John Cho Interview
CLIP Harold: You guys all right?
Are you alive?
Kumar: Harold?
Harold: Kumar?
Beth Accomando: This is the third time you're playing Harold.
So I'm wondering are you finding anything new or different in him?
John Cho: The second movie was set one minute after the first movie and I was glad when
I heard that they were advancing the ages of the characters so it was fun with the family
dynamic with Harold's married now and they're trying to have a baby and there's a really
funny bit in the movie with his in-laws, very frightening in-laws that come and a lot of
cultural misunderstanding jokes.
I felt that that was some new stuff to play although Harold and Kumar remain the same
guys essentially and to me the movies continue to be a romance movie about these two men
you know finding one another.
Beth Accomando: Can you imagine Harold and Kumar in a retirement home at some point?
John Cho: Yes.
I can.
Harold and Kumar get diabetes.
Harold and Kumar sign up for Meals on Wheels.
Harold and Kumar get hip dysplasia...
Beth Accomando: Is there a line that Harold and Kumar will not cross?
Because I mean in this movie there's a baby on crack crawling on the ceiling, is there
a point at which there is a line that gets drawn?
John Cho: How dare you?
It's not crack.
It's just regular coke.
Beth Accomando: Okay, thank you.
I'm sorry.
I stand corrected.
John Cho: Thank you.
I don't know.
We haven't found it.
No wait.
We crossed it a long time ago.
So apparently not but you know strangely enough I always feel like Harold and Kumar are allowed
to do what they do in the cinematic universe because they're sweet.
And the humor in the movie is strangely sweet.
There are lots of pervy jokes, there's nudity in the movie but there's an attitude with
which the jokes are told that I think it's in good fun and it doesn't seem raunchy for
raunchy sake necessarily, no it is but ah, I'm digging myself into a hole.
But I have always felt that they had a good natured attitude about it and that's what
allows us to be so pervy.
CLIP Kumar: Oh my God this is like that scene from
"A Christmas Story."
How did this happen?
Harold: Oh is it like the scene from "A Christmas Story"?
[screams] Kumar: I'm sorry dude, walk it off.
Beth Accomando: The two of you seem to be kind of cast opposite to what your real personalities
are like.
And I'm wondering if that was that a deliberate choice on the first film to cast you so that
you're playing a little against yourselves?
John Cho: I don't believe that was deliberate but it's really funny to me, it was funny
when we discovered it on set.
I mean I was like, "This guy is square.
This Kal Penn guy is square as hell."
And it's funny to switch personalities on action, I mean we would just become the opposite
of each other on action, it was funny.
Kal is intolerant of excessive goofiness on set.
Beth Accomando: So how does that play out?
John Cho: You gotta let people work the way they work but I think he got mad at me once
during the first one because I did have this habit of slapping his ass right before action,
really hard.
And I could see how it would get annoying.
I found it amusing.
Beth Accomando: We talked about crossing lines and stuff.
One of the things you guys do in the film is you do bring up a lot of racial stereotypes...
CLIP Kumar: Hi I'm Kumar.
Girl: Sorry I don't date black guys.
. John Cho: If you have a Korean and Indian
guy as your leads you must address race at some point in the movie, you must because
the audience is noting it really and the other thing is comedy at its best treads in taboo
waters a little bit and it has to have a transgressive quality to it and race is the biggest taboo
in America, I mean people are very reluctant to talk about race and yet when you do jokes
about race that work the people are very happy to release tension and laugh about it.
But it has been interesting and I'll make an observation, during the first tour for
the first film, we were talking about race all the time with journalists.
It was almost like a process, now looking back the first movie was more concerned with
race but we talked about it so much I felt that it was in a way a way of justifying our
presence in a motion picture.
Like we had to talk it through, like it was a therapy session over the course of all these
talks with all these journalists.
It's interesting to note that during this third one it comes up occasionally but not
very much.
And I don't know if it's the fact that people are more accustomed to seeing us so that the
movie isn't as concerned with it or maybe the country has changed but it's interesting
that there's less talk of it.
Beth Accomando: John Cleese once said that some people just need to be offended.
Do you think comedy has a role to do that?
John Cho: I need my comedy to offend.
That's my personal views.
And our audience seems to like it.
So I would tend to agree with Mr. Cleese.
Well let me put it this way, I would never dare disagree with John Cleese.
That's stupid.
That's just stupid.
Beth Accomando: And one last thing, let me ask you about NPH?
CLIP Jesus: Neil Patrick Harris.
Welcome to heaven, I'm Jesus.
Neil Patrick Harris: Jesus?
Jesus: Christ.
I practically run this place.
Neil Patrick Harris: Oh for reals?
Jesus: I mean my dad owns it but I'm kinda number one...
Neil Patrick Harris: Oh you're one of those.
Beth Accomando: You resurrected him from the dead essentially.
John Cho: Yes, no he resurrected himself.
He's pretty much a supernatural being.
He's like a literal deus ex machina.
He's our second act magic trick.
And he's back and he's fantastic.
And we were able to do a song and dance number with him in this movie which I really.
really enjoyed.
I didn't think that we'd get to do that, explore that skill set with him in our movies.
Beth Accomando: Well thank you very much.
John Cho: Thank you.
That was fun.