+ A
A -
NANCY MILLS
NYT Syndicate
Two decades ago John Cho was standing around on the set of American Pie (1999) when the film's casting director asked him to read some lines. At the time he was an English teacher and wannabe actor who was there only because a friend had gotten him a job as an extra in the jazz-choir scene.
By the end of the day, Cho's billing had changed. He became a potty-mouthed student who made a vulgar comment about mothers. When the movie released, the description caught on.
"For years I thought it was going to be on my gravestone," Cho said."It was one of those brush fires that started, and I still get a kick out of it."
Time passed and Cho built up his comedy cred in three sequels ” American Pie 2 (2001), American Wedding (2003) and American Reunion (2012) ” and then found a comic franchise of his own, playing stoner Harold Lee in the surprise-hit Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle (2004), Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay (2008), the video short Harold & Kumar Go to Amsterdam (2008) and A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas (2011).
As he seemed to be settling into a niche as a lowbrow Asian comic, suddenly Cho got a whole different kind of opportunity: He was cast as Lt Sulu, the iconic Asian character first played by George Takei in Star Trek (1966-1969), in the rebooted big-screen Star Trek (2009), followed in turn by Star Trek into Darkness (2013) and Star Trek Beyond (2016).
Now, after nearly 100 film and television roles, Cho has arrived at a new phase of his career: traditional leading man. In Columbus', he plays Jin, a Korean-American who's dealing with a midlife crisis.
He was both thrilled and terrified to take on the role.
"There's so much I haven't done and can't do," the 45-year-old actor said.
"Columbus was strange and new, and it scared me. If I read a space fantasy, I think to myself, 'This is exactly what I wanted to do as a kid,'" he explained."On the other hand, Columbus gave me a chance to stretch and the opportunity to scale back ” to see how little I could do, how simple I could make it."
Set in the architecturally distinctive community of Columbus, Indiana, the film co-stars Hayley Lu Richardson, Rory Culkin, Michelle Forbes and Parker Posey. Film-festival critics have embraced it.
"Columbus is a story about two people trying to reconcile their relationships with their parents through one another," Cho said."It felt very real."
Estranged from his father, a noted professor of architecture, Jin is working in Korea as a translator when his father falls into a coma. He rushes to the hospital in Columbus, but is reluctant to spend time with his father.
Instead he becomes friendly with 19-year-old Casey (Richardson), an architecture enthusiast who has her own parental difficulties. The two spend much of the movie visiting some of the town's impressive buildings while trying to help each other resolve their difficulties.
"This is an unusually told story," Cho said."I was struck with where the script chose to focus. Many of the scenes seem to be adjacent to scenes that we normally have in a movie.
"The two of them are not romantic," he continued,"but I could see them becoming romantic in the future. Columbus ' could have been written about when they do spark their romantic relationship three years later."
The film's novel approach appealed to Cho, but he worried that there wasn't enough drama in the story.
"It's such delicate material that it didn't seem like it could be realised," he said."Maybe Steven Soderbergh could do it, but who else?"
Then he met Kogonada, a one-named maker of short films who had written the script and was set to direct. With American Pie producer Chris Weitz producing, Cho signed on.
He sees the film as a way to broaden his career.
"When I was young I'd give as much to the camera as possible," he said."A lot of that was because I was scared of the camera and was just going for it. Now I have a different relationship with filmmakers and the camera.
"I've been lucky," he continued."I've been able to come in and out of different series. A lot of people have to stay in particular lanes."
Part of Cho's versatility is the result of his longtime refusal to take stereotypically Asian roles.
"The only real power an actor has is to say no to things," he said."I felt a certain pressure to turn down parts where I disagreed with the thesis. I'd ask myself, 'How can it be good for my career to be humiliated?' Or 'Could it be psychologically harmful for people who look like me?'"
Cho has turned down roles even when he didn't necessarily have any other offers to fall back on.
"I'm not the kind of actor who has 100 different scripts on my desk," he said."I have to feel something speaking to me. Thinking gets me into trouble.
"There are 'good' roles for Asian-Americans that I'm equally unattracted to," he added."The helpful professor, the chastising judge. Who cares? They're not people. They're functions, they're staged descriptions. They're not feeling anything."
Cho was drawn to Columbus because he could relate to his character's attempt to separate himself from his father.
"The character is living in the shadow of his father's accomplishments," he said."My father is a preacher. Even though I chose a different line of work, he influenced my choices.
"I have difficulty escaping his voice," he continued."He's always with me. His voice says, 'Contribute something to the community.' I cannot not think that. I try to listen to myself more, but I hear him asking, 'What are you contributing to our people?'"
Cho continues to struggle with these issues.
"Is it truly possible to be an individual? The answer is no," he said."At the end of the day, I can't separate myself from the people who raised me."
Now he's a father himself: Cho and his wife, actress Kerri Higuchi, have a 9-year-old son and a 4-year-old daughter.
"Parents wield so much power," he said, then laughed."I think I'm going to be the first to do it perfectly."
He credits acting with helping him to be a better father.
"I really appreciate having landed in this strange profession," he said."Being an actor primes you to play with children, to interact with them in a way they understand."
"At first I thought it would be better to be a doctor or a lawyer and have a steady paycheck," he added,"but I'm around in a way that my dad wasn't."
Born in Seoul, Cho was 6 when his family emigrated to the United States, eventually settling in Los Angeles. After he completed a degree in English literature at the University of California/Berkeley, he moved back home. He began teaching, but also started working with the East West Players, an Asian-American theatre company.
Soon he was making brief appearances in such films as Wag the Dog (1997) and Bowfinger (1999). American Pie made him a cult figure, and then Harold and Kumar made unlikely stars of him and Kal Penn, who plays Kumar Patel.
"Now people call me 'Harold' more than anything else," he said."The important thing for me is that those films had two Asian leads."
That's the sort of impact that Cho wants to make.
"I have a fascination with actors who leave a broad cultural mark," he said. Cho is determined to be one of those actors. On Hulu's Difficult People which is scheduled to return August 8, he has a recurring role as Todd, the boyfriend of Billy Epstein (Billy Eichner).
In the upcoming Gemini he plays a noir detective. In Connoisseur, now in development, his role would be"a guy who perpetrates a massive wire fraud."
He hasn't closed the door to another go-round as Harold Lee, and definitely doesn't think he's gotten too old for the role.
"I always thought of the Harold & Kumar movies as Hope-and-Crosby road pictures," he said,"and I thought of myself as Bob Hope. As a kid I'd watch those movies on TV on Saturday afternoons. They were comfort food. I think they're clever and fun and very crazy. They over-achieved and left their input on popular culture.
"I have a great deal of affection for Harold & Kumar," Cho concluded."We really want to make another one. I don't see why men of a certain age can't be dumb and silly."
