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Born: Kalpen Modi, April 23, 1977 (1977-04-23), Montclair, New Jersey, USA
Occupation: Actor, producer
Years active: 1998–present
Kalpen Suresh Modi (born April 23, 1977), known by his stage name Kal Penn, is an incoming Associate Director of the White House Office of Public Liaison in the Barack Obama administration.[1] He is also an American actor and film producer.
Penn has had starring roles in the films National Lampoon's Van Wilder, Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, The Namesake, Epic Movie, and Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay. His television credits include a recurring role on Day 6 of the series 24, and series regular Dr. Lawrence Kutner in the fourth and fifth seasons of House.
On April 8, 2009 Penn announced that he would join the Obama White House as Associate Director of the White House Office of Public Liaison. This necessitated that his character Lawrence Kutner be written out of the TV series House.[1][2]
Biography
Early life
Penn was born Kalpen Modi in Montclair, New Jersey, to a father who worked as an engineer and a mother who worked as a fragrance evaluator for a perfume company; both of his parents are Hindu Gujarati immigrants from India.[3] He has stated that stories of his grandparents marching with Gandhi for Indian independence were a significant influence on his interest in politics. [4] He attended middle school at Marlboro Middle School and played baritone saxophone in the jazz band there. Penn attended The Fine and Performing Arts Academy (a magnet program) at Howell High School for freshman, sophomore, and junior years; he transferred to Freehold Township High School for senior year; both schools are part of the Freehold Regional High School District. He was active in the schools' theater productions. He attended UCLA, where he double majored in film and sociology.[5]
Acting career
Penn's feature film debut came in 1998 in Express: Aisle to Glory. He has since appeared in American Desi, National Lampoon's Van Wilder, Malibu's Most Wanted, A Lot Like Love, Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, Dude, Where's the Party?, Love Don't Cost a Thing, Superman Returns, National Lampoon's Van Wilder: The Rise of Taj, Epic Movie, The Namesake, and Harold & Kumar 2, with an uncredited appearance in Deck the Halls. Penn was featured in the The Lonely Island's rejected MTV music video for "Awesometown", along with his friend Brandon Routh.
Penn says that he chose the stage name Kal Penn (from Kalpen Suresh Modi) as a lark: “Almost as a joke to prove friends wrong, and half as an attempt to see if what I was told would work (that anglicized names appeal more to a white-dominated industry), I put ‘Kal Penn’ on my resume and photos." His audition callbacks rose by 50 percent. Penn has stated that he prefers his birth name and uses "Kal Penn" only for professional purposes.[6]
In January 2007, Penn appeared in the first four episodes of the sixth season of 24 as Ahmed Amar, a teenage terrorist. Penn says he nearly turned down the role due to personal ethics, stating, "I have a huge political problem with the role. It was essentially accepting a form of racial profiling. I think it’s repulsive. But it was the first time I had a chance to blow stuff up and take a family hostage. As an actor, why shouldn’t I have that opportunity? Because I'm brown and I should be scared about the connection between media images and people's thought processes?"[7]
Also in January 2007, he appeared in the spoof comedy Epic Movie as well as the television show Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. In May 2007, Penn received the Asian Excellence Award for Outstanding Actor for his performance in The Namesake.[8]
In fall 2007, Penn joined the cast of the Fox medical drama House as one of Dr. House's new fellowship applicants.[9] E! reported that Penn had signed on as a regular on the show along with Olivia Wilde and Peter Jacobson and this was confirmed in the plot of the episode "Games." Penn continued with the series through to the episode "Simple Explanation", which aired April 6, 2009.
Politics
Penn was an advocate for Barack Obama's presidential campaign in 2008 and a member of Obama's National Arts Policy Committee.[10] He appears in the Barack Obama video "Sí Se Puede Cambiar" by Andres Useche[11] and appeared with comedian George Lopez on January 18, 2009 at "We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial."
