Kal Penn
Interview By: Rocco Passafuime
RoccoPassafuime@TheCinemaSource.com
Hollywood has had many ugly elements from its past that it’s slowly tried to overcome, but none has proven to be more damaging and egregious than its treatment of minorities. No American actor has seemingly had more stacked against him and more to prove than Kal Penn.
Penn is one of the few successful American actors of Indian ethnicity. Born Kalpen Modi, he has risen to stardom initially for roles in raunchy comedies like National Lampoon’s Van Wilder, Malibu’s Most Wanted, and Epic Movie.
However, he has managed to branch out with roles in hit series 24, Superman Returns, and a role as Dr. Lawrence Kuntner on the popular Fox medical drama House. However, Kal’s career really started beginning to skyrocket with his role as pothead Kumar Patel in the stoner comedy Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle.
The film received critical acclaim for infusing the traditionally lazy and exploitative elements of the subgenre with racial and politically-charged subtext and grew to be an enormous cult favorite. Now, Penn has returned to the role with co-star John Cho in the new sequel Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay.
Speaking with the now 31-year old actor, we first asked Kal how he first felt about doing a second Harold and Kumar.
“It was a weird challenge, because the first movie was four years earlier,” Penn recalls, “And so, here we are, four years later, and John Cho and I are close friends now. [Director/producer/writers] Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossburg and I are close, we’re all close. And we’ve all been in touch with Neil [Patrick Harris] the last for years. We shot the movie in Louisiana and just basically moved to the state and shot the movie and it was a lot of fun.”
Usually, most actors are reluctant to do sequels because of the common concern that the character they play gets repetitious. We asked Penn if viewers will get to see more development with Harold and Kumar in Escape From Guantanamo Bay.
“Yeah, you do.,” Kal replies, “Because in the first movie, really, you only get to spend 12 to 13 hours with them, but it’s over the course of a night, so you don’t really get to know about who Harold and Kumar are. And in this movie, you see Harold in college, you see Kumar still in love with his ex-girlfriend. You see all those things play out in a way that you didn’t for. It was very exciting for us as actors to know there was more of a dynamic to these guys.”
We also asked if he ever gets regularly asked by potheads who are fans of the film whether he actually smokes weed himself.
“Quite a few and it’s sad for the people that ask, because I don’t smoke weed in real life. I was a vegetarian throughout
