Chris Meloni
Interview By: Rocco Passafuime
RoccoPassafuime@TheCinemaSource.com
When you think of great actors today, people would most likely think of Russell Crowe or George Clooney or Daniel Day-Lewis. However, one of the many great actors in the Hollywood landscape that is consequently lost in the shuffle is Chris Meloni.
He first generated accolades in 1998 as bisexual sociopath murderer Chris Keller on the HBO series Oz. Chris’s biggest role to date is his current one as Detective Elliot Stabler on NBC’s Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
However, Meloni has proven to also adept at doing comedy roles as well. One of his more eyebrow-raising roles was as God-fearing hillbilly Freakshow in the 2004 stoner comedy Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle.
Now, the 47-year old actor has returned to for a second time around, this time as the eccentric Penis Wizard of the KKK, in the new sequel Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay. When asked about what compelled him to return again to the series, Chris claims he deeply enjoyed doing Harold & Kumar the first around and was genuinely shocked when the Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle didn’t do initially as well as expected.
“It struck me and I was really shocked when the first one really didn’t do as well,” he says, “And then, on DVD, it really started exploding, and that I got. And I realized, maybe it’s a little Austin Powers thing.”
“The kids really weren’t kind of familiar with it, so they’re like, ‘Eh, whatever, I’ll just wait for it, that buzz, that word of mouth, because that’s what these kids do,” Meloni continues, “They’re like, ‘Oh, dude, did you see that?’ And it’s bam before you know it. That’s the economics of this business. If you don’t make it, (makes crash noise), see ya!”
Not only does Chris continue to express his confidence that people will enjoy Harold & Kumar second time around, in the franchise’s stars John Cho and Kal Penn.
“Oh, fuck, yeah, I don’t know if they are on the cusp or over the cusp, but these guys are the real deal. I think they’re already to hit, if not already mega-hit. I think they are in the Judd Apatow league. They’re there to be one of the main comedic players, to me.”
This time around, writers Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg have more creative control over Escape From Guantanamo Bay as also producers and directors. We wondered whether Meloni felt at all concerned about having more than one person direct him.
“No, because I worked with The Wachowski Brothers in the movie Bound, which was their first directorial effort,” Chris replies, “So I’ve seen it happen before and so my experience has been it works. I think it makes it stronger because then you know these guys understand how they’re connected and kind of, sort of what they’re strong suits are. They just