In early 2009, Penn was offered the position of Associate Director of the White House Office of Public Liaison in the Obama administration, which he accepted. This necessitated his character Lawrence Kutner being written out of the TV series House.[1][12][13] In his new role with the Obama administration, Penn will serve as a liaison with the Asian-American and Pacific Islander communities. Typically this position pays between $41,000 and $91,000.[14]
Personal life
Penn is a vegetarian, and ate soy patties instead of hamburgers during the filming of Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle. [15]
In spring 2008, Penn served as a visiting lecturer in Asian American Studies at the University of Pennsylvania.[5][16] He taught a course titled “Images of Asian Americans in the Media”.[17]
Penn is currently working on a graduate certificate in international security from Stanford University.[5][1]
Filmography
1998 Express: Aisle to Glory
1999 Freshman
2001 American Desi
2002 Hector, National Lampoon's Van Wilder, Badger
2003 Cosmopolitan Vandana's fiancé, Love Don't Cost a Thing, Kenneth Warman, Malibu's Most Wanted, Hadji, Dude, Where's the Party?, Mo (Mohan Bakshi)
2004 Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle2005 Dancing in Twilight, Sam, Son of the Mask, Jorge, A Lot Like Love, Jeeter, Sueño Raj
2006 Man About Town, Alan Fineberg, Bachelor Party Vegas, Z-Bob, Superman Returns, Stanford, Deck The Halls, Amit Sayid, National Lampoon's Van
Wilder: The Rise of Taj, Taj Badalandabad
2007 The Namesake Gogol/Nikhil Ganguli, Epic Movie, Edward
2008 Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, Kumar Patel, Under New Management, Wheeler
2009 Bhopal: Prayer for Rain
Television roles
1999 Brookfield, Kumar Zimmerman, Buffy the Vampire Slayer Hunt
2000 Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, Prajeeb, Spin City, Buddy
2001 Angel Fez Boy, ER, Narajan, NYPD Blue, Solomon Al-Ramai, The Agency, Malek
2003 All About the Andersons, George, Tru Calling (Haunted) Steven
2004 Homeland Security, Harrison
2006 The Danny Comden Project, Max
2007 Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, Henry Chanoor, 24, Ahmed Amar, House (2007-2009), Dr. Lawrence Kutner
Are you tired of doing all this press? It sounds like journalists mostly ask you the same stuff, and you give mostly the same answers.
Kal Penn: It’s actually kinda nice to interact with people. As for the questions, the purpose of it is for people to know what it was like to make
a movie, so it’s understandable.
What are you most sick of being asked?
Kal Penn: Why is there a Van Wilder without Van? It’s totally legitimate, but irritating. This was a spin-off movie, not a sequel. The Van Wilder
movies are a brand, like National Lampoon. They’re these broad college comedies. It’s called Van Wilder in spirit, but if you look at the poster,
why would you be confused?
After “Harold and Kumar,” you were pretty vocal about South Asians not doing stereotypical roles. But now you’re back playing the guy with the
accent in “Rise of Taj.” What’s up with that?
Kal Penn: You can’t really do a movie based on a one-note character. We had a lot of fun making Taj three-dimensional. Just having an accent doesn’t
make him stereotypical—he’s the guy who gets the girl, the guy who plans the parties on campus. And Taj’s parents were actually modeled after this
great tradition of American teen movies. I think we did a pretty good job at making these characters funny.
Whether you like it or not, you’re seen right now as the face of South Asians in Hollywood. Do you feel any pressure?
Kal Penn: I don’t think there’s pressure there, but it’s interesting. For the most part, [desi] people have been very supportive. They’re very
supportive of the movies. I get a lot of random messages on my MySpace page. It’s really nice to have a ton of support, especially because the
arts as a whole are looked down upon in the South Asian community. My hope is that seeing me in a mainstream role will encourage our peers to
go into this field. It’s depressing that there are so few South Asian faces on TV and screen.
You’ve been pretty politically vocal. What did you think of think of “macaca” debacle?
Kal Penn: I think the “macaca” thing was completely absurd. I believe that George Allen knew what he said. And even if it was a mistake, the word
still made it clear that this guy was “the other.” I wish it were a one-party problem, but I see it from the Democrats, too. Hillary Clinton
made [disparaging] quotes about Gandhi. The racism is pretty well-balanced among Democrats and Republicans.
Be honest, how many Cheech & Chong movies had you and John watched before doing this?
Kal Penn: I've honestly never seen a Cheech & Chong movie. I keep wanting to. While we were shooting the film, a lot of the crew was like, 'Man, it's like we're on a Cheech and Chong movie." I promised myself that I wouldn't see it while we were working on the film because I didn't want it to influence the choices we were making, but I now I want to see them.
