Nov. 2, 2023

From Fall to Glory

In the ever-evolving world of Hollywood, the lives of celebrities often resemble a rollercoaster ride of triumphs and trials. The stories of Ke Huy Quan, Brendan Fraser, and Ellen DeGeneres vividly illustrate this phenomenon as they navigated the treacherous waters of fame, weathered personal storms, and eventually found their way back to the limelight. By: Wee Yan Ling

Ke Huy Quan

Quan started his career as a kid in blockbuster films such as Indiana Jones, Temple of Doom and The Goonies. However, his journey in Hollywood wasn’t a smooth sailing one. Upon turning 20, Quan found it harder and harder to find roles as an actor and the scarcity of roles left for Asians did not help. 

He had to endure hardship since young and faced many uncertainties. His family was divided while fleeing the Vietnam war before reuniting in Los Angeles. Quan even spent a year in Refugee camp.

Quan made his comeback in the film, Everything Everywhere All At Once as the laundromat owner, Waymond. He then became the first Asian man to clinch a film award at the Screen Actors Guild and also an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.

Brendan Fraser 

Brendan Fraser was an acclaimed movie icon back in the 1990s, having starred in films such as The Mummy and Gods and Monsters. 

However, his career took a turn for the worse when he stood up to speak about his experience of being a sexual assault victim by the former HFPA President Philip Berk. The incident has inflicted emotional distress against him paired with many other tragedies that eliminated him from Hollywood for a good decade. 

Fraser managed to rise above his adversaries as he has won high praises for his role as Charlie in The Whale. He won the Oscar for best actor and received a 14-minute standing ovation during the world premiere at the Venice Film Festival.

Ellen Degeneres

The Ellen Degeneres Show has finally come to a close after spanning nearly two decades and nineteen seasons. During her time, she had interviewed famous people in the world and brought smiles to her audience's faces. However, her career started to crumble when accusations regarding her real self started to emerge. Rumours regarding Ellen not being the nice person that she was erupted for years until a fellow comedian ascertained the truth.

Kevin T. Porter tweeted, “She’s also notoriously one of the meanest people alive. Respond to this with the most insane stories you’ve heard about Ellen being mean & I’ll match every one w/ $2 to @LAFoodBank.”

As a result, a flood of responses inundated the platform with thousands sharing their personal recounts on her unkind behaviour. Some of the accusations revealed Ellen’s bad conduct of fat shaming children and mistreating others which led to her employees working in a toxic environment with an atmosphere of microaggressions. The viewership since then started to plummet.

The former host has marked her comeback with the release of a new documentary, Saving the Gorillas: Ellen’s Next Adventure. 

"It is an adventure filled with laughter, tears, and experiences none of them ever dreamed they'd have. At the centre of it is Ellen, doing things that are not only life-changing for hundreds of others, but that affect an entire nation and give the mountain gorillas a hope for survival greater than they've ever had before."

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