IndiaOn

'Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay' Not Imprisoned By Political Correctness

Before “Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle,” John Cho was best- known as the guy in “American Pie” who coined an anagram that launched a million porn Web sites.

Now the Korea-born alumnus of Glendale’s Hoover High is arguably the fastest-rising Asian-American star in Hollywood. The 2004 stoner comedy has led to appearances on such top-rated TV shows as “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Ugly Betty,” and Cho just finished playing the iconic Ensign Sulu for the upcoming “Star Trek” origin movie.

And now there’s “Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay,” opening Friday. The sequel, in which Cho’s Harold Lee and his best- bud-obsessed bud Kumar Patel (Kal Penn) are mistaken for terrorists, is certainly more anticipated than the first “H&K” movie. “White Castle” didn’t do all that well in theaters but found a fervid enough following on DVD to justify a second buzzed-out, gross-out, pants-off ramble.

This one, though, has broader, sharper cultural criticism than the first comedy’s, which was built upon the hook of a Korean- and an Indian-American acting as zonked as any other partiers in the good ol’ USA.

“I think the movie does a great job of constantly keeping you off balance with the political humor and the racial jokes,” Cho observes. “They’re not the racial jokes you’re used to; they may put a stereotype in front of you, but it’s knocked down a second later.”

Cho’s antipathy toward racial stereotypes is well-known, and he characterizes his attitude bluntly.

“If you have to chop-suey it up, ching-chong an accent, it’s a deeply scarring experience. I don’t think it’s worth the money to do it, so I consider it easier to say no to those jobs.”

So what’s different about the “Harold & Kumar” films, which were written by Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg, two Jewish guys from New Jersey?

For one thing, one of the team’s best friends is a guy named, uh, Harold Lee, who inspired the movie’s character. (Kumar is based on several Indian-American friends Hurwitz and Schlossberg grew up with.) And Cho and the real Lee are now pals, too.

Plus, the writers, who are making their movie-directing debut with “Guantanamo,” listened to what Cho and Penn told them.

“We’ve been friends now for a few years, and I feel like they’ve really absorbed what we talk about,” Cho says. “I don’t put a white- man filter on for them now; I talk as if they’re Asian. When we talk about race, I don’t sugarcoat anything. I let them know how things are and what I think.”

Harold and Kumar started as minor characters in the first, never- produced script Hurwitz and Schlossberg wrote. Then they decided to make a whole screenplay about them.

“People ask, ‘Why write a movie with Asian leads when you’re not Asian?’ ” Schlossberg says. “We grew up with a lot of Asian friends and we saw how they were portrayed in movies, which was nothing like them.”

“Our friends were exactly like us; they just happened to look a little different,” adds Hurwitz. “So we were like, wouldn’t it be cool to write a movie that’s intended to be a mainstream, broad comedy, but the leads happen to be an Asian guy and an Indian guy?”

“But the story that they’re going through is something that everybody can experience and relate to,” Schlossberg adds.

Well, maybe the munchies in “White Castle.” But this time, the guys are sent to Guantanamo precisely because of boneheaded racial profiling that confuses Harold for a Communist North Korean and Kumar for some kind of Muslim extremist.

Cho doesn’t quite agree that the duo’s misadventures could happen to just any young American dudes.

“There are two ways to look at it,” Cho says. “Some people think this is colorblind comedy, that these two characters could have been played by anyone. But I prefer to think that the characters are very specific in their ethnicity and personalities, and it’s written that way.”

For Cho as well as Penn - who has nabbed the coveted lead in the movie adaptation of “The Namesake” and recurring roles on “House M.D.” and “24” - the mainstream/ethnically specific balance of the “Harold & Kumar” films has been a boon. For Hurwitz and Schlossberg, the lack of anything like them before was a blessing in disguise.

“The fact that John and Kal weren’t given opportunities like this over the years was, ironically, a lucky thing for us,” Hurwitz notes. “We’re a couple of guys who had never made movies before. We got to audition every single Asian and Indian actor out there, and we got to pick the cream of the crop for our relatively low-budget ridiculous movie. If John and Kal were white, they probably would’ve been too big for us by the time we made our movie.”

“Thank God for prejudice!” Schlossberg cracks.

Cho acknowledges, though, that however far he’s managed to come, Asian actors still face hurdles whites and even other minorities don’t.

“There’s this lingering sense that there is a glass ceiling for you,” Cho explains. “It’s tough because there isn’t a legacy of Asian-American stars. A lot of young actors get in a big movie by playing, say, De Niro’s son. Asian-American actors don’t have that luxury.

“And we’re American actors, but it’s hard to take part in historical dramas; you can’t be in ‘The Patriot.’ And even if you’re talking about colorblind casting, if you want to go up for a role but the character has family members in the script, then you’re probably not going to be cast, because that means they’re going to have to cast five Asians instead of the one… .

“On the other hand, I’m doing pretty well, and I have no complaints about where my life is. So it’s possible to find happiness in this business regardless of what the color of your skin is. Partially, I think that’s just because there’s a good reason I’ve taken every role. If you can manage to do that, there’s a way to make it.”

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