I should start off by saying I loved the movie Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle. While some of the dumb comedies of recent years have stunk pretty badly, Harold and Kumar and Eurotrip were two that I can watch again and again and always laugh. For awhile now I had heard rumors that they were going to make a sequel to Harold and Kumar and I’m happy to report they have begun filming in Louisiana.

So why am I talking about Harold and Kumar?

In the film Kal plays Gogol, who is a first generation American from an Indian family. The film opens with his parents, the Ganguli’s, meeting in India and then flying to New York. They want a new life for themselves as well as for their future children. As the film progresses we watch as their children struggle to fit in and find themselves as both American’s and as Indian Americans. The film is another take on the immigrant struggle, but this one is a more modern tale as it starts in the 70's and goes through today.

And unlike most Kal Penn movies, this one shows his acting range. During the interview that is something he kept going back to; his desire to show his range and depth as a performer. He says that his ideal world would be where he could make both serious films as well as comedies, to not be pigeonholed into one genre over another. 

At the end of the interview he said he is going to be doing a pilot for ABC that will be about two EMT’s in Los Angeles. It’s going to be a single camera show in a half hour format and it sounds a lot like Scrubs. If the show gets picked up it might be awhile before we get Harold and Kumar three.

If you would like to listen to the interview click here. Also here is a link to the trailer in case you haven’t seen it yet.

Have you seen the film?

Yeah. Heartfelt is a good way to describe it. I'm wonder about your sense of it because in many ways your life story parallels the character.

Not really. There are some parallels like obviously being first generation of Indian parents but that's not really to me what the story is about at all. I think the identify portion of the story is Ashima's character. She's the one who really goes through the real identity arch and fitting in with the American society. Gogol on the other hand is born and raised in America. He's an American of Indian decent. He's bilingual and he's comfortable with all that and it's other people who always take issue with his identity. Those I guess the parallels that I've always been very comfortable with. Identity stuff and I'm always weirded out when people ask me questions about it. Do you feel more Indian or more American? Like are they mutually exclusive?  I didn't know they were. They're not to me unless you're Native American everyone's from somewhere so why do you have to pick one. I think Gogol encounters that a lot even with his girlfriend Maxine. She asks him if his parents want him to marry a nice Indian girl and he's like 'I don't know. I don't care what they want.  What I want is something else." Same when he finds out his wife is cheating on him he… she actually has the audacity to say maybe it's not enough that we're both Bengali as if that's what made him love her. That's not why he loved her. He loved her because that's who she was. So those are some of the similarities I guess is that neither Gogol nor myself are uncomfortable with who we are but people constantly feel the need to quantify you as one thing or another.

This is kind of like a change from what we're used to seeing you....

I hope so.

It's good and I was wondering the reason why you took the role and not just because of that but to show that for you this is an important thing to show.

Like the spiritual and your cultures.

No not at all.  Again I don't think it's about culture. I think it's a very universal American story if anything else about family. I don't think it’s about culture at least that's not what I focused on because again I think that’s Ashima's character not Gogol's character.  I wanted to do the film because I loved the book and I loved the book because it reminded me of A Catcher in the Rye which I know is a completely different book from this one but for some reason I was really drawn to The Catcher in the Rye and Holden Caulfield for some reason. I'm not a rich white kid who went to boarding school in NE but for some reason I loved Holden Caulfield. The thing that got me into drama school was dong a monologue adapted from...I took the first 3 pages of the beginning of chapter 3 of that book and that was my monologue and nobody had ever done that as a monologue and they were impressed by that.  You don't look like a vision of HC at all so similarly for some intangible reason I really felt attached to Gogol and The Namesake and it wasn't because of the ethnicity thing, it was for something that I really haven't figured out.

Picking up on Steve's question I think one of the things people are used to seeing you in are the broad comedies and you certainly can't argue with a film that opens at #1 and the success of Harold and Kumar notwithstanding, is it particularly satisfying to you to be able to get a role that shows your acting range?

