Oscar nominee Ke Huy Quan says the hardest part of filming 'Everything Everywhere All at Once' was cramming everything into a 38-day shoot

• Ke Huy Quan has received over 50 awards for his performance in "Everything Everywhere All at Once."
• The actor told Insider the hardest part of filming was the tight 38-day shooting schedule.

Oscar nominee Ke Huy Quan has received more than 50 awards for his portrayal of Waymond Wang in "Everything Everywhere All at Once," a multifaceted role that required him to work with separate acting, dialogue, and voice coaches.

But as the actor told Insider, the hardest part of participating in the film was the tight production schedule.

While many films may take up to three months to shoot, "Everything Everywhere All at Once" was filmed in 38 days — no small feat if you consider the movie's multiverse-hopping narrative.

"The 38-day shoot was really difficult, because the Daniels had so much to do every single day, and the shot list was very long," Quan told Insider at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival earlier this month, referring to the movie's directing duo, Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert.

"But we all came together, because we believed in the script, we believed in the vision of the Daniels, and we all wanted to work with Michelle Yeoh."

According to Quan, each shooting day began with the cast getting together, doing warm-up exercises, then shooting for 14 to 15 hours a day.

"We would not stop until the Daniels got what they wanted," he added.

Despite the demanding schedule, Quan described every day as being a "gift." Although Quan first made a splash on the big screen as a child in 1984's "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom," followed just a year later by "The Goonies," the actor has been quite open about his struggles in Hollywood afterward.

Even with his newfound fame in the 1980s, roles for Asian Americans remained scarce. Quan often waited a year and a half between jobs that would only last a week, and calls to his agent then usually turned up nothing.

To help make ends meet, he helped choreograph fight scenes in films such as 2000's "X-Men."

But the long, grueling experience of trying to make it as a working actor in Hollywood proved demoralizing.

"It was a gradual decline, and what was painful for me was my family, knowing what I was going through," Quan told the "Happy Sad Confused" podcast in January.

Thanks to his impressive performance in "Everything Everywhere All at Once," however, doors are opening. After the film premiered in March 2022, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige offered Quan a role in season 2 of "Loki."

Life, as Quan tells it, has generally changed for the better — and not just because of his Oscar nomination for best supporting actor.

"I'm really happy," Quan told Insider. "I cannot imagine that I've gotten this amazing opportunity. In a lot of ways, I still feel the same, but I think I appreciate a lot more, because of what I was going through when I was younger and now I look at this with a different perspective."

"I don't ever want to forget where I came from and where I am here," he continued, "I'm just trying to take it one day at a time."