Interview: John Cho talks ‘Harold and Kumar’, Bad Auditions and Stumbling into Franchises

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John Cho is back in familiar territory as Harold in the hilarious A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas. Set six years after Guantanamo Bay, we find that Harold and Kumar are no longer friends. Harold is working on Wall Street and married to his dream girl, Maria (Paula Garces) while Kumar (Kal Penn) has dropped out of Medical School and has just been told that his ex-girlfriend, Vanessa, is pregnant.

When a mysterious package addressed to Harold arrives at Kumar’s door, the two are reluctantly reunited and unknowingly, begin yet another adventure.

I was laughing non-stop the whole time and with the 3D, you’ll have things hurtling towards you that you’ll thank yourself is only on the screen. You’ll see Harold and Kumar in Claymation and even better, NPH himself. That’s right, Neil Patrick Harris is back and this time he’s doing an appropriately crude dance number. You’ll love every minute of it.

The past couple of years, John has been on a roll. He played Sulu in Star Trek reboot (and its upcoming sequel), headlined ABC’s Flash Forward and will next be seen in American Reunion (back again as MILF Guy #2) and Total Recall.

John in person is absolutely funny and doesn’t seem at all like what he usually plays on screen – ok, maybe with the exception of MILF Guy #2. I got a chance to talk to him about the film, NPH, his worst audition and how he “stumbled into multiple franchises.”

For the full interview, click the audio link above or download it from iTunes

Because you’re so invested in these characters, now, do you have input like in the script or like what you think you’re character should do?  How does that work?

John Cho: I remember discussing just throwing the ball around.  I might be misremembering this but…

You can make it up, that’s fine. 

John Cho: [laughs] I might have mentioned to the writers something like, “Where do we go after Guantanamo Bay? What is the next step?” And we were all not sure whether we could keep doing that particular thing and so I was glad when the Christmas concept came through because it seemed in a way a radical move.  It was a departure and a good one, and a lot of things had happened between the second and the third one, in other people’s lives and in our lives, and so it seemed appropriate to advance the ages of the characters and alter their life situations.  Read more