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John Cho (left) and Kal Penn (right) star in "Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay," a sequel to their "White Castle" flick.
'Harold & Kumar' actors
talk about latest buddy film
By: Michael Pasaoa
Posted: 4/23/08
EDITOR'S NOTE: On April 9, Michael Pasaoa participated in a news conference call with Kal Penn and John Cho, the stars of "Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay," which comes out Friday.
"Escape" picks up where the first movie "Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle" left off, with Harold and Kumar heading to Amsterdam to follow Harold's love interest, Maria, but they get mistaken for terrorists when they bring a bong on board.
Even though burger-hunting was the focus of the first movie, Penn, who played Kumar, said he doesn't munch on slider burgers in real life.
"I think fast food is disgusting," Penn said. "I was a vegetarian when we shot the first film, and I generally eat organic as much as possible. 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."
Cho, who played Harold, said the sequel has high stakes and a more traditional plot than the original film.
"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," Cho said.
Cho said the writers and directors of the sequel noticed that people liked the political, racial and social humor from the first movie and it should be that way for the second one as well.
"I don't think it's a political film in terms of taking a stance on anything, but definitely it inherently deals with some of the pop culture that surrounds the political sphere right now," Penn said. "I mean, we've got a caricature of President Bush in the movie, so you can't deny that you're playing with the idea of politics, but I don't think it's a departure."
Penn said Christopher Meloni ("Law & Order: Special Victims Unit"), who was cast as Freakshow (the oozing pimple-face who wanted four-way intercourse with his wife, Harold and Kumar) in the first movie, now plays the Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.
"From the ugliest guy in the world to the most racist guy in the world," Cho added.
Penn joked about his evolution as an actor in his limited screen time in other roles.
"With other films like 'Superman,' where it's based on a comic book," Penn said, "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."
Cho discussed what separates his film acting career ("American Pie," "Better Luck Tomorrow") from his television roles ("Off Centre," "Ugly Betty").
"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," Cho 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."
A student journalist brought up Penn's support of Barack Obama.
"Let me actually interrupt you right here because I'm just here to talk about the film, guys," Penn said.
"Romney, Romney, Romney," Cho chanted.
"John Cho is a big Romney supporter," Penn goofed.
"That was a joke by the way," Cho added.
"I was waiting for you to correct me," Penn said.
"I don't know how long I was going to let that go," Cho said.
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