teedubya
01-23-2005, 06:21 AM
Kal Penn and John Cho on culture and sequels
A Cultural Affair
http://movie-on.net/harold.kumar.go.to.white.castle/harold.kumar.go.to.white.castle.photos.jpg
Ethnic actors face so much stereotyping in Hollywood, it’s not hard to believe that Harold and Kumar is the most progressive opportunity out there for them.
John Cho – “Just over the past few weeks, I’ve started to develop a list of words I don’t want to use anymore from now on. That’s ‘Asian America,’ ‘stereotypes’ and not because I’m tired of talking about those things. I feel like they lose some sort of value for me. I don't know what Asian American means anymore. When you say any word too many times, you say the word pail 40 times in a row it starts to sound strange. And I don’t even want to use ‘race’ anymore. I feel like race is too strong a word. I want to start using the word phenotype but I feel maybe it doesn’t communicate well.”
Kal Penn – “For me, it’s changed, but I speak to other actors and they deal with the same thing. I hesitate saying it’s changed because I know it has for me individually and the hope is that if a film like this makes money, this movie is doing everything wrong according to a traditional studio formula. And I think the studio formula’s archaic but it’s putting two men of color who have been asexualized for years in film as the lead roles. It’s doing that. It’s making the characters smart in a movie that should be dumb. It’s putting women of color in it. All of those things and it’s been testing well, so automatically by testing well, it’s proving other studios wrong. And the hope is that if the movie makes money, then people will sit there, the people that make movies will go, ‘All right, so we can put a woman in a role that was originally conceived for a man. We can mix up the pot and reflect reality a little more and thereby tell a better story.’”
The Future of Harold and Kumar
Penn and Cho are signed for three pictures as Harold and Kumar. Harold and Kumar Go to Amsterdam is being written now.
Kal Penn – “I’ve heard it’s a crazy place, dot dot dot. If the movie makes a certain amount of money, I don't know what that figure is, but if the film does well then the writers are writing the sequel right now.”
John Cho – “I’ve heard [the third] might be Harold and Kumar go to Las Vegas. All cities of debauchery. Vegas is really good for them and Amsterdam is perfect. I don't know if you’d get any better than that. Ooh, they gotta go to Shanghai, which is a great road picture destination as well as one of the best cities on earth in my opinion.”
A Cultural Affair
http://movie-on.net/harold.kumar.go.to.white.castle/harold.kumar.go.to.white.castle.photos.jpg
Ethnic actors face so much stereotyping in Hollywood, it’s not hard to believe that Harold and Kumar is the most progressive opportunity out there for them.
John Cho – “Just over the past few weeks, I’ve started to develop a list of words I don’t want to use anymore from now on. That’s ‘Asian America,’ ‘stereotypes’ and not because I’m tired of talking about those things. I feel like they lose some sort of value for me. I don't know what Asian American means anymore. When you say any word too many times, you say the word pail 40 times in a row it starts to sound strange. And I don’t even want to use ‘race’ anymore. I feel like race is too strong a word. I want to start using the word phenotype but I feel maybe it doesn’t communicate well.”
Kal Penn – “For me, it’s changed, but I speak to other actors and they deal with the same thing. I hesitate saying it’s changed because I know it has for me individually and the hope is that if a film like this makes money, this movie is doing everything wrong according to a traditional studio formula. And I think the studio formula’s archaic but it’s putting two men of color who have been asexualized for years in film as the lead roles. It’s doing that. It’s making the characters smart in a movie that should be dumb. It’s putting women of color in it. All of those things and it’s been testing well, so automatically by testing well, it’s proving other studios wrong. And the hope is that if the movie makes money, then people will sit there, the people that make movies will go, ‘All right, so we can put a woman in a role that was originally conceived for a man. We can mix up the pot and reflect reality a little more and thereby tell a better story.’”
The Future of Harold and Kumar
Penn and Cho are signed for three pictures as Harold and Kumar. Harold and Kumar Go to Amsterdam is being written now.
Kal Penn – “I’ve heard it’s a crazy place, dot dot dot. If the movie makes a certain amount of money, I don't know what that figure is, but if the film does well then the writers are writing the sequel right now.”
John Cho – “I’ve heard [the third] might be Harold and Kumar go to Las Vegas. All cities of debauchery. Vegas is really good for them and Amsterdam is perfect. I don't know if you’d get any better than that. Ooh, they gotta go to Shanghai, which is a great road picture destination as well as one of the best cities on earth in my opinion.”