Jack Smart is the Movies Staff Writer at PEOPLE. With 10 years of experience as an entertainment journalist, he previously worked at The A.V. Club and Backstage.
After a career of iconic supporting roles and stunt work behind the camera, Ke Huy Quan is finally leading his own action-comedy flick.
Love Hurts stars Quan, 54, as "an unlikely hero, a seemingly mild-mannered realtor with a dark secret," per a synopsis from Universal Pictures. As the newly released trailer reveals, his secret packs a punch.
"I always fantasized about being the number one on the call sheet or putting myself in the shoes of the leading man," Quan tells PEOPLE, adding that Love Hurts is "the perfect movie" to do so.
"I never thought that I would one day be the lead actor in a major studio picture. So it is an incredible feeling."
Costarring Quan's fellow Oscar winner Ariana DeBose, the new movie is helmed by veteran stunt coordinator and fight coordinator JoJo Eusebio, making his feature directorial debut. Written by Luke Passmore, Josh Stoddard and Matthew Murray, it hails from 87North Productions, the company that brought Bullet Train and The Fall Guy to the big screen.
The Everything Everywhere All at Once star plays sunny Milwaukee realtor Marvin Gable, "thrust back into a world of ruthless hitmen, filled with double-crosses and open houses turned into deadly warzones," per the synopsis.
The character's "volatile crime lord" brother Knuckles (played by Daniel Wu) forces Marvin to reunite with DeBose's Rose to "confront the choices that haunt him and the history he never truly buried," it concludes.
"When I first read the script, I was very confused," says Quan. "Even though I thought it was a good script, I thought it was written for somebody else. In fact, I even said, 'You guys should be calling Jason Statham, not me.' "
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But speaking to Eusebio and husband-and-wife producing team David Leitch and Kelly McCormick, Quan "realized that what they were trying to create was a new kind of action star, not what we have been accustomed to in the last few decades," he explains.
"They wanted someone who can have a range, who's not afraid to be vulnerable," he adds. "And at the same time, he doesn't look like a badass until the situation calls for it."
The Love Hurts trailer offers glimpses of Quan both playing that vulnerability and showcasing the badass skills he honed for years working as an action choreographer with the likes of X-Men star Hugh Jackman.
In fact, he says, watching pro costars like Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom's Harrison Ford or Everything Everywhere's Michelle Yeoh prepared him for his first major leading-man moment.
"When I finally got this incredible opportunity, I remember I tried to bring on set what they brought to set when they were number one," Quan says. "I learned from the best."
With a grin, he adds, "This was always what I wanted, and I can't believe this is happening to me!"
As for his newest costar, DeBose, 33, Quan says joining this movie with the West Side Story star was something of a full-circle moment.
They met during awards season in the lead-up to Everything Everywhere's domination of the 2023 Academy Awards, he recalls. "I will never forget the moment when she opened the envelope and she said, 'And the Oscar goes to...' and she announced my name with such emotion," he recalls. "I think I loved her from that moment on."
After accepting the trophy, he says, "I went up to give [her] a big hug, and I said, 'Ari, I would love to work with you.' And little did I know, my first movie after the Oscar is Love Hurts!"