Kal Penn won't tell if using SRK's line in Obama's Delhi town hall speech was his idea. What he will tell is that he's loving how Indian-origin actors Aziz, Mindy, PC - are crushing it in Hollywood
Aarushi Nigam (BOMBAY TIMES; May 13, 2016)
When Hollywood actor Kal Penn came to Delhi, the two ques tions he fielded the most were 'When are you doing Harold & Kumar 4?' and what he thought of the US presidential race, especially Donald Trump's ascent. That a crazy stoner film and the election were on the same platform for the press didn't strike anyone as odd (maybe because, well, they're not that different?). But actually, because he's juggled both - his most-loved movie role and his most significant real-life role quite comfortably. He's worked full time for the Obama administration for two-and-a-half years, gone back to acting, returned to the White House, and then taken turns with each. Questions about being an Indian-American in Hollywood took second place as BT quizzed him about accompanying Obama to India on his visit last year, and about that line yes, Obama's “Senorita, bade bade deshon mein...“ at his town hall address at Siri Fort. Was including the dialogue that had Twitter swooning, his idea? Read on!
Most of the Indian press realised you were in Obama's team during his 2015 visit only after you left, from your tweets. Why did you keep such a low profile?
I didn't! I tweeted at like four o'clock in the morning when we were getting on Air Force One, at Andrews Air Force base right outside of DC. I tweeted a picture of the plane and I wrote, 'Honoured to be accompanying President Obama on this historic trip.' I didn't realise till after that people didn't think that it was happening in real time. Also, I'm sorry, you have President Obama and Prime Minister Modi - that's what the focus should be on. And when we were gone, people must have been like, 'Oh yeah, there were other people too'.
When it was part of your job to brief President Obama, anything interesting you informed him about?
One of the things I remember briefing the president on was Diwali. He was the first US president to celebrate Diwali in person at the White House. And that was his choice. He'd celebrated it before and he has friends who celebrated it from the time he was a kid, so none of it was news to him. But it was interesting because he wanted to make sure there was a cross-section of the community there. Not just wealthy Indian doctors and CEOs, but people who work with battered-women shelters, and the taxi workers' alliance and folks like that also. So, having a chance to sit down with him after we've put the invite list together and share who's there and what the ceremony would be like, was really cool. And he knew most of it already.
Obama's 'senorita' line in Delhi where did that come from? Whose idea was it?
We may have talked about it a little bit (winks)!
Was that your idea?
We mayyy have talked about it a bit.
So it was your idea?
It was a group effort. It was a group effort!
Yeah it was your idea...
Well no, I think one of the things we wanted to do was... film is such a huge, iconic part of Indian culture, and the president is a huge arts and culture fan. And he's a huge movie buff. Really, if you ask him a whole bunch of different things, from art films to dumb comedies to action movies, he watches a lot of them. So I think he was looking for that connection. Particularly as that event was a people event. He wanted something that was authentic and would show a love for the arts, and that people-to-people diplomacy ... so I would not say it was my idea, it was the president's idea!
Your 'Main hoon Don (ald Trump)' dubsmash with Trump's face on yours, saying 'Don ka intezaar toh gyarah mulkon ki police kar rahi hai'... why?!
I just (laughs)... I don't know! I saw that it was on dubsmash and I was like, this seems like the most ridiculous thing to be able to do. And that's when I still thought it was funny. Now the Trump rhetoric is getting a little scary.
You've been called the most famous Indian-American actor in the world at one point. The last few years have seen pretty major strides for so many actors of Indian descent - Aziz Ansari, Dev Patel... Do you have any favourites?
I think they're all great. This is what I love about the community there... that it's always existed. I mean, there are tons of very, very talented actors of Indian-American descent who do regional theatre, who are writers, who do TV here and there. So there's really no shortage of talent. And I love that there are so many actors who're having opportunities now that weren't there before. If you just look at Mindy Kaling, and the show that she's created, it's phenomenal, right? It was on the big network before, now it's on a digital platform. I think that also says a lot about how much the industry is changing. Obviously, Aziz is just crushing it. It's amazing, I love Master Of None. Two episodes are my favourites - the one about his parents, and then one about auditions and what it's like being an Indian-American actor. It's really part of great TV, period. It's really well done. And then even the big networks I'm doing a show for ABC this fall called Designated Survivor, and they've got quite a bit of diversity on their network as a whole. And Quantico is on ABC, so they've also got Priyanka on. (She's great, she's phenomenal.) So, I think just in the last ten years, the way that American TV has changed, it's much more inclusive. I think it's because audiences want the types of stories and characters that they haven't observed or seen before.
How did the auditions episode resonate with you, given your own experiences with bad auditions, where you've been told to fake an Indian accent or a south Indian accent?
