Source : PERTHNOW NEWS
Ke Huy Quan went into “full panic” mode filming a terrifying stunt in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and leading man Harrison Ford quickly stepped in to make him feel safe.
The final take of the thrilling mine-cart sequence in the 1984 blockbuster left the then 12-year-old child star convinced he would smash into a wall, as his character Short Round was trapped between two speeding carts with Indy and the villains pulling him in opposite directions.
With the carts running on separate tracks that were about to split, Short Round was supposed to be yanked into Indy’s cart at the last second before slamming into a wall.
But despite being told by director Steven Spielberg, now 79, that the stunt “wasn’t dangerous”, Ke panicked when the carts “kept rolling”, and it seemed that Harrison was “taking too long” to pull him to safety.
In an extract from Ke’s memoir Never Say Die, featured in Empire magazine, the now 55-year-old entertainer continued: “I watched the wall coming toward me, closer and closer, and my body went into full panic before my brain could remind me it was pretend.
“I was yelling, but Short Round was supposed to be yelling, so no-one noticed anything different. I couldn’t lift my body up or scramble away. My heart was pounding so hard I could hear it in my ears.
“Right when I was sure I was going to hit the wall, I felt a strong tug, and suddenly I was inside a cart.
“Everything went quiet. My face felt wet, and it took me a second to realise I’d been crying.”
The frightening experience left Ke “shaking”, prompting some crew members to rush over to him, but Harrison “waved them back”.
After the Hollywood legend, now 84, knelt in front of the youngster, Harrison said Ke’s name “softly, the way someone does when they’re trying to pull you back to yourself”.
Still shaking, Harrison “opened his arms a little, just enough for” Ke to “lean in”.
Ke added: “So I did. I wrapped my arms around him, and he held me for a moment, not rushing it, not embarrassed, not telling me to be brave or toughen up. Just staying with me until I calmed down.”
That moment stayed with Ke, showing him there is another way to respond when someone is scared or hurting.
He explained: “When I was growing up, whenever something frightened me or hurt me, I was expected to push it down. ‘Get up, Ke. Stop crying,’ or nothing at all. You handled it yourself.
“But Harrison didn’t do any of that. He didn’t tell me it was nothing. He didn’t tell me to toughen up. He just made sure I felt safe.
“I didn’t know men could be like that. That wasn’t how my dad showed love, so I didn’t realise there were other ways.
“Harrison showed me something new, and Steven had been showing me the same thing all along.”
By the end of filming for Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Ke said the cast and crew felt more like family to him.
He said: “By the time we reached our last days at Elstree, they didn’t feel like people I worked with. They felt like something else, something closer.
“Outside of my family, I’d never been part of a group that made me feel that way. I didn’t have the words for it then, but it was the same feeling I’d had when my family came back together in Los Angeles.
“It felt like belonging. It felt like being seen. And without realising it, that feeling was sinking deep, becoming the thing I’d spent years quietly searching for again.”
