Ke Huy Quan says he accidentally gave Kate Capshaw a black eye while filming the runaway mine-cart sequence in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. It was an unfortunate collision on a famously chaotic set, followed by a Steven Spielberg morale plan so elaborate it could only have come from a movie director.
Quan recounts the incident in his memoir Never Say Die. During filming, his head struck Capshaw’s face. She returned to work bruised, only to discover that Spielberg had arranged for crew members to wear painted black eyes in solidarity.
A frightening accident became a show of support
Capshaw was understandably upset after the injury, and the gesture helped break the tension. The story also illustrates the strange intimacy of filmmaking: hundreds of people manufacturing danger while trying to keep one another safe inside machinery, stunts and schedules.
For Gen X viewers, Quan’s Short Round was one of the movie’s enduring faces. He was a child performer working inside a massive production, long before he could have understood how permanently the role would attach itself to pop culture.
The memoir follows a remarkable second act
Entertainment Weekly published the excerpt on September 18, 2026.
Quan’s career later stalled for decades before his Oscar-winning return in Everything Everywhere All at Once. The black-eye story is a small memory inside a much larger one: a child actor entering Hollywood, disappearing from its spotlight and returning with enough perspective to describe both the magic and the bruises.
Facts first. Side-eye included.
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Roxy Static
Celebrity Chaos & PR EmergenciesRaised on MTV, mall gossip, and celebrity apologies that answered absolutely nothing. Roxy covers fame, fallout, and the PR statement nobody believed.
“If the apology uses the phrase “my truth,” Roxy has already opened a new tab.”