Escape artist

Photo: Jaimie Trueblood/New Line Cinema; Photo Illustration: Jamie Divecchio Ramsay

When Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle opened in 2004, it wasn’t just the toke humor that got people stoked. It was also the fact that, at last, a buddy comedy featured two Asian-American leads: John Cho and Kal Penn. Four years later, the same casting for the sequel, Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, is just as rare. A son of South Korean immigrants, Cho will follow Harold with Sulu in next year’s Star Trek remake. He called during a press tour in Toronto.

Time Out Chicago: When it comes to casting in Hollywood, are these films the exceptions that prove the rule?
John Cho: Yeah, I believe that’s true, sadly. People were hopeful that Harold & Kumar might open a few more doors, but I think the first one wasn’t enough of a theatrical hit to effect much change. We can be optimistic and hope that maybe this one will spawn copycats.

TOC: Are you optimistic?
John Cho: I’m cautiously optimistic. It’d be nice if Asian actors could be perceived as profitable, which is the bottom line. We’re perceived as not mattering much fiscally. I did Better Luck Tomorrow and [director] Justin [Lin] had meetings where studio executives were telling him, Listen, there’s no incentive for us to make product geared towards Asian-Americans because they buy exactly like white Americans. So we [Asian-Americans] can be more aggressive with our spending habits and send a message.

TOC: The assumption there is that whites won’t go see a film without whites as the leads. Do you buy that logic?
John Cho: I don’t think so. Our fans enjoyed the ride even more because the characters were underdogs, and they felt the actors were as well.

TOC: White Castle plays with that idea of the white guys as the stars. Does that resonate with you?
John Cho: Yeah, sure. I’m 35 and I play younger, but scripts come across my desk and it’s like, Will you be a minor role in this movie that’s being headlined by some 18-year-old off a WB show? If the kid’s a phenomenon, that’s great, but if you look at the big picture, it can get frustrating. Our movie to some extent proves that America doesn’t care about the color of their leads as much as people who are in charge of the money in Hollywood think.

TOC: Do you still get scripts where you think, I can’t believe people are producing this stereotype shit?
John Cho: I don’t get that stuff as much because I’ve made it clear I wouldn’t be interested. But yeah, every once in a while, I’m like, Are you kidding me? But overall, it’s of the much more subtle variety. The part they’re asking you to read may not be a caricature, but a lot of parts are off-limits to Asians. Generally they won’t want you to read for a part that has brothers and sisters because then they’ll have to cast three or four Asians, or the lead is usually off-limits. If there’s an uptight, bookish character in a script, it’ll come to me.

TOC: With Guantanamo in the title, the sequel must have more to do with ethnicity, right?
John Cho: I think the writers felt they had to push the envelope on every element from the first movie, including racial issues. And the studio was not hot on making a Europe movie—us going to Amsterdam. They said American comedies set in Europe don’t do well. Also, things had happened in real life, like Kal and I went on the press tour for Harold & Kumar 1. We’d go to all these airports, and Kal was getting searched very frequently.

TOC: More so than you?
John Cho: Yeah, absolutely. I remember once he had a white friend join him on the trip, and the guy had brought this backpack. The last time he’d used it he went camping and forgot to take the hunting knife out. And while Kal was being searched, that backpack went through the X-ray machine unnoticed.

TOC: And those experiences informed the Guantánamo Bay setting?
John Cho: Yeah, I think it did. So [the filmmakers] said, What if Kal gets mistaken for a terrorist and then they go to Guantánamo Bay? Could we get some laughs out of that?

TOC: The studio felt a comedy set in Europe wouldn’t be funny to Americans, yet a comedy set in Guantánamo Bay struck them as potential comic gold?
John Cho: [Laughs] When they told me the idea, I said, I wonder if we can pull it off? Once I read it, I realized we were gonna pull it off.… What [writers Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg] do is throw a stereotype at you, wait a moment while you recognize it and then take it away.

TOC: Have you ever toked up?
John Cho: Sure, yeah, absolutely.

TOC: Do you get paranoid like Harold?
John Cho: No, more of the sleepy variety.

Harold & Kumar opens Friday 25.