a cut of a film's profits, and that even now only the top stars do. He calls it extraordinary for a child on his first movie to be given such a share. He further notes that Temple of Doom was no obscure release nobody expected to see, but the follow-up to a huge hit that was certain to earn plenty, which made the gift all the more generous. That modest sum, Quan says, transformed his family's life.[S1]
