Archived Posts - July 2004

q & a with john cho and kal penn

Ready for something different? By now, you've probably heard the hype. Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle is a mainstream Hollywood comedy starring two (count 'em!) Asian American lead actors. Whoa. And it's funny as hell. Make no mistake—Harold and Kumar is a stoner comedy, with all the low-brow, to-hell-with-PC humor you need/want/expect from the genre. It's not a movie about being Asian American. Yet somehow, for the very same unapologetic reasons, it is. It takes on the usual Asian stereotypes, and promptly craps on them. And it's completely refreshing.

Recently, I had the brief chance to sit down with John Cho ("Harold") and Kal Penn ("Kumar") to get their perspective on the movie. The two guys are pretty cool, and I had a good time.

DISCLAIMER: Unfortunately, my tape recorder sucks. Due to a some technical difficulties, parts of the recorded interview were skewed and incomprehensible. So, my apologies to John and Kal—they had a lot of great stuff to say, but my recorder jacked it all up. I had to try really hard to edit it down and piece together something readable. Sorry.

Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle opens this Friday, July 30 in theaters everywhere.