'Harold' Star Sets Bar 'High' for Asian Actors
New America Media, Q&A, Peter Micek, Posted: Mar 23, 2008
Actor John Cho, 35, star of the upcoming, marijuana-laced comedy Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, took time during the 26th San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival to chat with New America Media contributor Peter Micek and reporters Matthew Hui of the Univ. of California's Hardboiled and Erin Pangilian of the Philippine News. Cho also stars in the film West 32nd released last year.
What was your favorite memory of college at Cal-Berkeley?
J.C: One year I lived in an apartment building in north Berkeley and it was filled with the craziest cast of people. We had a guy beneath us who would moan, "I hate myself" throughout the night and we would hear him, all night. We had a woman next door who was thoroughly insane, who would run from me, because she thought I was chasing her.
And you weren't chasing her?
J.C: No, this is my neighbor! We had a guy who would invite us to the Reggae club all the time. He wore a tracksuit, all the time. It was a really good apartment building. It was a really entertaining apartment building.
Have you seen the role of Asian-American men in Hollywood change in the last decade?
J.C: It has and it hasn't. This may be megalomaniacal, but I feel like I can see and track things that come from my roles. My wife has a friend and her husband is an actor. He said that he went to a commercial audition, and the breakdown said "John Cho type", and he's white! We spent two or three years trying to figure that out!
But I think it's gotten a little bit better, in that you see more Asian men on television. I feel like the guy I played in American Pie, when people first saw me, who was a loudmouth a-hole –- that became a little bit of a type. Even though things have gotten a little bit better, we have to remind ourselves we have a long way to go, that it's not where it should be.
You are playing (Hikaru) Sulu in the new Star Trek film. How do you feel about playing a Japanese character, being a Korean American?
J.C: I'm insulted! [sarcastic]
No. I don't feel like it has any particular bearing on this role because he is Japanese American. I wouldn't take a part that is Japanese from Japan, or a recent Japanese immigrant, because I don't think there is a way that I could do that accent really effectively and convincingly.
As far as the surname goes and cultural background, I think it's irrelevant. I think it's more, "Can you be convincing as an actor?" Sometimes you're better off casting someone who is really from that culture because the role calls for an accent that's going to be convincing. But I talked to George (Takei, the actor who first played Sulu) about it, and he said that (Gene) Roddenberry's original intent was that everybody on the bridge of the Enterprise was supposed to represent the entire world. He said that Sulu was supposed to represent the continent of Asia. They didn't have a specific cultural origin for him before the show was cast. Then George was cast and they needed to come up with a name. Gene was looking at a map and saw the name Sulu Sea and it bordered multiple Asian countries, and he thought that this was kind of a Pan-Asian name. When they came up with a first name, George is Japanese American, so they give him the name Hikaru. But the intent was not really to create a Japanese-specific character, the intent was to create a Pan-Asian character.
How do feel about criticisms of negative depictions of Asian American women, or women in general, in the first Harold and Kumar? Some people have criticized the Korean scene, or the "weed bag" thing, where Kumar dreams that he marries a bag of marijuana then mistreats it at home, calling it a "bitch."
J.C: Well, it's tough. I can see where they are coming from. In some ways I kind of like that sequence. I do feel like there is a tension that's real between Asian American men and Asian American women. From men, maybe there is a hint of resentment that they feel like Asian American women are socially more accepted. I think that it plays into something that's real there.
Having said that, the intention of the filmmakers is not that. I think it's an adolescent comedy and that's part of the humor, sex jokes, and almost by rule you're getting into an area where women will get offended, when you're doing sex jokes, so that's part of the turf.
Many Hollywood roles take one stereotype of a non-romantic Asian. Jackie Chan wouldn't have had a sex scene, for instance. Have you noticed any of that changing?
JC: I'm not the best person to ask, because I don't read and see everything and I feel ill equipped to answer that. I can answer in terms of my career: there has been some movement, but again, not enough. I'm not satisfied. There's positive movement, I'm convinced of that. Oddly enough one of the things I've been encouraged about, there is more Asians in commercials. What's encouraging about that? It's an indication that they are trying to sell Asian Americans products, be it detergent, or be it GMC trucks. If they're trying to sell us those things eventually they'll try to sell us movies and television shows. So, when they smell the money, it's a good thing.
With deadpan sarcasm Cho said he hurt his
hand doing "something very important on set."
Do you think that's a mentality a lot of Asian American actors have? It's harder to have roles for Asian Americans, so they think either you work or you don't work?
J.C: It's easy to make that mistake. In some ways it's the logical place to go. You think, "Oh jeez, who am I?" But, if you don't have pride in what you're doing, you owe it to yourself to voice your opinion and to go down with a body of work that you're proud of. There's a phrase that gets thrown around: "F--k you money." It's like, "Oh well, I'm going to get enough 'f--k you money' together so I can flip off everyone in the community." My belief is there's never an amount of money that's enough when it comes to that point. Once you start doing something that you feel morally compromised by, it's hard to stop yourself from doing it, so you've got to start early.
You're not in acting to make money, because the odds are really against you. You might as well do it to have a good time and do something that you actually enjoy and are proud of. At this point, I've found I've tried to make myself go on auditions for stuff that I'm not excited by and I end up never getting the part because I'm not engaged by it so I give a poor performance. So you're doing yourself a disservice.
Transcribed by Laurie Simmons.
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