Well, I think in their cast they didn't have to act like stoners, since they were. I don't know about you two.
Kal Penn: No John and I aren't, which is the other difference between Cheech & Chong and Harold & Kumar, although I hear that Best Buy has this deal where you can buy Harold & Kumar and Cheech & Chong, which is very flattering because everyone loves Cheech & Chong.
More personal to you, you're credited on the box as Kal Penn, but you introduce yourself in the commentary as Kalpen Modi and I've seen both references in your IMDb entries. Was it an issue of Americanizing your name to make it easier for people to pronounce, the way Siddig Fadil from [Star Trek: Deep Space Nine] changed his?
Kal Penn: It's not really an issue for me. When I first moved to L.A., I was sending my headshots out through my agent, and like any new actor
in town, you don't get a lot of calls for the first few years. A couple of producers friends had suggested that I Anglicizing my name, and I said
'That's not going to make a difference if the physical appearance is what's preventing me from getting auditions, then Anglicizing my name is going
to make a difference.' We had long discussions about it, so almost as a joke to prove them wrong I took my first name and split it in half and
added an N, and sent a batch of head shots out with that name on it, and my auditions went up by about 50 percent. It was weird. The first reaction
was that that was really pathetic. But the second thing that I realized was we're in the business of fictitious representations anyway, you're
playing a part, and if that's what if I have to do to get my foot in the door, ok. I'm not going
to change my name legally but I can certainly stick that on a head shots and see how it works out. I ended up getting my foot in the door I wouldn't
say only because of the name, but it definitely made a difference on those first jobs. Then I wanted to use my real name after that but you can't, because
the way it works is your agent will pitch you on projects you've [already] done. So if they were pitching me by my real name it wouldn't work because
there's no way to reference both names. So I've just ended up using both names. Friends and family call me by my real name and work calls me Kal.
Keeping on the thread of work based on name, is Hollywood starting to warm up to Indian actors, not necessarily in an ethnic role, but in a role that could go to a white actor or a black actor. In other words, not seeing you by your ethnicity?
Kal Penn: I don't know if I can make a broad generalization because things have been changing for me personally. But I do think that representation is changing and there are a couple of reasons for that. One of the things that has been changing recently is that the American scene is incredibly diverse and very integrated, and people are a little sick of seeing the same story over and over again. Stereotypes are boring to watch in my opinion. We've seen it for a number of years, and things are changing because people want more interesting stories. Hopefully these movies will continue to do well and you'll see color-blind and gender-blind casting decisions.
We're in a pretty conservative climate these days, not to mention litigious, with people suing Fear Factor for the crazy things they eat. Was there any worry about making a movie that essentially says we're having fun being stoned?
Kal Penn: I don't think so. I know that from my perspective that didn't cross my mind and I'll tell you why. When I read the script, the thing
that stood out about it was that it was a buddy movie, two guys who go on a life-changing story. The burgers and the weed were secondary. As an
actor, you look for things that drive the character. The burgers and the weed set off the plot, but it never in my mind was about either of those
two things, it was about this journey and this friendship. Also, because it was my first starring vehicle and in the past I had played more stereotypical
parts, it was a wonderful although rare opportunity to play a human being who was defined for things other than ethnicity. So we thought it was
incredibly positive for those reasons. A lot of people who saw the film described it as an all-American film. The drug references were almost secondary.
A lot of my stoner friends pointed this out, and I don't know if I fully believe
this, but they seem to be a little offended because every time we were high or wanted to get high in the movie, something bad happens, so they were convinced
it was an anti-marijuana film as opposed to a pro-one, which it thought was funny.
One of the things my reviewer and I liked was that your characters weren't shiftless stoners, they were smart guys who just wanted to relax.
Kal Penn: That was something that was really refreshing to play, too. The back story is that Harold & Kumar graduated from Columbia a year ago and were now living in Hoboken and had been friends for years. That was one of the reasons why I didn't think of it as a stoner movie or a burger movie. These characters were grounded in a reality of who they are that is independent about the marijuana. If it was just a story about marijuana or burgers it would be incredibly boring to watch.
The trailer said "Starring that Asian Guy from American Pie and that Indian guy from Van Wilder?" Was that part of the gag?
