Kal Penn: The 'Iconic Stoner' Sobers Up

There's a scene in "The Namesake" where a shaggy-haired and bright-eyed Kal Penn tips his head back to marvel at the patterns carved into a cavity of the Taj Mahal.

Kal Penn stars in Mira Nair's "The Namesake" with Tabu, left, and Jacinda Barrett. His new movie is a shift from the "stoner comedies" that made him one of the few familiar Indian faces on American screens.

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It's a moment when anyone familiar with his most popular body of work can't help think of what a long way he's come since White Castle. Penn's break out role as a disenfranchised doctor-to-be-cum-stoner in "Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle" established him as a hero of adolescent and 20-something men. His character's marijuana-induced antics made him so memorable that shouts of "Yo, Kumar!" can't help but follow him three years after the movie left theaters.

But that may soon change.

In "The Namesake," the new movie based on Pulitzer Prize-winner Jhumpa Lahiri's novel, Penn plays Gogol Ganguli, an Indian-American who struggles with his funny-sounding name and relationship with his immigrant parents.

Earlier this year, he went head-to-head with Kiefer Sutherland in the hugely popular TV series "24," playing a best-friend-next-door-turned-terrorist-operative. Both roles have given Penn the chance to break out of the stoner mold "Harold and Kumar" built for him.

"I think I get recognized more for being a cult movie stoner actor than anything else. People will come up to me and be like, 'You're like, the most iconic stoner,'" he said. "The life it takes on, you have no control over."

Campaigning for a Character

But with "The Namesake," Penn was in control of his destiny -- at least partially.

An avid reader and Lahiri fan, he was turned onto the novel by his "Harold and Kumar" co-star, John Cho. The story resonated with the two so much that they decided to vie for the rights to turn "The Namesake" into the film. They believed only one director could do the book justice.

"We both agreed that aside from Mira Nair, we didn't know anyone who had the intimacy to do it," Penn said.

Nair, the acclaimed and Oscar-nominated Indian director, agreed -- so much so that she had beaten Penn and Kho to the punch and acquired rights to turn "The Namesake" into a film before they were able to jump into the ring.