Ke Huy Quan is a ‘different type of action star’ in ‘Love Hurts’ first look

Move over, Statham. You too, Schwarzenegger. There’s a new action star in town.

Ke Huy Quan plays an affable realtor with a dark secret in the upcoming action film Love Hurts (previously titled With Love), and Entertainment Weekly has your exclusive first look. In his first leading role, the Academy Award winner stars as Marvin Gable, a real estate agent in the Milwaukee suburbs whose life is upended when he receives a mysterious crimson envelope. It comes courtesy of Rose (Ariana DeBose), his former partner-in-crime he left for dead. 

Marvin is soon thrust back into a world of ruthless hitmen commanded by his crime lord brother Knuckles (Daniel Wu), forcing him to confront his buried past. Former NFL running back Marshawn Lynch, Mustafa Shakir, Rhys Darby, and Sean Astin are also among the cast of the film from veteran stunt coordinator Jonathan Eusebio (John Wick, The Fall Guy) in his directorial feature debut.

When Quan’s agent informed him he had been offered the lead, he “was excited” but also “very confused,” the actor tells Entertainment Weekly. “I go, ‘Wait, why are they offering me this? I’m nothing like this.’ I even told him, ‘You guys should be calling Jason Statham. He’s going to love this script.’” But after meeting with the producers, he realized the film called for “a different kind of action star, not the action star we have seen in the last few decades. He’s not afraid to be vulnerable; he doesn’t look like a badass until the situation is called for. That’s an interesting take on the genre.”

Eusebio, on the other hand, knew it would be Quan from the start. “With Ke, this movie coincided with awards season for Everything Everywhere All At Once,” the director says. “You’re seeing him making his comeback; he’s very uplifting, his speeches are the best. I already knew about his background doing stunt work in Hong Kong, so I knew how physically capable he was.”

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Quan, who has a martial arts background and did stunts on titles like 2000’s X-Men before his return to the screen, trained for three months before production began, focusing on stretches, weights, and core training. “I was adamant about this. I told our producers, ‘You have to let me do all the fights myself,’” he says. “And this is without even knowing if I could do it or not!”

A fan of classic Hong Kong action films starring legends like Jackie Chan, Jet Li, and Sammo Hung, Quan was determined to follow in their footsteps by doing his own stunts. “I knew it was going to be intensive and really difficult, but I wanted to do it,” Quan says. He’d return to his apartment on location in Manitoba, Canada, exhausted and bruised after a day’s work, which included throwing it down with former NFL star Lynch (there was “nothing more scary” than having a former running back coming at him in full speed, he quips) and martial arts icon Wu. “We really went at it,” he says of the latter. “I’m old school and so is he, and that’s how we were taught to make a fight sequence look good. You can’t fake it.”

And let’s not forget fellow Oscar winner DeBose, whom Quan says brought “so much” to Rose. “You do not want to mess with Rose,” he teases of the “badass” and “determined” character. It was especially poignant to star alongside the person who (emotionally) presented him with his big Oscar win in 2023. “There was this mutual admiration between us, this respect having been through the whole awards season together and having received the Oscar from her and her announcing my name with such emotion,” Quan says. “I remember going up to her and giving her a big hug. I told her, ‘I would love to work with you.’ Little did I know that my first movie post-Oscar was with her.”

Though Marvin demanded a lot from Quan (shout-out to Epsom bath salts), he’d do it all over again — this despite concerns from his former EEAAO costar and good friend Michelle Yeoh, who knows a thing or two about action sequences. “She was having dinner with my wife and asked, ‘How is Ke doing?’ She said, ‘He’s exhausted every night. He’s working really hard.’ Michelle says, ‘Echo, tell him don’t do everything himself! Tell him to leave it up to the stunt double!’ And, of course, I didn’t take her advice,” says Quan. “I wanted to prove to myself that I can still do it.”

Eusebio is “very proud of the cast” that was assembled. “It’s a very fun movie,” he says. “The most interesting action heroes are the ones people can identify with. It’s nice to be able to identify with someone who looks like you or grew up in the same circumstances.” Quan hopes that resonates with audiences. “I don’t look like your typical action star,” he says. “A badass doesn’t have to look like a badass.”

Reflecting on his winding Hollywood journey, the former child star admits, “I never thought I would ever get to be number one on a call sheet. Every time I’d go watch an action movie, whether it be Schwarzenegger or Stallone or Seagal or Statham, I would fantasize about being in their shoes, but it only existed in my fantasy. What an incredible step forward.”

Love Hurts hits theaters on Feb. 7, 2025.