HAROLD AND KUMAR - WHAT WOULD NPH DO ?

EXCERPT FOR RETROCRUSH'S INTERVIEW WITH THE HAROLD & KUMAR GUYS



Regarding using Neil Patrick Harris in the film, the first film came out before Neil
Patrick Harris became...

JON HURWITZ: Before he became gay? (laughs) One of the things about the sequel, that was really important to us was to have it take place immediately after the first movie. We loved the movies in the '80s whenever that happened. The end of the first script of Harold and Kumar said "To Be Continued in Harold and Kumar Go To Amsterdam" we already wanted to do a sequel. So it takes place the next day. So it wasn't all of the sudden going to be a different character. But that being said, Neil Patrick Harris isn't playing the real Neil Patrick Harris, he's playing a version of himself in this slight alternate universe. It's fun because he embraces it and we have him do such crazy and ridiculous things. In the first movie he snorts cocaine off a stripper's ass, and in the sequel we had to amp things up and give you some more.

HADYEN: I don't think our Neil would do any gay stuff (laughs). I'm not saying he's homophobic Neil, but that's not his scene. For us, Neil and White Castle were the two leaps of faith that we had. I mean we thought they would do it, what else are they doing, but for Neil...we knew he was a great actor but it would be good for them, and for White Castle, to be immortalized. We felt logically that they would do it, and we wrote the part hoping he'd do it, but we didn't realize how much he'd go for it.

JON HURWITZ: And we were lucky. Neil at the time was getting major critical acclaim on Broadway and we knew what a talented actor he was. Our hope was that he would take the words that we wrote and just elevate it. He went through the roof with the work that he did.

It kind of rejuvenated his career, and he got the TV show right after it.

JON HURWITZ: Yeah and it's well earned, he's the best.

John, what were you talking about in the first one, you and Kal just getting to know each other. Now do you find it difficult, knowing him so well, when you have to yell at him when he pisses you off.

JON HURWITZ: You have to piss each other off, otherwise you're not real friends, you're just acquaintances.

Can you talk about coining the word "MILF"?

JOHN CHO: I thought you were talking about the word "ostentatious". Yeah that was weird. Somebody wrote it, and I said it, and I remember seeing it come through the fax machine, and going, "What?"

JON HURWITZ: He had already got the domain MILFHUNTER.COM, so he went to Chris Weitz and Paul Weitz, and let's just use this word "MILF" and he's extremely wealthy right now.

JOHN CHO: Unfortunately I had bought MILFHUNTER.EDU so I haven't made any money.

Do we get to see new aspects of your character?

JOHN CHO: It's pretty consistent. I think what you'll see is more Harold in distress. Things are really crazy. This one is really more Kumar's movie. It's his love interest, so there's that.

HAYDEN: But you also get to see a little bit of what Harold was like in college. I think that's something that the fans definitely will enjoy.

When you guys created these characters, how much of this is based on experience?

HAYDEN: A lot of these things are things we experienced or things we have joked about. I mean we've never thrown a bottomless party before, but it's something we've talked about doing for decades. So some of it is imagination stuff like that, while other things, like in the first movie, like going to White Castle, that's the type of thing we did when we first moved out to LA. The life of a screenwriter, kind of working all day, but at night you just decide to drive to one of the numerous burger joints that you have on the west coast, and we're just passing all of these other burger places along the way. We're kind of like, this is really an American story.

JOHN CHO: Anyway, the plot of Star Trek is... (says this as the Star Trek question guy is taking the microphone away)

John, I saw earlier this week your film West 32nd.

JOHN CHO: Oh, you did?

I'm curious what drew you to that project?

JOHN CHO: Well, West 32nd is a crime thriller that takes place in Manhattan's Koreatown. And being Korean, I've gotten numerous "Koreatown" scripts, as I like to call them. And I've wanted to do something set there but there was nothing that was right. I liked this one because it was set in New York and...for me Harold and Kumar's racial and social jokes don't play without the jokes. The jokes are primary and that kind of commentary is secondary. The thing about Koreatown in West 32nd is that stuff was secondary to the mystery plot, which appealed to me. There was a second thing that I thought was very interesting about the character, which I wanted to explore, was that this was an Asian guy who fetishizes Asian culture. I thought that was an interesting character trait, so that was something I was attracted to.

Like a Giant Robot kind of thing?

JOHN CHO: I guess, I've met Asian guys, and I can't really pinpoint it, but it seems like there are Asian guys who are kind of Asianophiles. It's really weird.


WHITE CASTLE CAR SCENE