Kal Penn

Kal Penn checks in to talk about his new memoir and more!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Fun with Marial little Bit zapl Wire Lopez joining me
now on Zoom actor and author calpen Welcome to the
show Man. How you doing, Thanks man, Good, Nice to
see you again. I've been I've been good. I've been good.
Nice to see you too. Um, you've written a book.
You can't be serious. What what made you want to
write a memoir at this point in your life? Uh,

(00:21):
it's it's it's funny. It's a question. I haven't Actually,
I hadn't thought about the idea that it was a
memoir and I'm only forty four until a couple of
my friends were like, so that's it, Like you're retiring.
I'm like, no, not an autobiography, big difference. That's what people.
You gotta educate them exactly. And the reason that I
wanted to write this that you know, the story goes
that the story goes back like almost ten years, so

(00:42):
you know, I've loved this journey that I've had being
in Stoner movies and working on House and how I
met your mother and doesn't mean survivor. And I took
this sabbatical for about two years to go work at
the White House and and got the chance to really
work in government and see what that was like. And
for people who are who are listening and don't know, uh,
that part of the story. There's like I went to

(01:02):
grad school. I'm a huge nerd. I went to grad
school for for international security, and I've always had that
side to me. But you don't really talk about it
in interviews when you're promoting a film, right and so
so ten years ago, my manager, who I described in
the book and the audio book as uh as every
character from the TV show Entourage in one person, which

(01:23):
is pretty accurate. Like you need somebody like that in
your life if you're an actor. Right. He goes, I
was leaving the White House and he goes, hey, man,
you should write a book. And I said, well, why
would I write a book. He goes, well, you know,
nobody's gone from working in in entertainment so working in politics.
And I said, literally, the governor of California's Arnold Schwartzman,
Like it's it happened exactly, Dan was president. Uh So

(01:47):
I didn't do anything about it at the time. And
then a few years went by and I thought, you
know what, I have been blessed with this incredible career,
this incredible journey. I do want to share it with people.
I do think I have a story to tell, especially
because there's these two sets of full who I think
might really enjoy my book. One is like the year
old version of me right when you're which is basically
when you're twenty five, you think limitless possibility. You have

(02:10):
all these things you want to do in life, but
there's never a guide book on how do you do it?
And this isn't a self help book in that sense,
but it's a journey through how did how do you
come up as an actor or whatever that is in
your life? Right? Some people are interested in business, maybe
they're going to medical school, whatever that is. And then
the second group of people, really, I think, especially coming
out of the pandemic, it's anyone who's ever had more
than one interest or passion, which again is most of us. Right,

(02:33):
you might have your job, but you've got two or
three other things that you really love that you want
to figure out how you can actually make work into
a career or into something that's more fulfilling. And I thought,
that's those are the people who I want to share
my my story with and share those experiences with. So
put the book together. And look, I will tell you
that the subtext of all of that is I just
wanted to feel like we're having a beer together, like

(02:55):
you're gonna laugh with me. Before we got on today,
Audible emailed and said they chose the book as one
of the best audiobooks, of which I incredibly humbled by
because of that reason. Man, I just our fans have
been so good to us over the years that I
just wanted to make it feel like we're spending time together.
That's awesome. You're gonna, I'm sure help a lot of people,
inspire a lot of people, and I'm sure it was

(03:15):
therapeutic for you during the process. Right when you get
to kind of go back, Um, I gotta imagine that
your parents says, I'm hearing this story and being a dad,
your parents weren't exactly probably thrilled when you said you
wanted to be an actor because you're a smart guy,
educated guy, and you're like, wait, what an actor. It's
You're You're not wrong, And I liked it. When I

(03:37):
when I talk about my my parents, I like to
say two things. First of all, I think a lot
of parents are if you don't have a background in
the arts. It's really hard to explain how something like
an art form can make you happy. And I talked
to I talked to some of my athlete buddies about this,
and it's a similar thing, right, except in the case
of athletics, you kind of prove when you're in high