Kal Penn: It was definitely meant to be silly. The whole movie is a parody on racism, in a sense. Throughout the movie you have references to other films or media references that are racist or stereotypical. There's the line in the movie, "Thank you, come again," that the skate punks use on Kumar. That's a line taken directly from The Simpsons, from the character Apu, which to my opinion is pretty stereotypical but is also the largest southeast Asian media reference out there. I'm sorry, what was your question?
The trailer.
Kal Penn: Right. So we thought it would be kind of funny to put those references in the trailer. I had my reservations about making it a race-conscious trailer until I sat in an audience and heard someone in front of me go 'Hey, isn't that that Indian guy from-' and you hear the announcer "And that Indian guy from Van Wilder," which was amazing because it made them feel like the announcer in their heads, and made them actually want to see the movie. It was bizarre, I really didn't know if it would work. So it was kinda funny.
According to IMDb, you're a vegetarian. Is this for religious or for personal reasons?
Kal Penn: Just personal.
So you're a non-stoner playing a stoner, looking for burgers when you're a vegetarian. Could you get a character more opposite than you?
Kal Penn: (laughing) The big difference between myself isn't the weed or burgers it's how cool he is because I'm really a big dork in real life. So that was the thing that struck me. I was like, "Oh awesome, I get to play a guy who's much cooler than I am." But no, the burger thing never even crossed my mind. It's one of those tiny, tiny things that's part of a character you play.
Switching to the DVD, the menu is hilarious if you don't selection.
Kal Penn: Oh I'm glad you watched that! I've been trying to explain this to people and they're like "What do you mean it loops for five times?" You can sit there for eight minutes and watch it.
That one topped even House of 1000 Corpses. Did you guys improvise or was it scripted?
Kal Penn: I think the first four loops were scripted and the last parts of one or two were improvised. The writers helped write parts of it and much like we did in parts of the movie, we just inserted our own thing. To our pleasant surprise they used some of the improv, too.
What was added to the extreme unrated DVD edition?
Kal Penn: There's a lot. This was a huge issue for me because one of the pet peeves that I have is buying a DVD that's supposedly packed with special features and you get home and find out it's just a commentary. There's more nudity, a little more profanity that was cut out for MPAA regulations. But also the featurettes, like the Art of the Fart. In my opinion, what ended up on the unrated DVD was great. If you want to buy it for the extra nudity and profanity that's fine, but you also got this mini-film school with all the featurettes and commentary. I'm actually proud of this DVD.
Did you have any involvement in its making?
Kal Penn: Not so much in the design of it but in contributing to the back seat interview where we spent the whole night driving around with bobby in the front, asking a bunch of questions, talking about the film. When we made the DVD, we'd also taken into account questions friends had, like how did you do this scene or what was it like shooting at night. I think for John and I because it was our first starring vehicle, there was a lot of goodwill surrounding it that we wanted to share with people who were going to buy it and keep it positive.
I saw you guys are signed up for two more sequels. That doesn't necessarily mean they will be made. So where does that stand?
Kal Penn: The second one is Harold & Kumar go to Amsterdam. Whether or not it's made will depend on DVD sales. If the DVD does well and makes some magical sales level, they won't tell us what, and we get a trip to Amsterdam.
Anything that surprised you, either while making this movie or afterwards, in terms of audience reaction?
Kal Penn: There were a lot of real pleasant surprises like [Neil Patrick Harris's cameo]. I love sitting in the back of the audience and hearing them go "Ohhhhhhhhh!" because it's such a physiological reaction to something you've done-
So what do you have coming up that you can talk about?
Kal Penn: I'm working on a film called Vegas, Baby, about a couple of guys who go on a bachelor party in Vegas. I have a couple of episodes of Six Feet Under and in the spring I'm working on Mira Nair's adaptation of the novel The Namesake.
First of all, given how you started your career, how surprised were you that you were able to land this role?
