Ahoy, squirts. Quint here with an interview I did with John Cho and Kal Penn before the Austin outdoor extravaganza screening of HAROLD AND KUMAR GO TO WHITE CASTLE a few weeks ago. This is the big event where White Castle chefs drove down in trucks filled with Slider makings and a ginormous grill. I had seen the film well before I interviewed these guys, so I figured I'd try to be funny with a kind of jokey first question... Which I guess fell flat on its face. Teach me to leave the safety of a serious style question format when interviewing the stars of a stoner road trip film. hehe
Anyway, they seemed to be really cool guys, even if I totally made an ass out of myself with my first question. They bounce off each other well and it'd be cool to see them follow up HAROLD AND KUMAR with another flick with these guys in the lead. At least I think so. The below interview is a fun read! Have at it!
QUINT: So, I've heard that you guys followed in the footsteps of the late, great Marlon Brando and approached this film from the school of Method acting... Did your bodies end up rejecting or accepting all the pot and burgers?
KAL PENN: Uhhh.... Ummm. I don't smoke pot, actually. And I don't eat meat. I used Veggie burgers and air as my method.
JOHN CHO: Yeah, I eat meat, but I don't do pot... because it's illegal.
KAL PENN: I'm more of a crack guy, actually.
JOHN CHO: (laughs) I'm not even a big burger guy, actually but those caramelized onions are good. Have you had them?
QUINT: There's a guy in town that used to work for White Castle that has this teeny tiny little hole-in-the-wall grill where he makes sliders. So, I've had those. I'm curious to try out the real deal tonight.
JOHN CHO: I understand they've flown some people in...
QUINT: Yeah, and 8,000 burgers.
JOHN CHO: That's insane. That's insanity!
QUINT: How did you guys come to the project in the first place?
JOHN CHO: We both met the guys in different situations, but basically it was an audition. I met Jon (Hurwitz, writer) at a screening and he approached me and said I got this script with you in mind blah-blah-blah. I said, "Dude, good luck getting this script off the ground. Two Asian dudes starring in a movie!" I was shocked that it got greenlit.
KAL PENN: Pretty much the same thing. I met 'em at a friend's birthday party and they told me about the script. I thought the idea was cool, but I was like, "Good luck getting it made." Just from my experience always getting relegated to the racist sidekick character... I was like, you know, "Good luck!" I was convinced that if it was made it would be in a year or two and I might be somehow involved in organizing financing. It was one of those things where I thought, "I wonder if I know people who we can get to produce this film independently."
Within two weeks they had sold the movie and I read it and thought it was amazing. After that point, both John and I went through the audition process. It was a 3 month audition process with, like, 7 or 8 callbacks.
QUINT: When did they first put you guys together?
KAL PENN: Probably towards the end. They looked in LA, New York, Chicago, Toronto and...
JOHN CHO: Under rocks, in closets...
KAL PENN: Yeah, they looked everywhere. Towards the end when they started narrowing down...
JOHN CHO: Bottoms of shoes...
KAL PENN: ... they, uh... they put us together.
JOHN CHO: It was a lot of pairing. They wanted to get the right pair.
QUINT: Was there every a point in the movie where you ever just stepped back and thought, "Wow. Doogie Howser's sitting behind me humping my chair..."
JOHN CHO: Dude! This cat's a huge fan of Doogie Howser M.D. the show...
KAL PENN: There are two things you should know. I'm a huge fan of Neil Patrick Harris and a huge fan of the movie, DUDE, WHERE'S MY CAR?, so this was a really cool film to work on.
JOHN CHO: There are so many cool people in the movie... so many names in the movie doing parts that would normally be relegated to people you don't know. So, it was a weird thing... Every 3 days someone new and big was coming onto set. It's unusual to have a film populated with so many cameos.
QUINT: Did you guys ever feel the pressure of headlining a movie?