(03:58):
school or college that you're at a certain level. But
for artists or musicians, actors, you might have that belief
in yourself, but there's no proof. You just gotta go
for it. So to top that off, my parents are immigrants.
My dad moved to America with twelve dollars in his
pocket and the hope that when he got married and
had kids that they would have a better life than
he had. So my brother and I are born and
raised in New Jersey. You know, I decided I want

(04:20):
to be an actor, and they're basically like, you know,
this is not why we moved to America, right for
you to for you to be. But but then they
came around in a big way, and I think they
you know, in writing this book, you talked about whether
it was therapeutic, and a lot of it was in
ways that I didn't expect. I got to call my
parents a few times just because I wanted to fact
check these stories. And I said, hey, um, how embarrassed

(04:42):
were you? You know, in high school when all the
aunties and uncles and all the family friends would come
over and everyone's kids. It seems we're going into business
or medicine or engineering or something, right, And I said,
I wanted to be an actor? How embarrassed were you?
And my my dad said, you know what, I need
you to understand that we were were embarrassed. We were
just scared because we just didn't know, right, because it's

(05:05):
not it's not my parents. I'm childhoo immigrants as well,
and it's not Look, you work hard, your study, you
can you can be a doctor. You work hard, you study,
you put in the work. You can be a lawyer,
you work hard, you study. It doesn't mean you could
be a working actor. It's so many things, as you know,
are completely out of your control. So it is scary.
So it is scary. That's why as a parent hearing that,

(05:26):
knowing that, see, if you weren't smart, I'd be like,
all right, kid, go good luck with acting. But the
fact that you were of like, oh damn, you want
to do that, I can imagine. So that's probably you know,
that's just it's a different skill set though. And I
it's like whether it's whether someone's really cerebral and like, okay,
you did well on a test, or whether the the
emotional intelligence I feel like of artists period. It's such

(05:48):
a special thing, like you know, you know this we're
in the room with other actors, and it doesn't matter
how old you are, Like sometimes you either feel like
you're five years old coming up with weird characters and
weird scenarios. You know, one of my one of my
best ends is a hundred years old. She's our old neighbor.
She's a retired actor. And when I go out for
drinks with her, and yeah, she'll come out and have
like a couple of glasses of wine, uh with with me.

(06:10):
You know, she'll open up and tell stories that makes
me feel like I'm talking to a twenty three year old.
So there is this emotional intelligence that actors have that
I think is a little different than other professions to Okay,
I'll take that. Um, you're also part of this Comedy
Central movie Hot Mess Holiday. What's this one about? This
one is really exciting? So Hot Miss Holiday comes out

(06:30):
December eleventh on Comedy Central. It's a it's a The
Volley movie, which is uh the Festival of Lights, so
it symbolizes uh, light overcoming darkness. But it's also a
Christmas movie, so that both holidays are on the same place. Um.
And it follows these two women, Serena Gendal and Melanie Chandra. Um.
It starts off you feel like it might be kind

(06:50):
of like a Bridesmaids or a Tiffany Hattish kind of
a movie, and immediately goes off the rails into a
diamond heist. So there's there's a reason it's a Christmas
movie on Comedy Central and not on Hallmarker Lifetime. And
I have to say I love those love those Hallmark
Lifetime movies. I'm not trying to throw shade. He's trying
to make sure. Yeah, I'm just trying to make sure
nobody's tuning in thinking it's gonna be wholesome. It's a

(07:12):
Christmas caper exactly. That's a great way to put it. It
It is a Christmas and this is cool. I know.
This is just announcer's starring in the biopic about a
basketball fanatic who's actually in the NBA Hall of fame
super fan and this guy, this, this guy's really exists.
This dude is real. And I remember, you know, we
we shot the Harold and Kamar movies and Designated Survivor

(07:33):
in Toronto, and I remember going the Raptors games and
sitting in my like nosebleed seats and looking down and
being like, who's the Indian guy sitting courtside? Like this
dude looks so regal and he's always shouting at the
players and they sing to love him. So his name
is nov Batia. He's been the only non NBA player
to get an inducted into the NBA Hall of Fame

(07:55):
because he's a super fan. His life story is incredible.
The escaped religious persecution and in India, moved to Canada,
built a business on his own and has not missed
one Raptors game since, which is wild. So they just
did a documentary on him, and I'm really excited to
be part of the team bringing a story to life.
Oh what a fascinating Oh that wasn't I wasn't aware.