Kal Penn: Well it’s interesting. It’s actually because of Harold and Kumar that I had the initial audition for this role because I’d read the
book and I was a fan of the book for a very long time and when I found out that they were turning it into a movie I had called Mira Nair’s office
a bunch of times and obviously there were no return phone calls but I had my managers and agents and all those people call for me also and ultimately
what ended up getting me in the room to audition for her was that her son, who was fourteen at the time, Zohran, was a huge, huge fan of Harold
and Kumar and every night before he would go to bed Mira would tuck him in and he would say ‘Mum, have you auditioned Kal Penn yet?’ and while
that was happening Mira’s agent’s son, who was 15 at the time, would say the same thing to his dad ‘Have you convinced Mira to audition Kal Penn?’
So having been attacked on all fronts I think she succumbed to her children
- or her own son and her agent’s son, and agreed to let me audition for the part. So it was surprising in a way because it was Harold & Kumar that
resulted in me getting the audition.
What was it about this character that you felt you could identify with, if anything, could you relate to him?
Kal Penn: I could relate to him very much and I’ll tell you, the assumption I think that a lot of people make is that I relate to him because
of the same ethnicity – that’s not the case. I mean clearly when you share a similar background with somebody it makes it easier but I would say,
you know, especially if you’ve got a diverse group of friends and, you know, I think we know that – if you look at my group of friends they’re
from pretty dramatically different walks of life and it’s pretty clear that just because, you know, whether they’re Indian or Jewish or black or
whatever, it’s not because of a shared history that we’re friends. And I think that kind of applies to Gogal too, just because we are from the
same ethnic background it doesn’t mean that I automatically have some with him but I think what I do find or what I was attracted to in playing
the role was that he is so different from me in a lot of ways, you know. He’s a
lot quieter than I am, he’s very, very passionate about architecture probably to the same extent that I’m passionate about acting but he’s kind of quiet
about that. He doesn’t really share his intimate feelings with people. That’s why the moments that you do see that in the film I thought were really
interesting to play, you know, for example on his wedding day he’s got this interesting little dance sequence with his wife and that kind of shows you
this playful intimacy that he has with the one that he loves but you don’t see that same playfulness when he’s just walking down the street. He seems
very serious or he seems very quiet. He’s also kind of self-absorbed after his college years, especially up until his father passes away. He’s gone away
to an Ivy League school and he’s been around a lot of old money and he’s learned things that makes him believe that he knows everything and he might
know a lot of things cerebrally but it
doesn’t necessarily mean that he’s capable of feeling something emotionally. So a lot of these things, I suppose the similarities and differences made
him an interesting character.
Were those introspective moments the more challenging ones to play having done Kumar and a lot of these, you know a couple of these comedies. Was it nice to kind of play in some ways a much more reflective character?
Kal Penn: Yes, definitely. Because a lot of times in broad comedies you don’t have the opportunity to be as subtle or explore the subtleties within character that you would normally have in real life or that you have the opportunity to explore when you’re playing especially a character that’s based on such a great book.
What do you hope that this will do for you now? Do you think that the perceptions of you are going to change as a result of taking this one?
Kal Penn: I hope so. I mean the goal as an actor was never only to do broad comedies and certainly one of the things that appeals to me about acting is the story telling element and I would like to continue to do some of the smarter broad comedies but also to do something a little more dramatic on the serious side.
But you’re returning to Kumar territory are you not?
Kal Penn: Yeah. I mean, Harold & Kumar in my opinion, the great thing about it that I still love even with the second one is the way it’s written, if you take nothing away from it other than the fact that it’s two days who smoke weed and go on a journey then that’s fine. But in reality it’s written with very particular subtleties in mind, it’s very subversive politically and that’s all done on purpose, unlike a lot of other broad comedies. So the fact that half the audience walks away not understanding that there was a subversive element to it then the other half that walks away realising all of these literary references that are in the film and all these political references that are in the film and that’s kind of cool to me. I really enjoy playing with that kind of stuff.
How different is the second film from the first one?
Kal Penn: Well the plot is different but those themes are definitely very similar.
Now what else are you working on ?
Kal Penn: The Harold & Kumar sequel will probably shoot until the beginning of April and then I’m shooting a pilot for ABC called The Call.
Now why do you want to do television?
Kal Penn: I like compelling roles and I like roles that I think are interesting. And I would argue up until maybe the last month or so I really didn’t have the luxury of being as picky as a lot of people assume you can be when you’re an actor. I was still considered a relatively newer actor. I mean I’ve only had a lot of regular work for maybe the past two or three years and it’s just now that I’m starting to be able to be a lot more choosy with projects and to me whether it’s a film or whether it’s a TV show is if there’s something interesting about the character then it’s something that I would like to be part of.
