Harold has been my calling card for years, says Korean actor John Cho
For years, the character of Harold was the calling card for actor John Cho, who played the role in the three instalments of the hugely successful film franchise, Harold & Kumar (where actor Kal Penn played the role of Kumar).
“Harold has been my calling card for years. The role gave me so much credibility, not just outside the industry, but also within the industry,” says Cho, who spoke to us over the phone from Los Angeles, USA.
The 46-year-old’s character of Harold Lee — a KoreanAmerican investment banker who resides in New Jersey, USA, and smokes marijuana for recreation — was very important for John, since the character didn’t fit in the stereotypes created by the West about Asians. “It was a different role in terms of the fact that he was a stoner. You didn’t see the obvious Asian stereotypes that are usually portrayed in other projects. That is why I am super proud of the entire franchise,” says John, adding that he had no idea that the franchise would become such a big success. “I had no idea that it will be such a big film. It almost seemed like a hoax, when we were first told that everyone loved the first part. It was such an unusual story about two characters, who were very different from what people are used to seeing. The humour in it was so unusual, but it grew in popularity. I think it showed Hollywood that despite what they might think, people will like a film, if there’s a good story.”
Cho recently became the first ever Asian-American actor to be cast as the lead in a mainstream thriller in Hollywood, Searching, where he plays the role of David Kim — a distressed father trying to find his missing daughter. But, while he is happy about this “achievement”, he hopes that things don’t become “so novel” in future.
“Its great to be at the centre of the story in Hollywood. But I do hope that in future, people stop looking at things like this is kind of a novel thing. It should be a normal thing, and I guess what I mean is that one shouldn’t be cast in a film just because he is from a different ethnicity. You don’t think about films from that perspective,” says John.