KAL PENN: For me it was like... You know, you train for something like that and you finally get the opportunity. It was more excitement than anything else. We sat down at the beginning and went over the vision of the film with the writers and with Danny (Leiner, director), so by the time we were shooting we were really in those situations. It was fun.
JOHN CHO: I guess I'd say excitement, too, because... You know, you've been acting for a while and you haven't gotten this particular shot yet. It's like studying... instead of cramming for the final exam, it's like you've basically been studying for this final exam for years. You know the material inside and out, you feel like, and finally you're just, "Let's do this! Let's make this happen!" It's finally realizing what basically you've been learning for a long time.
KAL PENN: One of the best feelings for me is when you're shooting something... something like this, for example, we were shooting nights and we got tired. Especially the first two weeks you get really tired because your body clock is all messed up. But you're driving home at, like, 6 in the morning from working all night and you don't really know what day it is or what time it is, but it's the best feeling in the world because you're doing what you love to do. It was an incredible opportunity.
QUINT: I know Kal said he was a vegetarian, but did you know of or tried White Castle before the movie?
JOHN CHO: I grew up on the West Coast. I didn't even know about it. I had it once in Chicago. Somebody brought them into a bar at closing time and I was like, "What the hell? They're in boxes!" Food in boxes! Bizarre! In a little box briefcase! But they were good at the time.
KAL PENN: I grew up in Jersey, so I was very familiar with White Castle. The two things, I guess, that I'd have to say about it is people either love White Castle or hate it. The reaction is either, "I can't believe you're putting that shit in your body," or "I love it and I don't want to eat anything else ever again in my entire life." That's why I think, also, that White Castle worked so well in the film. It's obviously not about White Castle, nor is it about weed, but it wouldn't have been the same had it been HAROLD AND KUMAR GO TO MCDONALDS. I mean, what're you gonna do with that? It's gotta be something that conjures up that type of emotion.
JOHN CHO: There's a certain kind of tone with White Castle that's right for the movie. It's not the big chain. It's well known enough... people travel for it. There's a lot of affection tied to it.
KAL PENN: But seriously, I've had people say, "I'd rather eat shit than eat White Castle." Since the movie, I'm talking about. And that makes them want to see the movie. You know, people from home that I've talked to that are, "Dude! I love the title!" I'm all, "I thought you don't like the food." They're like, "No! But I totally want to see it!" It's also always completely packed at one in the morning. You drive by those things and people just love those bite-sized burgers. There's something about them.
QUINT: Well, they're snacky.
JOHN CHO: It is very snacky! Can we steal that?
QUINT: Please.
JOHN CHO: "It's snacky." I think that's the charm of the burger. This is my thing... What's wrong with burgers? What's with the 6 Dollar burger and the two patty... For me, that's insanity. It's insanity to me. And I think maybe there's the flip side which is the snacky burger.
QUINT: Now you can open up your own rip-off chain!
JOHN CHO: (laughs) "Snackies!"
QUINT: What's next for you guys?
JOHN CHO: Go ahead...
KAL PENN: I just finished shooting a film called A LOT LIKE LOVE with Ashton Kutcher and Amanda Peet. I'm also in SON OF THE MASK, which is a sequel to THE MASK. It's more of a franchise film than a sequel. It was 10 years ago... the script is totally different, characters are different. I also shot an independent film that's like a really dark drama called DANCING IN TWILIGHT. So, those 3 are coming out and I may be going to New York in August or September to shoot another film, but I'm not sure yet.
JOHN CHO: I'm doing a show on NBC called The Men's Room and I got a couple movies coming out and I'm also releasing an album with my band. So, that's about it. Blah-blah-blah! (laughs)
There you have it, squirts. The flick opens tomorrow so you can get your smoke on and your Sliders on and bask in the glory of White Castle. Many thanks to Kraken for snapping all the pics from my HAROLD AND KUMAR interviews! I'll be back soon with the continuation of my Comic-Con interviews. Some good stuff ahead, squirts, so keep your eye on the site!
-Quint
