'Harold & Kumar' Hit the Mainstream Like a Cloud of Smoke

April 24, 2008 — -- Harold and Kumar are waiting to inhale.

Their first cinematic pairing, 2004's "Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle," earned a piddling $18 million in theaters but grossed $60 million on DVD.

It turned stars John Cho, 35, and Kal Penn, 31, into real-life friends and launched their careers. And the fans' slow-building but potent response led to the return of the ill-fated stoners in "Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay," opening Friday.

The title of the comedy says it all: Two potheads, uptight Harold (Cho) and easygoing Kumar (Penn), go to prison, break out and embark on a Neil Patrick Harris-crossed odyssey to clear their names.

And yes, Cho and Penn are both shocked that they're back together on the big screen.

"I wasn't sure if it was ever going to happen, because the first one didn't do that well at the box office. I thought maybe it was dead," Cho says. "But there's a lot of goodwill toward our movie. Our movie, in a way, is a traditional buddy road comedy, but it feels fun and new partly because you have two different kinds of faces in it."

For Penn, "the treat of working on the sequel was knowing that fans discovered it on their own. That's why we got to make the second one. It's nice knowing it's thanks to the fans. It's a silly movie about two stoners on a road trip."

'Political conversations'

The second comedy picks up where the first one left off. The guys have eaten their White Castle burgers and are on their way to stoner paradise, otherwise known as Amsterdam. At the airport, Kumar, who is of Indian descent, is singled out by security. Things get worse aboard the flight. A series of mishaps lands them in the notorious Guantanamo military prison. They're branded terrorists, and the only person who can clear their name has a ranch in Texas.

Despite the political overtones, at its heart, it's still about two outsiders trying to have a good time with their favorite herb.

"I don't think it makes a political statement," says Penn, an erudite UCLA graduate who teaches a media class at the University of Pennsylvania and campaigns for Barack Obama. "Above and beyond anything else, it's a buddy movie. It's layered with politically flavored humor. The movie wasn't designed to be political, but I think it's great that political conversations are being had because of it."

Sure, the movie's themes of torture, imprisonment and terrorism make it timely in this election year. But, Cho says, "the political stuff is a cheap excuse to make poo-poo and pee-pee jokes. I felt like since we're doing a sequel, we had to top ourselves. The first one had a lot of racial jokes and social commentary that people responded to. We thought we had to bring that back in a new and fresh way."

Nevertheless, Penn appreciates the movie's sly, if not subtle, relevance. If, in the midst of chuckling at the Ku Klux Klan, diarrhea and nudist jokes, audiences think about civil liberties, all the better.

The sequel's plot, after all, was inspired by his own experiences.

"John Cho and I were going for a press tour for the first movie, and I'd get pulled out of line at every spot. I had a buddy with me who had a hunting knife with him and accidentally got it through security because they were staring at me and didn't even look at what was on the camera," says Penn, who was born in New Jersey. "First and foremost, we're Americans. It's just such an odd feeling to know that you're not seen as that."

Also odd? A sequel spawned by DVD sales.

First film a surprise hit

Writer/directors Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg, who also wrote the first movie, insist they weren't a bit shocked that their 2004 release, about an Asian-American office drone and an Indian-American slacker, found such an audience on the small screen.

"We graduated college in 2000. We were of the generation that was buying DVDs. For Jon and me, movies like 'Office Space' and 'Dazed and Confused' were hits to us. This feels like it would be that type of movie," says Schlossberg.

Adds Hurwitz: "We felt we were putting together a movie that fit well into the comedy canon and a movie we believed was extremely mainstream. We felt people would eventually find it."

That led to Harold and Kumar's second set of misadventures: "We wanted to pick up exactly where the first movie ended. We wanted them to be heading toward Amsterdam," Hurwitz says. "The first thing we thought of was Kumar being racially profiled at the airport. It was taking their story and extending it from the first movie."

Will there be a third one?

"We'll have to see how it does," Schlossberg says. "We definitely have ideas. It's so rare to have the chance to do something so edgy and outrageous but likable and lovable."

They've also become close with their two leads, who, in person, are dramatically different from their characters.

"John Cho is the life of the party. He'll randomly start singing ridiculous songs about whatever is going on in the moment. He's bubbly and crazy," Hurwitz says. "Kal is a lot more quiet. He's reading a lot. He's very interested in education; he's interested in world issues. Everyone thinks Kal is Kumar. People come up to him and offer him weed and are looking to party with him. He's not like that."

Penn, who now is starring on Fox's "House," is open to another outing as Kumar. "But it has to happen sooner than later. John is well settled now. I'm still not, but getting there. I can't imagine being 45 and doing 'Harold and Kumar.'"

He loves playing Kumar partly because, Penn says, "he's so completely different from me. I don't smoke weed. I don't eat red meat. John is more of a Kumar in real life. John is more of the gregarious, outgoing guy on set, and I'm a little reclusive and quiet. "

Cho spends much of his time "annoying (Penn). He's the kind of guy that prepares very quietly and does it the right way. I'm always trying to stay loose and make jokes and keep laughing."

The UC Berkeley alum and frontman of the rock band Left of Zed just wrapped J.J. Abrams' "Star Trek," in which he plays Hikaru Sulu. Now, he's preparing for first-time fatherhood with wife Kerri Higuchi.

"I've been working for a while and I'm going to take a break and be home with the kid. I'm going on maternity leave," Cho says. "I'm so freakin' excited for this kid to come, and I'm so scared they're going to hand me a small human being to take home and I'll be responsible for the human being living."

Will he let his son watch the "Harold & Kumar" flicks?

"I suppose I'll have to keep a lock on the DVD player for a few years. I bet you his friends will know who his pops is, provided I don't fade into obscurity."