Ke Huy Quan is stepping into a new role: action star. In the upcoming film Love Hurts, Quan plays Marvin Gable, a realtor with a dark secret who is thrust back into the world of crime when his former partner-in-crime, Rose (played by Ariana DeBose), returns seeking revenge.
“I was excited [about the role] but also very confused,” Quan told Entertainment Weekly. “I go, ‘Wait, why are they offering me this? I’m nothing like this.’ I even told him, ‘You guys should be calling Jason Statham. He’s going to love this script.'”
But after meeting with the producers, Quan realized that the film called for “a different kind of action star, not the action star we have seen in the last few decades. He’s not afraid to be vulnerable; he doesn’t look like a badass until the situation is called for. That’s an interesting take on the genre.”
The film’s director, Jonathan Eusebio, knew from the start that Quan was the right man for the job. “With Ke, this movie coincided with awards season for Everything Everywhere All At Once,” Eusebio said. “You’re seeing him making his comeback; he’s very uplifting, his speeches are the best. I already knew about his background doing stunt work in Hong Kong, so I knew how physically capable he was.”
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Quan, who has a martial arts background and did stunts on films like X-Men (2000), trained for three months before production began, focusing on stretches, weights, and core training. “I was adamant about this,” he said. “I told our producers, ‘You have to let me do all the fights myself.’ And this is without even knowing if I could do it or not!”
A fan of classic Hong Kong action films starring legends like Jackie Chan, Jet Li, and Sammo Hung, Quan was determined to follow in their footsteps by doing his own stunts. “I knew it was going to be intensive and really difficult, but I wanted to do it,” he said.
Quan’s dedication to the role saw him end many shooting days exhausted and bruised, especially after intense fight scenes with co-stars like former NFL star Marshawn Lynch and martial arts icon Daniel Wu.
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“We really went at it,” Quan said of his fight scenes with Wu. “I’m old school and so is he, and that’s how we were taught to make a fight sequence look good. You can’t fake it.”
Despite the physical toll, Quan is excited for audiences to see him in this new light. “I don’t look like your typical action star,” he said. “A badass doesn’t have to look like a badass.”
Love Hurts hits theaters on February 7, 2025.
