Q&A with 'Harold and Kumar' stars Kal Penn and John Cho
Dan Hubsher
Issue date: 4/18/08 Section: Feature
Q&A with "Harold and Kumar" stars Kal Penn and John Cho
The Daily Orange participated in a conference call with Kal Penn and John Cho, stars of the new film "Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay." The sequel to 2004's hit "Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle" hits theaters next Friday.
How did the idea for the plot for "Guantanamo Bay" come about? Admittedly, it is a little bit of a departure from the first movie.
Cho: I think the idea for the plot, well, I'll preface it by saying that if they had written the sequel after the first one, if the first movie had been a box office hit they would've probably written the sequel soon after the first one, and the plot wouldn't have been what we have now. And I think because we didn't get the green light for a few years really, they had time to sit on it and also time to kind of clock what people were appreciating about the first one and kind of the political, racial and social humor became such an identifying mark of the first movie that the audience kind of forced the hand. And they felt that they had to inject some of that subversive, political humor into the second one as well. And they needed something bigger and better, and at the time the Guantanamo stuff was really in the news, as it continues to be. So they felt that that would be a fun way to get that going.
It sounds like you're touching on a bit of discrimination, human rights, social and political injustices in the new film, will this movie be more political and less silly than the first one?
Penn: I don't think it's a political film in terms of taking a stance on anything, but it inherently deals with some of the pop culture that surrounds the political sphere right now. 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.
Cho: And I think the political premise is a way to make fart and poo jokes funnier.
The Daily Orange participated in a conference call with Kal Penn and John Cho, stars of the new film "Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay." The sequel to 2004's hit "Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle" hits theaters next Friday.
Cho: I think the idea for the plot, well, I'll preface it by saying that if they had written the sequel after the first one, if the first movie had been a box office hit they would've probably written the sequel soon after the first one, and the plot wouldn't have been what we have now. And I think because we didn't get the green light for a few years really, they had time to sit on it and also time to kind of clock what people were appreciating about the first one and kind of the political, racial and social humor became such an identifying mark of the first movie that the audience kind of forced the hand. And they felt that they had to inject some of that subversive, political humor into the second one as well. And they needed something bigger and better, and at the time the Guantanamo stuff was really in the news, as it continues to be. So they felt that that would be a fun way to get that going.
Penn: I don't think it's a political film in terms of taking a stance on anything, but it inherently deals with some of the pop culture that surrounds the political sphere right now. 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.
Cho: And I think the political premise is a way to make fart and poo jokes funnier.
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