In "The Namesake" actor Kal Penn goes from a disturbingly unfunny comedic presence to a solid dramatic one. It isn't a perfect performance, but this isn't a perfect film. "Namesake" is rough around the edges, but radiates a poignancy that's impossible to shake.
Stepping into an arranged marriage, Ashima (Bollywood superstar Tabu) follows her husband Ashoke (Irfan Kahn) from India to New York City, where she's overwhelmed by the loss of traditions and cultural personality, clinging to her husband for guidance and love. From their marriage comes baby Gogol (Kal Penn), who grows up caught between the heritage of his family and the fast lane of life in America. When tragedy snaps Gogol to attention, he searches his complicated life to discover what's most important to him and his family.
Date of Birth
23 April 1977, Montclair, New Jersey, USA
Birth Name
Kalpen Suresh Modi
Nickname
K-Kal
Hollywood
Height
5' 10" (1.78 m)
Trivia
Born in New Jersey, now resides in L.A.
He and the other students were banned from using the word "like" in his acting classes, this was to make them sound more intelligent during auditions.
He attended the Fine and Performing Arts Center at Howell High School in Farmingdale, New Jersey where he went though an intense study of the arts in acting, dance/movement, and vocal training.
Once directed Jason Allentoff in a short film for a college project.
Is a vegetarian, contrary to the role that he plays in Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle (2004).
Met future Where's the Party Yaar? (2003) co-star Datta Dave and Dave's current financial adviser Mihir Upadhyaya during college at UCLA. He assisted Dave in his pursuit of an acting career.
Has one younger brother.
His father is an engineer and his mother, who has a master's in chemistry, worked as a fragrance evaluator for a perfume company.
When he was in 8th grade he was in a school production of the musical "The Wiz".
Is of Gujarati Indian descent.
Although he attended Howell High School's performing arts program, he later transferred to Freehold Township (NJ) High School, where he graduated in 1995.
Lives in same Los Angeles apartment building as director Christian Levatino.
Attended UCLA.
Began using the name Kal Penn, a variation on his first name Kalpen, to get more roles; he believed that his difficult foreign name would scare away potential employers.
Is the first Indian-American actor to have a successful career in mainstream Hollywood.
Was offered a part in "Planet Terror," the Robert Rodriguez segment of Grindhouse (2007), but turned it down due to the conflicting shoot of The Namesake (2006).
His favorite book is "The Namesake" and used to check into hotels under the pseudonym of "Gogol Ganguli", the lead character of the book. When found out that Mira Nair was making a film out of it, despite her having already cast an actor in the part, Penn lobbied for the role and eventually won it.
Studied acting under the same teacher (Reynold Forman) as Anthony Bradford.
During the Spring 2008 semester, he was an adjunct faculty member in the Asian American Studies Program at the University of Pennsylvania (familiarly called "Penn") in Philadelphia. He taught a lecture course, "Images of Asian Americans in the Media," and a seminar, "Contemporary American Teen Films," both of which were cross-listed in the Cinema Studies department. His faculty listing on the Asian American Studies Program website gave his name as Kalpen Modi (his real name) first, with his stage name, Kal Penn, in parentheses.
Is in the process of earning a graduate certificate in international security from Stanford University.
In April 2009, Penn told Entertainment Weekly Magazine that the writers killed off his character on "House M.D." (2004) because he had asked to be allowed to leave the show to go work for the Barack Obama Administration as the Associate Director in the White House Office of Public Liaison.
Accepted a position as the associate director in the White House's Office of Public Liaison and Intergovernmental Affairs [April 7, 2009].
Personal Quotes
[in New York Magazine, commenting about his recurring role as a terrorist on TV's "24" (2001)] I have a huge political problem with the role. It was essentially accepting a form of racial profiling. I think it's repulsive. But it was the first time I had a chance to blow stuff up and take a family hostage. As an actor, why shouldn't I have that opportunity? Because I'm brown and I should be scared about the connection between media images and people's thought processes?
Where Are They Now
(October 2002) L.A.
(January 2008) Currently teaches a course at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, PA. The course is entitled "Asian-Americans in the Media".