Yes, very much so.  Van Wilder--The Rise of Taj and Epic Movie are not particularly challenging acting wise at least. I say that particularly in comparison to having the opportunity to work on a novel, a film adaptation of a novel written by a Pulitzer winning author. That's insane. You literally have a manuscript to base your character off of that you don't have with some of the broader comedies and I think there's a ....I'm not trying to say there's no intransient values to those comedies. I think that there is and I think that people forget about the day to day pattern, they go and they laugh and they eat popcorn and make out with their girlfriend and then they go home.  But this is very much a different type of film and I welcome that also.

Is this sort of like a signal that this is sort of the direction you'd like to go with your career more or like to leave the possibility open for more of those slapstick comedy type films?

I like to do both.  I'm working on the 2nd Harold and Kumar right now. I think up until the past couple of months...the assumption is any actor can be picky about the roles that you take. I don't think that's true.  I think that it's just now that I hope the Namesake will let me be a lot more picky with the things I take. I would love to do films like Harold and Kumar and I'd love to do more Namesake. I was able to choose the role in 24 and an episode of Law and Order that I did and I really am thankful for that. I really like telling stories and I like doing the outrageous comedy things and I like doing something like The Namesake and I hope to continue doing both of those but maybe on my terms more.

Going back to Harold and Kumar for a second. I know you guys are filming.  I read a whole piece in the LA Times about it which pretty much talked about the story and gave some pretty good details. Could you actually give a little synopsis as well as how is Neil Patrick Harris again? 

Sure. Well one of the LA Times articles says that I don't say anything that isn't.....

A lot of people haven't......

Ok. The story starts out with us intending to go to Amsterdam.  Similar to not actually making it to White Castle immediately in the first one we don't quite make it to Amsterdam immediately in the second one.  Stuff happens along the way. Stuff I think is funnier if I don't describe it in intimate detail then it will be much more pleasing for the audience. Neil is back.  We haven't shot any of his stuff yet. He comes in I think next week for about 2 weeks and I'm really psyched that he's back. Christopher Maloney is back as ...he's playing a clansman, the Grand Wizard I think of the KKK. James Adomian is a great actor/comedian is playing George Bush. You can see sort of where the plot goes. Rob Corgery is playing a homeland security deputy.

Are you ...are there any other celebrity appearances because we've heard some rumblings?

Who have you heard because I've.....

Last week there were like 12 different people who they mentioned and off the top of head ....Dave's name came up, Chris and I can't remember who else.

I keep hearing that Snoop Dogg may be in it which I'm very excited about but I haven't heard if that's confirmed or not. I heard a couple of names back and forth but a lot is based on scheduling and whether or not people can make it in and whether or not they will do it. I don't know. The ones I mentioned are definite. Danielle Harris who's on One Tree Hill is playing Kumar's ex-girlfriend.  Let me brainstorm while we talk about other stuff.  I'm trying to think about who else is in it.

Is it still called Go To Amsterdam?

I don't know. Right now it's called the Untitled Harold and Kumar Sequel.

I thought it might be Go To Louisiana?

It's definitely not Go To Louisiana. I don't know if it going to be Go To Amsterdam or not.

Your costars in this film are really terrific and they are people that American audiences don't get to see too much at all.  What was it like working with them?  Is it different than working on a Harold and Kumar movie?

Yeah. Well, it's different stylistically also.  Harold and Kumar is a broad comedy with really subversive political elements that half the audience gets and other half doesn't and that's ok if you get it or don't because that's what the movie is for, whereas the Namesake is a very different type of film.

Is there a different feel with these actors?

Well, I think especially Irfan and Tabu who play my parents are huge actors in Bollywood and so for them to come over I think this was a very different medium for them. And for me I'd done mostly broad comedies, broad teen comedies so it was a very different medium for me also.  So the 3 of us sort of met in the middle and had this amazing opportunity to work with Mira Nair on this dream project.

In the press packet, it said that you were actually inspired to start acting after watching Mississippi Masala?  So how was that for you? Did it come full circle to actually be directed by her?

It did.  I saw Mississippi Masala when I was in 7th grade I think, 6th or 7th grade. It was one of the things that inspired me to go into acting. I ended up reading a lot about Mira Nair and seeing her other films.  The ones in the past in the ones that came out since and she became this role model who I never met while I was pursuing a career in acting. So yes, having a chance to work with her now is incredible. It's even better than I would have thought as she was inspiring me to be an actor.

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