(08:16):
That's cool. I'm gonna check that out. And yeah, um
you mentioned uh Harold and Kumar and Harold and Kumar
very Harold and Kumar. Christmas turns tend this year and
that had the biggest budget of the franchise. Right, oh yeah, yeah,
what do you remember about that particular moment looking back?
You know what's what's funny about that movie is every
uh it's seen. You know, it's the Christmas movie. Right,

(08:38):
so between basically between Thanksgiving and the New Year, Uh,
people watch it again. And so my like my d
ms light up with like, yo, I have a question
about this one scene. Sometimes people partake in a little drinking,
made a little smoking when they watch our movies, uh,
and it recreates certain memories that they have that movie.
I remember it was in three D for the most
gratuitous reasons. It didn't have to be in three D.

(09:02):
It was just in three D because we could. And
it's it was totally it was a hat tip to
those old movies that we watched and loved growing up.
And it's it's almost a hat tip to like I
remember you know that that that yearly argument that people
have about is Die Hard a Christmas movie? Like I
think die Hearts of Christmas? But I also because I
watched it with a Christmas story and home alone and

(09:23):
love actually, and it's just nice to be in the
company of those of those movies. Yeah, it's in the
vicinity of Christmas Time Rocky technically the original Yeah, around
Christmas what they threw out a tree and the the Turkey.
I should say. Do you think we'll ever get a
fourth installment of Harold and Kumar? I hope so. Man,
It's it's a tricky thing. You know, we've we've all
talked about wanting to do one. Um. John Horwitz and

(09:46):
Hayden Slausburg, the two very funny guys who created the franchise.
They've been working on Cobra Kai. They created Cobra Kai, right,
That's right, and I love Yeah, they did a good job.
That's awesome. It's such a good show. They've been working
on that. John Chow was just in uh New Zealand
on Cowboy Bebup for two years, and then I've spent
the last almost four years writing this book and an audiobook.
So all of which is to say, I'm looking forward

(10:08):
our schedules aligning because I know we'd all love to
do what you just need to come up with the
concept and sell it. That's great. Um, I saw you
recently announced your engagement man, congrats, thank you, thank you.
What what what do you have in mind for the wedding?
You big We're trying to figure that out right now.
Everything's on hold just because of covid um and also,
you know, we're just lazy. So there's there hasn't been uh,

(10:29):
there hasn't been a huge rush. But you know, I
know my my my parents are like I remember a
lot of the weddings that I went to, like massive
Indian weddings right there. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, some of them.
I mean, dude, I remember even my brother's wedding, which
wasn't massive, um was You know the way that these
ceremonies work. They're like three days long, some of them

(10:50):
can be a week long. It's like Marty, it's all
very festive. You get to spend time with people you love,
but there's no single day, right And I remember when
my brother got married. I was working on a show
in l a who was getting married in New Jersey,
and I remember going to the producer and saying, like, hey, man,
can I get can I get Friday off so that
Friday and Monday off because my brother is getting married.

(11:11):
And he said, well, what day is the wedding, and
I said, well, it's it's actually Thursday through Tuesday. But
I assume that was too much to get off. He's like, well, no,
what's the actual day of the ceremony. I was like, yeah, no,
it's like tuesdays. You know, I'm trying to play today,
because well we can give you Saturday off so you
can fly Friday. You just gotta come back Sunday at
work Monday. And I understood. It's like it's tough to

(11:31):
explain it culturally, it's a little bit different. So we
could either go that route or I think what we'll
probably end up doing is just sort of like a
quiet ceremony and then maybe a couple of parties here
and there. We'll see, let's see how let's see how
COVID goes over the next year, and then we'll figure
it out. Okay, Well, congratulations nonetheless and not real nice
catching up with you, my man. Get you can't be
serious wherever you get books and cal Thanks for checking in.

(11:54):
Thanks man, Let's just talk to us. Always on with
Mario Lope