What I like about those episodes on Master Of None, particularly the parents episode, is when I hear people talking about it, they seem to talk about it in a similar way to The Namesake. Which is to say, you have a race-cultural specificity if you're south Indian, or a Bengali, whether it's Master Of None or The Namesake. So there is an authentic cultural specificity, but most audiences identify with it more universally. So you don't have to be of that background, you don't even have to be Indian-American to enjoy both of those. And that's what's really remarkable, that they're both only-American stories. A lot of people can relate to them, whether they have recent immigrants in their family or not. And as far as his interpretation of what it's like going out on auditions it's pretty accurate. Yeah, I don't know what to say, I'm certainly not gonna defend a casting director who behaves that way. You encounter that very, very regularly, unfortunately. But like I said, it's changed a lot in the last ten years and I'm hoping it continues to change.
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Most of the Indian press realised you were in Obama's team during his 2015 visit only after you left, from your tweets. Why did you keep such a low profile?
I didn't! I tweeted at like four o'clock in the morning when we were getting on Air Force One, at Andrews Air Force base right outside of DC. I tweeted a picture of the plane and I wrote, 'Honoured to be accompanying President Obama on this historic trip.' I didn't realise till after that people didn't think that it was happening in real time. Also, I'm sorry, you have President Obama and Prime Minister Modi - that's what the focus should be on. And when we were gone, people must have been like, 'Oh yeah, there were other people too'.
When it was part of your job to brief President Obama, anything interesting you informed him about?
One of the things I remember briefing the president on was Diwali. He was the first US president to celebrate Diwali in person at the White House. And that was his choice. He'd celebrated it before and he has friends who celebrated it from the time he was a kid, so none of it was news to him. But it was interesting because he wanted to make sure there was a cross-section of the community there. Not just wealthy Indian doctors and CEOs, but people who work with battered-women shelters, and the taxi workers' alliance and folks like that also. So, having a chance to sit down with him after we've put the invite list together and share who's there and what the ceremony would be like, was really cool. And he knew most of it already.
Obama's 'senorita' line in Delhi where did that come from? Whose idea was it?
We may have talked about it a little bit (winks)!
Was that your idea?
We mayyy have talked about it a bit.
So it was your idea?
It was a group effort. It was a group effort!
Yeah it was your idea...
Well no, I think one of the things we wanted to do was... film is such a huge, iconic part of Indian culture, and the president is a huge arts and culture fan. And he's a huge movie buff. Really, if you ask him a whole bunch of different things, from art films to dumb comedies to action movies, he watches a lot of them. So I think he was looking for that connection. Particularly as that event was a people event. He wanted something that was authentic and would show a love for the arts, and that people-to-people diplomacy ... so I would not say it was my idea, it was the president's idea!
Your 'Main hoon Don (ald Trump)' dubsmash with Trump's face on yours, saying 'Don ka intezaar toh gyarah mulkon ki police kar rahi hai'... why?!
I just (laughs)... I don't know! I saw that it was on dubsmash and I was like, this seems like the most ridiculous thing to be able to do. And that's when I still thought it was funny. Now the Trump rhetoric is getting a little scary.
You've been called the most famous Indian-American actor in the world at one point. The last few years have seen pretty major strides for so many actors of Indian descent - Aziz Ansari, Dev Patel... Do you have any favourites?
I think they're all great. This is what I love about the community there... that it's always existed. I mean, there are tons of very, very talented actors of Indian-American descent who do regional theatre, who are writers, who do TV here and there. So there's really no shortage of talent. And I love that there are so many actors who're having opportunities now that weren't there before. If you just look at Mindy Kaling, and the show that she's created, it's phenomenal, right? It was on the big network before, now it's on a digital platform. I think that also says a lot about how much the industry is changing. Obviously, Aziz is just crushing it. It's amazing, I love Master Of None. Two episodes are my favourites - the one about his parents, and then one about auditions and what it's like being an Indian-American actor. It's really part of great TV, period. It's really well done. And then even the big networks I'm doing a show for ABC this fall called Designated Survivor, and they've got quite a bit of diversity on their network as a whole. And Quantico is on ABC, so they've also got Priyanka on. (She's great, she's phenomenal.) So, I think just in the last ten years, the way that American TV has changed, it's much more inclusive. I think it's because audiences want the types of stories and characters that they haven't observed or seen before.
How did the auditions episode resonate with you, given your own experiences with bad auditions, where you've been told to fake an Indian accent or a south Indian accent?
What I like about those episodes on Master Of None, particularly the parents episode, is when I hear people talking about it, they seem to talk about it in a similar way to The Namesake. Which is to say, you have a race-cultural specificity if you're south Indian, or a Bengali, whether it's Master Of None or The Namesake. So there is an authentic cultural specificity, but most audiences identify with it more universally. So you don't have to be of that background, you don't even have to be Indian-American to enjoy both of those. And that's what's really remarkable, that they're both only-American stories. A lot of people can relate to them, whether they have recent immigrants in their family or not. And as far as his interpretation of what it's like going out on auditions it's pretty accurate. Yeah, I don't know what to say, I'm certainly not gonna defend a casting director who behaves that way. You encounter that very, very regularly, unfortunately. But like I said, it's changed a lot in the last ten years and I'm hoping it continues to change.
