There aren't a lot of Asian actors in Hollywood who make it without kicking people in a really stylish manner, which is why a movie like Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, starring Korean-American John Cho and Indian-American Kal Penn in roles that could have easily been written for two Caucasians, is so significant - even moreso because it's a sequel.
Think that's blowing out of proportion? Well, let Cho himself tell you of his history as an actor, and drop some knowledge as to why it's so difficult for Asians to break through into stardom.
There’s this lingering sense that there is a glass ceiling for you. More specifically, it’s tough because there isn’t a legacy of Asian-American stars. A lot of young actors get their break by playing the son or the daughter. That’s how you get in a big movie, you play De Niro’s son in a movie, like DiCaprio, and that’s a big break. I don’t have that luxury. Asian-American actors don’t have that luxury. We also can’t take part in certain – we’re American actors, but it’s hard to take part in historical dramas. You can’t be in The Patriot. Even when you’re talking about colorblind casting, if you’re looking at a role in a script and you want to go out for it, but this character has members of their family in the script, then you’re probably not going to get cast, because that means they have to cast five Asians instead of the one. So there are some mechanical difficulties in being an Asian-American actor, but on the other hand, I’m doing pretty well and I have no complaints about where my life is and I feel that I’m generally happy. It’s possible. It’s possible to find happiness in this business no matter what the color of your skin is, and partially I think that’s just because there’s a reason I’ve taken every role. There’s something that’s attracted me, something that seemed fun, and if you can manage to do that, I think there’s a way to make it without making it, if that makes any sense.
I see it as more difficult to take the [chop suey] role [than not to]. I think SAG minimum is close to 600 or 700 dollars, and after taxes it’s close to 400 bucks or something for a day’s work, if you’re a day player, and if you have to chop-suey it up… you know, what it’s like is you’re an Asian on the set and you’re probably the only one, and if you have to put your buck teeth on and ching-chong an accent, it’s a deeply scarring experience. I don’t think it’s worth that money to do it, so I consider it easier to say no.
On how he got into the business:
I was born in Korea, and I moved here when I was 6, and we were in Houston at first and we moved around. I ended up going to high school in Glendale, Hoover High. There’s a lot of Koreans there. Then I went to college and came back to LA to be an actor.
I never took an acting class, but whenever I was on set or doing a play, I had a habit of watching the older actors just to see what they were doing, because I figured they’d been around the longest. Just seeing what their habits were, particularly when they weren’t working. What was their prep, how did they conduct themselves? You just follow the leader.
Excuse me, I actually took ONE acting class at Cal Berkeley. My major was English. I fell into acting very randomly. I was in a writing group with a guy and he was directing a student play and he said “hey, how tall are you? What do you weigh? Will you be in this play because some guy got sick” and I fit into the costume. I did it and I really enjoyed it and as I look back on it, I really enjoyed rehearsing – I had maybe two lines in the play, but I enjoyed going to rehearsal, I enjoyed being in that black box. I was probably a misfit in college trying to find my way, like a lot of people, and theater was filled with misfits and people trying to find their way, and it really felt like I found a kind of family. I liked rehearsing because it was a time when you just tried things out until you found the right thing. It’s a great process. There’s really nothing quite like it in life. The rest of the world is really result-oriented, I’d say. Then I did a play called The Woman Warrior, which is based on a book by Maxine Hong Kingston, who was a very important writer to me at the time. That was a professional play, and during that time I got to meet many, many Asian-American actors and I realized “oh, maybe this is doable.” I decided to give it a try, and moved to LA and it worked out.
I’m very non-traditional. My thing is relaxing. The hardest thing to do is relax, because I’m awful when I’m tense. It’s easy to get tense on a film set because if you start thinking “oh, this is important, this is an important scene, they’re filming me, this is an important scene in the movie and a lot of people are gonna watch this” - if you start thinking that, then you tighten up and you’re not natural. So I tend to just make jokes and try to stay relaxed and talk to people. Different people work different ways. Kal is opposite, for instance. He doesn’t work that way. I won’t talk about his methods because I’ll probably describe them incorrectly. I don’t know what he does.
All I do is read things and see if there’s something exciting. Even if someone says this is a great project and you should do it, if I’m not excited by it, I’ll probably do a bad job and then I’ll ruin my career. The smartest move for me is to just be excited about something, if it’s a small movie or a big movie or a play or a TV show, and if I’m excited about it, it’ll probably lead to good things because the chances are better that I’d do a good job. If I’m not excited about it, then I’ll probably commit career suicide trying to do it.
