Nearly two years after Ke Huy Quan won an Oscar for his supporting role in Everything Everywhere All At Once, he is back on the big screen in his first leading man role.

Quan stars in Universal’s Love Hurts as Marvin Gable, a successful realtor whose past as a violent hitman comes back to haunt him. He initially turned down the romantic action comedy several times, admitting at the film‘s Los Angeles premiere on Monday, “I didn’t see myself as Marvin Gable because he’s the leading man and he’s No. 1 and he’s the action star. When I was younger, I wanted to be him, but because I didn’t get the chance I thought I wasn’t right for it.”

A conversation with Steven Spielberg — the two worked together on 1984’s Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom — convinced him to take the chance and be No.