(November 2008) With 'Rachel Leigh Cook', he appeared at Keene State College; Keene, New Hampshire, on November 3rd to campaign for Barack Obama.
(April 2009) Quit "House" to take a position as associate director for the Obama administration's Office of Public Liaison
Coming soon.
Adapted by screenwriter Sooni Taraporevala from the novel by Jhumpa Lahiri, director Mira Nair's The Nameksake is populated by well-drawn characters
and filled with memorable shots and engaging scenes. But in the larger sense, the film is a provocative look at the two sides of immigration: the
adjustments faced by a couple who move here from a distant land, and the struggles of their offspring to reconcile their parents' traditional culture
with their own distinctly American outlook. The tale begins in the late '70s, when aspiring engineer Ashoke Ganguli (Irfan Khan) and his new wife
Ashima (the radiant Tabu) move to New York from Calcutta. Life in America is strange, in ways both good (the gas in their apartment stays on 24
hours a day! You can drink water straight from the tap!) and not-so-hot (New York's winters). But for their children, first son Gogol (a standout
performance by Kal Penn, heretofore best known for the stoner comedy Harold & Kumar Go
to White Castle), nicknamed for his father's favorite author, the Russian novelist Nikolai Gogol, and then daughter Sonia (Sahira Nair), "the American
way" is at odds with their folks' more conservative mores. Gogol (who later adopts his more formal first name, Nikhil) smokes dope, calls his parents "you
guys," goes to Yale, and hooks up with a preppie white girl (Jacinda Barrett); for her part, Sonia complains that she wants to "go home" when
the family returns to India for a visit. Only when tragedy strikes suddenly does the young man realize how totally alienated from his family he has become,
prompting some major changes. There's nothing especially original about any of this, and even those who haven't read the book may sense that some of
Lahiri's material has been lost on the way to the screen (the treatment of Gogol's marriage to a beautiful Bengali-American girl, played by Zuleikha
Robinson, seems oddly truncated). But even while dealing with
life's Big Issues (birth and death, marriage and separation, joy and misery), Nair has created a winning, intimate film that reminds us of the strength
of family ties and effortlessly persuades us to care.
Welcome to The Namesake DVD. After touring the festival circuit last year, our film opened globally (including North America) in March of this year, and I’m proud to bring you the DVD!
This is a project that has been close to me from the beginning. I was a big fan of the book ever since John Cho recommended it to me during the first Harold & Kumar shoot. John and I tried to get rights to turn the book into the film, but Mira [Nair, director of Monsoon Wedding and Salaam Bombay] had already acquired them. That began a really aggressive campaign on my part to try to get seen for the role. I’d call Mira’s office, have my manager call – but we had no luck in getting in the door. Luckily, unbeknownst to me, Mira’s son Zohran and her agent’s son Sam were lobbying on my behalf (turns out they are huge Harold and Kumar fans, so they were trying to get their parents to bring me in to read for the part of Gogol). Mira finally agreed, and I got a call saying that I’d be able to audition. I flew out to New York, and luckily things worked out.
There are some similarities between my life and Gogol’s. We are both Americans of Indian descent, both born and raised on the East Coast, both bilingual, and both passionate about our careers. But Gogol is much more subdued than I am; he carries a certain silence (which he gets from his father). His place in the world is one of constant shift -- a byproduct of being single in New York, being passionate about his job, close with his family, and so on.
This film is my favorite to -date. Mira has been a role model of mine since I was very young, Jhumpa [Lahiri, author of The Namesake] is one of my favorite authors, Sooni [Taraporevala, screenwriter for Salaam Bombay] one of my most admired screenwriters, so it’s an honor to have the chance to be part of the screen adaptation of this story.
To me, it’s a very American film. It’s about family, about hope – about how we all got here, through the lens of this particular family. With so much negativity every time I turn on the television, I’m proud to be part of something that hopefully leaves the audience with a tremendous amount of hope, and a connection to the people we love.
