Having a bit of Podunkitis isn’t so bad

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 23/03/2024 (947 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Ke Huy Quan is having A Moment right now.

He won an Oscar last year for his performance in Everything Everywhere All at Once, an incredible comeback for an actor who had quit acting for decades after starring, as a child, in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Goonies in the 1980s.

He’ll be the lead in an action film called With Love that’s set to shoot in Winnipeg and will be out next year.

So, it was news when Quan enjoyed a meal at Wasabi on Taylor Avenue last Saturday night. He seems like a delight overall.

Back when the Free Press still had a comment section, these kinds of stories would invariably draw the following: “Slow news day?” (good one), “Who?” (just admit you don’t engage with culture) and “Who cares?”

Winnipeggers! Winnipeggers care. Winnipeggers care a lot. I know this because “Oscar winner Ke Huy Quan dines at city restaurant” was, for days, the most popular news story on our website.

That we still care is the bit that I find fascinating. We’re a city of almost 750,000 — over 800,000 if you count the Winnipeg Census Metropolitan Area, and oh, I count it — and yet Winnipeg has still held on to a few regional charms that make it feel like it’s a smaller city. We’re like a Labrador that doesn’t realize it’s no longer a puppy.

And one of those regional charms is caring a little too much about famous people’s opinions about and experiences in Winnipeg. I’m not saying visiting stars’ inability to find their way back to the Fairmont was the main argument for opening Portage and Main, but it wasn’t not an argument for opening Portage and Main, either.

Even a mere celeb mention of Winnipeg will still make headlines.

Last year, when actor Michael B. Jordan (Black Panther, the Creed franchise) was on Jimmy Kimmel Live, he was asked “Does Michael B. Jordan love Winnipeg?” as part of a segment called Google’s Least-Searched Questions about Michael B. Jordan.

“I don’t not love Winnipeg,” Jordan responded, and this five-word quip got coverage in at least three major local news outlets.

There are too many examples to list in this space, but I will note that in 2003 this paper basically had a beat dedicated to coverage about Shall We Dance? the 2004 Richard Gere/Jennifer Lopez rom-com shot here.

That was also the year we ran the infamous front-page headline: “Richard Gere peed here!”

You can blame us, The Media, for perpetuating this Winnipeg phenomenon but listen: these stories are wildly — and reliably — well read.

Our city has changed a lot since 2003, and owing to our robust film industry, Ke Huy Quan-type sightings happen often enough now that they should almost be mundane.

But maybe having a famous person in Winnipeg still feels a little incongruous to us. Maybe when you live in a city that has so often been overlooked and underestimated, you still thrill at its mention in TV shows, in movies or by celebrities. Especially if that mention is positive.

I will admit that I also used to get grumpy about these kinds of stories because they sometimes feel cringey, like we suffer from what a colleague of mine calls Podunkitis. We’re a major city, I’d bristle. We don’t need to do this anymore.

But I like that we’re not too big to get excited about a Goonie, you know? I like hearing that a local restaurateur felt proud to serve him. I don’t want us to be aloof or cold or, worse, snobby; I want us to be Winnipeg.

Besides, I wonder if relishing this kind of recognition is less about desperate validation seeking these days and more about actual civic pride. I mean, we’ve got lots to be proud of, Winnipeg. Richard Gere peed here!

jen.zoratti@winnipegfreepress.com