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 John Cho and Kal Penn
“We were hoping it would be a box office success, and it really wasn’t,” said John Cho, who plays Harold. “So we were disappointed initially, but we hoped it would be a hit on DVD and it was slowly, but surely. And it took a long time for it to get there, but better late then never. We always felt the movie would find its audience somehow at some point.”
In fact, the film found
such a large audience after the DVD release that Cho, Penn, and a
colorful cast of characters are back in Harold and Kumar Escape from
Guantanamo Bay.
“The first movie was
plot-less and it involved us getting high, getting hungry, looking for
a burger place and then a bunch of stuff happened to us on the way to
the burger place,” said Cho. “And this movie (Guantanamo Bay) has a very traditional, or
much more traditional plot, with really high stakes.”
With a solid fan base
and an original plot, Penn believes this is a film that audiences will
love. “I mean the fact that they are mistaken for terrorists, sent to
Guantanamo Bay, they have to escape, they end up in Miami, they have to
go through the entire South and then get their names cleared by
President Bush… I don’t think you’re going to see that in any other
comedy this summer, which I think means the audience will have a lot of
fun […] at least I hope they do.”
Ironically, Harold and
Kumar’s second adventure would likely feature very different themes if
the first film had been an immediate smash hit.
“If the first movie had
been a box office hit they would’ve probably written the sequel soon
after the first one, and the plot wouldn’t have been what we have now.
And I think because we didn’t get the green light for a few years
really, they had time to sit on it and also time to kind of clock what
people were appreciating about the first one and kind of the political,
racial and social humor became such an identifying mark of the first
movie that the audience kind of forced the hand,” Cho explained. “And
they felt that they had to inject some of that subversive, political
humor into the second one as well.”
Though they play the characters so well, Penn claims that in reality, the roles are reversed.
“I know this is so
disappointing to the audience, which is why I don’t talk about it a
lot, but I don’t smoke weed, I don’t eat fast food… and in real life, I
don’t know if you guys have heard this before, but probably one of the
true things on the Internet about us is that John Cho is more of a
Kumar in real life, and I am more of a Harold. So the roles are
definitely switched.”
Besides breaking into a
unique comedy niche, Harold and Kumar has also done a lot to subtly
alleviate racial stereotyping in entertainment. “Typecasting exists no
matter what you look like, but certainly there is stereotyping that is
more unique to Asian Americans or South Asian Americans, and I really
like the way in which Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg (the writers
and directors of Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay) totally
deconstruct a lot of those stereotypes just with the use of humor, and
I think that’s great,” said Penn. “I think it’s certainly a more
subversive way of even dealing with stereotype. I’m not a big fan of
people that preach too much or beat you over the head with it.”
Another cast member who
has avoided stereotyping of sorts through the films is Neil Patrick
Harris, who plays a mockery of himself in the films. Some even credit
the original film as the resurrection of his career.
“I think he’s been open
about that. I think that Harold and Kumar, the first movie, allowed
people to see him in a different light,” said Cho, “and I believe he
has said, ‘I don’t think I’d be on How I Met Your Mother without
Harold and Kumar.’”
Their new film has some
more exciting cameos to keep fans laughing, according to Penn. “We do
have James Adomian, who’s an incredible comic who plays George Bush,
and Chris Meloni makes a comeback.”
However, not everything
on the set was fun and games. John Cho recalled an incident in which
Kal Penn almost died on set. “He’s allergic to nuts, and they had used
as dust from the vent - nuts. And he had to be taken to the hospital,
and it was a bad situation. But, that isn’t a favorite memory…”
With the plot, themes,
and cast of characters all in place, all they can do is hope that the
film’s opening weekend will go as smoothly as they’re planning.
“I’ve heard that folks
are hoping for something that happened with, for example, a film like
Transporter. The movie Transporter did terribly in the box office when
it first opened, but it got a huge following on DVD. And when
Transporter 2 opened it was the number one movie in America, if I’m not
mistaken, for a weekend or two at least,” said Penn. “We are certainly
hoping that the audience that we’ve gotten based on the DVD sales
translates into a great opening weekend.”
Cho and Penn wouldn’t
mind doing some more Harold and Kumar related projects if they were
“done right.” They’d even consider a television show.
“I feel like, if it was
done right, and if it preserved the nature of the humor and the nature
of the characters, then I wouldn’t necessarily be opposed to it. I
don’t think you can do that on network TV though. I think it would have
to be on something like HBO, or you could probably take risks like that
with a ‘Family Guy’ type of show where it’s an animated version,” said
Penn.
Cho would have only one
problem. “Technically, I think I’m a take whore. Meaning, I will do
takes of a scene until the sun goes down. That’s just the way I’m
wired. And film, as a rule, tends to give you a little more time than
television. Television is very fast-paced, which has its rewards as
well, but I would always prefer more takes.”
“Artistically, I think
the difference between acting on TV and film is that the character must
remain the same, must not transform during the course of the hour, the
half hour,” he said. “And in a film, ideally you want your character to
be different by the end of the movie and to have undergone a change,
and that’s just two very different ways of acting.”
For now, the two actors
are backing away from the comedy genre and exploring new options. “I
think every time you take on a new role you overcome certain unique
challenges, and those are definitely welcome challenges. In the case of
Harold & Kumar, the obvious ones are things like riding a cheetah
and the smaller aspects, the hang gliding… I don’t know," said Penn. “But then, with other
films like Superman, where it’s based on a comic book, there are
additional challenges with that and portraying particular characters,
fitting them into the arc of the storyline overall and then finding out
you got cut out of the whole movie. I’m not bitter though. Both John
and I have done TV and a couple of different types of movies since the
first Harold and Kumar, and it’s been a good learning experience in
terms of genre too.”
Last year, Penn starred
in The Namesake, based on the novel by Jhumpa Lahiri. “I really fell
in love with her writing style and to be able to turn a novel of hers
into a book [sic] was a big honor for me, and it also was a lot
different for me than some of the broader comedies I’d worked on before
that, so it was a nice change of pace.”
Cho just recently
finished shooting the new Star Trek film, in which he plays the newest
version of Mr. Sulu. “When I was a kid, George Takei was the only
really Asian on television that I recall that was doing something that
I was so extremely proud of. He was in space being the helmsman of this
amazing spaceship. So, he was just like a beacon for me on TV. So, it
is a real honor for me in that way for me to be stepping into his
shoes.”
With all their energy
currently focused on promoting the new film, Cho and Penn are showing
strong support despite some concerns with the film’s content.
“I feel like our humor,
even though it crosses certain lines, manages to be fun and innocent in
a strange way. I mean our take on sexuality is essentially a teenage
boy’s take on sexuality and on drugs. It’s mostly about having fun,”
said Cho. “You compare it with other stuff that’s in the marketplace
like Hostel, to name one, a torture movie, and I find that compared to
some other R-rated movies that center around violence, I feel that ours
is really tame in comparison.”
Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay hits theaters tomorrow -- check out ACED's review -- then go check out the movie for yourself!
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