From the director of Dude, Where's My Car? comes another crazed tale of two friends on a perilous quest--in this case, to eat burgers at the fast food restaurant White Castle. The pair--repressed Harold (John Cho, Better Luck Tomorrow) and freewheeling Kumar (Kal Penn, Love Don't Cost a Thing)--get extremely high and set off on the road, only to be sidetracked by skateboarding hooligans, racist cops, an inbred tow truck driver, and Neil Patrick Harris--yes, Doogie Howser, M.D. The humor is all over the map, and it would be nice if there were one female character who wasn't a caricature, but Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle has a loose, gregarious charm, and the movie's canniness about the cliches of the buddy-movie genre give it a sneaky subversive feel--just the fact that neither of the heroes is white puts a different spin on just about every circumstance. Surprisingly clever, cheerfully stupid.
Beginning precisely where Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle left off, Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay takes the film franchise
in a more boorish and spuriously topical direction. Harold (John Cho) and Kumar (Kal Penn) take an ill-fated flight to Amsterdam, during which
Kumar's suspicious-looking bong is mistaken for a bomb. Their arrest prompts a wild-eyed, racist Homeland Security nut (Rob Corddry) to send the
boys to indefinite lockup at Guantanamo Bay, where beefy guards sexually subjugate "enemy combatants." The duo manage to get away and
make it back to the U.S., hoping the well-connected fiance (Eric Winter) of Kumar's old girlfriend, Vanessa (Danneel Harris), can get them out
of their mess. During a dangerous and grotesque odyssey to Texas (where Vanessa is marrying her rich and vain boyfriend, much to Kumar's dismay),
Harold and Kumar have episodic encounters with the Ku Klux Klan, a one-eyed, inbred monster, and old friend Neil Patrick
Harris (as himself), who swallows fistfuls of magic mushrooms and drags the boys to a brothel stop that goes terribly wrong.
The desultory comedy strikes a lowbrow tone from its opening scene (Harold takes a shower while Kumar has a diarrhea attack) and doesn't get much more interesting than that. If there's a bodily fluid that doesn't rate a joke in Guantanamo Bay, it doesn't exist. The persistent sight gags about weed (including a smoky visit with President Bush) never reach the kind of giddy pitch that pot humor requires, leaving a lot of the film's comedy just hanging like dead space. The sequel's attempt to say something, albeit in a gross way, about the state of the country during the Bush years is obvious and empty. Really, there isn't a lot of reason for Guantanamo Bay to have been made, except to print money.
Notes
1. Ausiello, Michael. "'House' exclusive: The shocking story behind last night's big death" Entertainment Weekly, 2009-04-07. Retrieved
2009-04-07.
2. It'll be the White House for Kal Penn now. Rediff.com, 2009-04-07. Retrieved 2009-04-07.
3. Chhabra, Aseem. Kal Penn: Hollywood's Desi No1!. Rediff.com, 2005-04-22. Retrieved 2009-04-07.
4. "[Penn interview video]". [Rachel Maddow Show]. 2009-04-10.
5. Actor Kal Penn to Teach at the University of Pennsylvania. University of Pennsylvania Office of University Communications, 2007-03-26. Retrieved
2009-04-07.
6. Ahmad, Nakasha. Kal Penn Goes To Hollywood. Nirali Magazine, 2004-09-01. Retrieved 2009-04-07.
7. Yuan, Jada. The White-Castle Ceiling. New York, 2007-03-04. Retrieved 2009-04-07.
8. Asian Excellence Awards - Winners (archive)
9. '"CNN.com". 'House' gets a new group of trainees. http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/TV/07/18/television.house.reut/index.html. Retrieved
on July 18 2007.
10. Penn, Kal. Open Letter to Two Undeclared College Superdelegates. The Huffington Post, 2008-05-11. Retrieved 2009-04-07.
11. Joshi, Monika. Actor Kal Penn roots for Obama. Rediff.com, 2008-02-04. Retrieved 2009-04-07.
12. It'll be the White House for Kal Penn now. Rediff.com, 2009-04-07. Retrieved 2009-04-07.
13. http://www.tvguide.com/News/Kal-Penn-House-1004799.aspx
14. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090407/ap_on_go_pr_wh/people_kal_penn
15. Freydkin, Donna. Penn and Cho go to NYC's Pop Burger. USA Today, 2004-07-29. Retrieved 2009-04-07.
16. Schwedel, Heather. Kal Penn to teach at Penn in spring '08. The Daily Pennsylvanian, 2007-03-26. Retrieved 2009-04-07.
17. Asian American Studies Program at University of Pennsylvania