Ariana DeBose and Ke Huy Quan Talk Oscar Wins and Shooting an Action Movie (Exclusive)

Parade

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.

Transcript

00:00No, we have worked too hard, we are on schedule, we are almost there, we are finishing this!

00:12I watched this one walk through his award season with such, I don't know, joy, like very hopeful

00:20energy, but joy and support for other people, and I think that kind of energy is infectious,

00:24so I was very emotional, like, with genuine happiness for him when his moment came,

00:32you know, because I thought it was so deserved. And the Oscar goes to...

00:38K.Y. Clark! Especially given your story, my love, but I think, I don't know, wasn't it,

00:45you told me this story about Echo. Well, I mean, I remember that night well, when you opened the

00:52envelope and announced my name with so much emotion, I was so touched, and I remember,

00:59you know, seeing you again at various events, and I always go up to you and give you a big hug and

01:04say, Ari, come on, let's do a movie together. And I was always like, yeah, let's go! So when this

01:09came and we were wondering who can play Rose, and when her name was brought up, I immediately

01:16jumped up with joy, and I said, yes, she is perfect! And I said, please, give her whatever

01:24she wants so she can say yes, you know, and thank God you said yes, and honestly, I could not have

01:29asked for a better partner, lover, partner in crime, you know? Yeah, no, I feel exactly the

01:37same. I just love, I love the mess out of this one. You know, in the beginning, when they sent

01:41me the script and I read it, I was so confused because I didn't see myself as Marvin Gable. In

01:48fact, I never saw myself as the number one on a call sheet, and honestly, I think that has to do

01:54with, you know, all those years of just, you know, auditioning for, you know, minor roles, so how can

02:01I possibly be a leading man? In fact, I was so confused, I reached out to my favorite filmmakers

02:10of all time, I reached out to Steven Spielberg, and he was so gracious with his time, and he said,

02:17hey, that sounds great! You should do it! All of a sudden, my, you know, my own internal narrative,

02:23everything that I was telling myself, started to slightly change and look at things differently,

02:30and really, and it was really then that I began to see myself as Marvin Gable,

02:36and the possibility of me leading a movie. This was the first opportunity I'd gotten to

02:44do, like, full-fledged sequences, you know? Like, I know I've appeared in Argyle, and like, I smacked

02:50somebody up in the head, but like, that's a very different thing than what we're, what I'm doing

02:54in this movie, and yes, my dance background was very helpful because to me, fight choreo,

03:00dance, it's all the dance, you know? It's the same palette, just different colors here and there.

03:05When Ari was training with our action team, and I was just watching from the side, and I remember

03:12thinking, wow, she's really good, and I went to her, I said, Ari, have you done this before?

03:16And she says, no, so I was really surprised, and I think, you know, that dancing background.

03:23Very helpful.

03:24Really comes, it's because, you know, it's, even though it's different, but it's also very similar

03:28because when you're doing these fight sequences, a lot has to do with, you know, the rhythm,

03:34the pacing. For me, I'm quite comfortable. I know these fights very well.

03:41He's a black belt!

03:42Yeah, and it was such a wonderful opportunity to be able to show, you know, show the world

03:51something that I, you know, that I've always wanted. In the very beginning, I told, you know,

03:58our producers and JoJo that if I'm going to do this, I want to do all the fights myself,

04:04and I mean, honestly, sometimes I scare myself because that was such a big statement.

04:09Mentally, I think I can do it because I think, you know, because of my background,

04:15but I haven't done it for so long, and I knew what it takes to make these fights look good,

04:23so I, you know, I trained with our guys very early on for almost three months to get myself

04:29physically ready, and even then, showing up on set and doing it is very different because,

04:37one, you know, we don't have the luxury like, you know, they have in Hong Kong where they spend a

04:43lot of resources on these fights, and this is what we were trying to aim for, to pay an homage

04:50to those, you know, to those Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung movies, and because of the time constraint,

04:57and also, you know, the crew, our crew, you know, they've never shot anything like this before,

05:04so aside from all the bruises and aches and pains, a lot of ice, a lot of ice, a lot of bath,

05:11bath, what is it, salt bath, salt bath, Tylenol, yes. It was a day where I did take a shoulder to

05:18the nose, and yeah, I remember that night, and you know, it was just, it was just a mishap,

05:26and I remember like, oh, we had one more day left of shooting. Everybody was scared, and I,

05:32it happened, I was like, oh god, oh god, oh god, I dug deep, and we continued shooting because I was

05:38like, nope, we have worked too hard, we are on schedule, we are almost there, we are finishing

05:44this. For me, it's the kitchen fight, and for that one particular shot where they slam me onto

05:51the counter before I really turn and fight back, I remember I had this thick pad on just to protect

05:57myself, and somehow every time I land, you know, the pad would show. It would just stick out of my

06:03wardrobe, and it didn't look natural, and I didn't like it, so I ripped it off. You did that without

06:09the pad? I did it with the pad, and every time we did it again, and again, and again, and you know,

06:14from different angles, and I felt a slight pain on my chest, but it was okay because I was

06:18expecting it. That's how you, that's, that's what I learned, and I didn't know the damage until the

06:23next day when I was getting ready to go, go back to set, and Echo, my wife, was standing at the

06:30doorway, and all of a sudden, she just, like, her eyes teared up, and she said, are you okay?

06:37Are you in pain? And I didn't know what she was talking about, and I looked in the mirror,

06:42and I see my entire chest was just black and blue. It was just all bruised, and that's when

06:48she went, you know, back to the, you know, to the production office and said, please order a lot of,

06:54you know, a lot of bags of salt, and, and it was that night on, you know, salt bath every night.

07:01Love Hurts brought to you by Epsom salt.

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