John Cho Quotes
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One of the things I like about comedy in general is that it affords Asian Americans the opportunity to not be noble.
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The key to doing 'Harold and Kumar' movies is you make it earnest. Primarily what we do is make Harold and Kumar's relationship and friendship believable, and we don't actually work on being that funny.
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It'd be nice if Asian actors could be perceived as profitable, which is the bottom line. We're perceived as not mattering much fiscally.
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I think my parents were surprisingly cool with me entering the arts. Although, I think they thought it was going to be a phase, and they didn't expect me to actually stick with it, and rightfully so. They were concerned whether I could afford groceries, being an actor.
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Movies may be as close to a document of our national culture as there is; they're supposed to represent what we believe ourselves to be. So when you don't see yourself at all - or see yourself erased - that hurts.
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Actors are supposed to be these runaways that get in a covered wagon filled with hats and tambourines and go from town to town making people smile.
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Even though there's a lot of horror from Asia in the American cinematic tradition, I hadn't seen Asians at the center of it.
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Our species likes being social.
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I think Hollywood acts like followers of culture and is constantly seeking to follow trends.
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Asians narratively in shows are insignificant. They're the cop or the waitress or whatever it is. You see them in the background.
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I personally would love to see Harold and Kumar with children. I think that would be hilarious.
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That's a huge part of being a human being: looking for love and finding a partner in this world. When you constantly play characters who don't have that life, it feels incomplete and not totally human.
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I like to flip flop, but making your days work to find a laugh is a really good way to spend a day. I appreciate it more going away and then coming back to it.
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I am a little curmudgeonly about new media.
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I don't know if I trust entertainment to teach anyone anything.
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I just didn't see anyone on TV who looked like me, and then I saw George Takei being cool and piloting the spaceship on television.
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With acting, you are a small part of the creative process, and sometimes it is hard to feel like you are making an impact.
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It just seemed hedonistic when I first started acting. It was a pleasurable thing. But as I look back on it now, I understand that it was a journey of the self for me.
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I'm not a natural-born actor. So it's been a very slow learning curve for me.
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I campaigned for Obama, and that was such a big component of getting the vote out, was social media.
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I've thought for years, sometimes against my will, about what kind of son I'm supposed to be, what's expected. Being Korean, that's a particularly charged question. Is your duty to your culture or to your parent? Is your life your own, or the second half of your parents' life? Who owns your life?
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I don't know what the next frontier is, but good comedy should put its toe into taboo waters. You have to transgress a little bit, and that area shifts with culture and with the year.
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Most people deal with grief in an awkward way, and that can be funny.
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I've had an unusual career in that I've never had a big break, but the rent always seemed to get paid.