Ariana DeBose and Ke Huy Quan Talk Oscar Wins and Shooting an Action Movie (Exclusive)
Apr 1, 2025
Ariana DeBose and Ke Huy Quan talk Oscar wins, the difficulties of shooting an action movie and their affection for one another in this exclusive interview from Parade.
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0:00
We have worked too hard. We are on schedule
0:03
Almost there. Almost there. We are finishing this. I watched this one walk through his awards season with such, I don't know, joy
0:19
Like, very hopeful energy, but joy and support for other people. And I think that kind of energy is infectious
0:24
So I was very emotional, like, with genuine happiness for him. when his moment came, you know
0:32
because I thought it was so deserved. And the Oscar goes to..
0:38
Keyboard Clive. Especially given your story, my love. But I think, I don't know, wasn't it
0:45
you told me this story about Echo. Well, I mean, I remember that night well
0:50
when you opened the envelope and announced my name with so much emotion
0:55
I was so touched. and I remember, you know, seeing you again at various events
1:01
and I always go up to you and give you a big hug and say, Ali, come on, let's do a movie together
1:06
And I was always like, yeah, let's go. So when this came
1:10
and we were wondering who can play Rose and when her name was brought up
1:15
I immediately jumped up with joy and I said, yes, she is perfect
1:20
And I said, please give her whatever she wants so she can say yes
1:25
You know and thank God you said yes and honestly I could not have asked for a better partner, lover, partner in crime
1:34
You know? Yeah. No, I feel exactly the same. I just love the mess out of this one
1:39
You know in the beginning when they sent me the script and I read it I was so confused because I didn see myself as Marvin Gable In fact I never saw myself as the number one on a call sheet And honestly I think that has to do with you know all those years of just you know
1:58
auditioning for, you know, minor roles. So how can I possibly be a leading man
2:05
In fact, I was so confused. I reached out to my favorite filmmakers of all time
2:11
I reached out to Stephen. Yeah. Steven Spielberg, and he was so gracious with his time
2:15
And he said, hey, that sounds great. You should do it. All of a sudden, my own internal narrative
2:23
everything that I was telling myself started to slightly change and look at things differently
2:30
And really, and it was really then that I began to see myself
2:34
as Marvin Gable and the possibility of me leading a movie. This was the first opportunity I had gotten to do full-fledged sequences
2:46
I know I've appeared in Argyle and I smacked somebody up in the head
2:51
but that's a very different thing than what I'm doing in this movie. And yes, my dance background is very helpful because to me
2:59
fight choreo, dance, it's all a dance. It's the same palette, just different colors here and there
3:05
When Ari was training with our action team, and I was just watching from the side
3:10
and I remember thinking, wow, she's really good. And I went to her and said
3:15
have you done this before? And she says, no. So I was really surprised
3:19
and I think that dancing background Really helpful. Even though it's different
3:26
but it's also very similar because when you doing these fight sequence a lot has to do with the rhythm the pacing For me I quite comfortable I know these fights very well
3:41
He's a black belt. Yeah, and it was such a wonderful opportunity
3:47
to be able to show the world something that I've always wanted
3:53
In the very beginning, I told our producers in JoJo that if I'm going to do this, I want to do all the fights myself
4:04
And I mean, honestly, sometimes I scare myself because that was such a big statement
4:09
Mentally, I think I can do it because of my background. But I haven't done it for so long
4:18
And I knew what it takes to make these fights look good
4:23
So I trained with our guys very early on for almost three months
4:28
to get myself physically ready. And even then, showing up on set and doing it is very different
4:36
because, one, you know, we don't have the luxury like, you know
4:41
they have in Hong Kong where they spend a lot of resources on these fights
4:45
And this is what we were trying to aim for, to pay an homage to those Jackie Chan, Sam Moore movies
4:54
And because of the time constraint. And also, you know, the crew, our crew, you know, they've never shot anything like this before
5:04
So aside from all the bruises and aches and pains. A lot of ice
5:09
A lot of ice. A lot of bath. What is it? Salt bath
5:13
Salt bath. Tyronole. Yes. It was a day where I did take a shoulder to the nose Yeah I remember that night And you know it was just it was just a mishap and I remember like oh we had one more day left of shooting Everybody was scared and I it happened
5:32
I was like oh god oh god oh god I dug deep and we continued shooting because I was like nope we
5:39
have worked too hard we are on schedule we are almost there we are finishing this. For me it's
5:46
the kitchen fight. And for that one particular shot where they slammed me onto the counter before
5:52
I really turned and fight back, I remember I had this thick pad on just to protect myself
5:58
And somehow every time I land, you know, the pad would show. It would just stick out of my wardrobe
6:04
and it didn't look natural and I didn't like it. So I ripped it off. You did that without the pad
6:10
I did it with the pad and every time we did it again and again and again and, you know
6:13
from different angles and I felt a slight pain on my chest but it was okay because I
6:18
was expecting it. That's how you, that's what I learned and I didn't know the
6:22
damage until the next day when I was getting ready to go back to set and Echo
6:28
my wife, was standing at the doorway and all of a sudden she just like her eyes
6:34
teared up and she said are you okay? Are you in pain? And I didn't know what she
6:39
was talking about. And I look in the mirror and I see my entire chest was just black and blue. It
6:45
was just all blues. And that's when she went, you know, back to the, you know, to the production
6:51
office and said, please order a lot of, you know, a lot of bags of salt. And it was that night on
6:58
you know, salt bath every night. Love Hurts brought to you by Epsom Salt
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