He got his break as one of the MILF guys in American Pie, went on to become a stoner icon playing Harold in the Harold & Kumar movies, and now stars as Sulu in the rebooted Star Trek universe.
In anticipation of the release of Star Trek Beyond, Flicks recently sat down with John Cho in Los Angeles to talk about all this and more. He was super nice and very funny.
N.B. This interview was conducted before the tragic death of Cho’s co-star Anton Yelchin and also before the news that Star Trek Beyond would reveal Sulu to be gay. Which is why neither of those topics are addressed. Although you can kind of sense him hinting about Sulu. Maybe.
Flicks: You worked with director Justin Lin on his 2002 breakout movie ‘Better Luck Tomorrow’. Did you play any role in his name coming up as a potential director for ‘Star Trek Beyond’?
John Cho: No, it was just a happy coincidence. I was thrilled about it.
It’s interesting, he still feels like an independent filmmaker to me. I mean, he was playing with a lot more toys, but he was just the same guy. He’s a guy who comes up and quietly talks to his actors. Even back on that movie with the limited apparatus that he had, he had a great sense of kineticism. On this one I saw it writ large. Every shot had movement that was part of telling the story. That’s hard to do.
Were your cast mates aware of your history with him?
Yeah. They asked me about him. I told them you can’t trust Asians – they’re inscrutable. No, obviously I vouched for him. Not that I was a decision-maker.
After two films in a franchise like this, do you develop your own hopes for what you character gets to do in each sequel?
You could think of ten different things, ‘I’d like him to have a musical number’ or whatever. For me, and I don’t need to say this to anybody, I just want him to have an emotional arc that is effective. And I think we got that. But I don’t just wanna be pushing buttons as an actor. So whatever that is, I just want an arc there. That’s what any actor wants. But I wouldn’t presume to suggest things.
The crew gets splintered in this movie – who does Sulu spend most of his time with?
I spend most of my time with Uhura (Zoe Saldana). So that was a pleasure. She’s the only girl. I really had a blast with Zoe. Zoe’s a really – and you shouldn’t infer surprise – a fantastic actor. And I had a chance to see her work up close and see how she works and was very impressed and learned a few things. And plus she’s a terrific girl. She’s a good hang.
And she has children now and I do too so it was cool to chat with her about all that stuff. We were the mommy group at the park.
In a film of this scale, do you feel like you have to work harder to stand out amongst all the amazing stuff happening around you?
For me, it is harder from my perspective because I don’t understand the language. There are 15 things in a paragraph that you don’t know and you have to infuse them with meaning and I just find that text work to be hard. I guess it would be the same if I was doing a medical show or something.
I’ve just never been great with jargon and so I have remember everything and be very annoying and ask people who know better. I’m going: ‘Right so if we lose power, then what would happen? Oh I see, so that system would fail and that would cause what? Oh, okay.’ There’s a lot of that which is very nerdy.
Chris Pine said that you and Anton Yelchin are really good at miming all the computer stuff while piloting the Enterprise.
Chris is behind us so I think he gets a very entertaining view of us touching nothing. There’s so much going on that that’s pretty random.
It’s funny that we haven’t really worked this out, because you would think that our systems are identical. If you’re totally bored in the movie and want to look at something, look at our differing button-pushing techniques. I have more of an iPad, slide, touchscreen vibe, and Anton looks to me like he’s working on a 1932 typewriter. He’s like Ernest Hemingway typing out a novel with single fingers.
There’s a perception that being part of a franchise like this helps prop up the rest of an actor’s career – does that enter your mind at all?
I wanted to be in Star Trek more than I’ve ever wanted to be in anything in my professional life. And that had to do with me wanting to be a part of something that I considered culturally significant, one of the most important popular culture contributions that America has made to the world. And I thought that was significant and I wanted to be a part of that. I guess in my mind there was the idea that we would make more, but you never know and at the time, as I recall, the business wasn’t all about ‘Let’s make franchises.’
‘Star Trek Beyond’ looks like it’s trying to reclaim some of the flavour of the original series – was that something that was discussed in the making of it?
Yeah and I think it was more framed in the sense of, we were very close to the origin story from the first one and now it was ‘let’s jump forward a little bit and really think this through’. Like, what it’s like being out there for this long. What does it do to your camaraderie? What does it do to your belief system? And having seen what you’ve seen, how does that co-exist with the reason you joined in the first place?
The ‘Harold & Kumar’ films are pretty much modern classics. How often do people wanna smoke weed with you? Does it happen a lot?
Yeah. I mean….yes. I’m not exactly Snoop on the streets, but if you want some I could get some very easily, I imagine. And I think that’s what you’re asking.
So you’re okay with being a stoner icon?
Oh yeah. I love it. You know, I feel like I’m tickled by it because it runs counter to some stereotypes and so I’m really happy with it. If that’s on my tombstone, and I’m sure it will be, providing I don’t murder anyone, I’m fine with it.
You’re also one of the MILF guys from the ‘American Pie’ movies. What happens to you more – people wanting to smoke weed, or people yelling out ‘MILF’?
People mostly call me Kumar. They just yell ‘Kumar’. I don’t know if that’s meant as an address or a salutation, but I get that the most. Harold second. Sulu third. And MILF used to be, boy it was everywhere. And it’s receding now.
I remember once walking with Seth Meyers years ago we were shooting a film in Montreal. And some people were yelling ‘MILF’ at me, and I remember him turning around and saying – in jest, he had a great sense of humour, he wasn’t actually jealous – he turned around and said “Uhh, Saturday Night Live?!? 11.30 Saturdays?”. It was crazy for while.
What did you make of the John Cho Stars In Everything meme?
Oh yeah I thought it was great. I mean, obviously – thanks mom! She learned Photoshop really well.
It was just such a fun and clever way to talk about something kinda serious and it started a very cool discussion and it bypassed didacticism really quickly and just got to the ‘why not?’ part. I think it opened a lot of minds and eyes and in a way that talking about the subject itself couldn’t have done. So yeah, I owe that guy a steak dinner.
‘Star Trek Beyond’ is Out Now in Cinemas – Click for Movie Times | 3D Movie Times
