Kal Penn Interview
Interviewed by Raffman on 11/29/06
I'd like to personally thank Kal and his staff once again for finding time in their busy schedules to setup this awesome interview!
I'd also like to extend thanks to all of our loyal readers out there who emailed me with all their questions for Kal!
I'll be releasing the Ask Kal Penn contest winners shortly, so stay tuned on our main page! Enjoy the interview!
Raffman: Dating back to your undergrad days at UCLA, name maybe your craziest story from back in college.
KP: Oh man, my craziest story. Um, that's a tough one. I don't really, I wasn't really the huge party guy in college which I'm sure is disappointing for you to hear. There were definitely parties on the weekends, but I wanted to be an actor so I would always skip class during the week, get to auditions and so I would be the dork who would spent the weekends studying so I could get a job outside of college cause when you want to be an actor, it doesn't really matter what you major in; it's not really gonna help you get a job.
Raffman: Yeah, well it paid off I must say.
KP: Yeah, no it definitely paid off but the downside of it is that I don't have any amazing, debauchorous stories; but my manager is calling me a loser next to me. "What do you want me to say!?!? (yells to manager)
Raffman: Alright, next question. Walk me through a normal day in the life of Kal Penn.
KP: A normal day in the life of Kal Penn. Uhh, dude let me see that schedule. Let's see here, let me tell you what we did today. (Looks at schedule.) This is a normal schedule: Get up at 5:30 in Chicago, get picked up at 6:30 and go to a TV station, do an interview at the TV station til 9:15, then go to a radio station and do an interview, then at 10:30 go to another TV station and do another interview, then at 11:05 you have a lunch break til 1 o'clock. Then you get off and go from Chicago to Minneapolis and go to another TV station and do another interview, then you go to the Souix City Journal and do an interview, then you go to another TV station, then you go do a bunch of phoners like we're doing right now and then you drive out to a local college and speak to a bunch of college students, hang out and do autographs/promote the film, and then you go back to Minneapolis and you go to sleep at 11:15 and get up at 6:30 in the morning and you get to the next day.
Raffman: Well uh, that is quite an impressive day you've had; I hope this interview isn't too repetitive for ya.
KP: Oh no man. This is the first time I've actually had a person with a legitimate interest in what the day is like.
Raffman: Well good I'm glad. (Kal laughs in background) When you're not working, when you're not on the set, how do you like to spend your downtime? What are your hobbies?
KP: I'm actually pursuing a grad program kind of on the side; it's a part time series of classes on international security. Politics and all that is a hobby of mine, so I try and do that on my downtime.
Raffman: Alright, kinda goin back to movies now. Do you have a dream role in mind? Did you have one in the past?
KP: Yeah there were two actually. One of my dream roles was to play the lead in the movie adaptation of the book, The Namesake. I had the opportunity to do that last year. It was one of my favorite books, and I found out they were turning it into a film so it was a dream role that I really agressively pursued. (More laughter as Kal's manager gives him shit.) The second one that I'd love to do is play as Freddy Mercury, which I'm actually working on developing right now.
Raffman: Cool. We got a ton of user-submitted questions and I only chose 4-5, so I'll jump into those now. First one is in Van Wilder 1, how many takes did you have to go through in the scene where Taj slides across the chick's oiled back?
KP: Uh not enough. No probably, we honestly did that about thirty times.
Raffman: About thirty times? Wow.
KP: Yeah because there were no special effects in that, so they really oiled her up and I had to slide off of her. You had to hit a specific spot on the ground or it wouldn't work. There were times where there wasn't enough oil, so you try and slide but you don't go anywhere, and there were other times when there was too much oil and you'd slide and keep going. Yeah, it was pretty absurd. We did it about thirty times.
Raffman: Must've been rough! Alright next question is again from one of our readers, and he asks, "Is NPH a cool guy?"
KP: NPH is fucking awesome.
Raffman: That's what I expected to hear. Alright seeing that you're a vegetarian, in real life would Kumar actually be able to take down 30 veggie sliders, 5 french fries, and 4 large diet Cherry Cokes?
KP: In real life Kumar would eat the real thing.
Raffman: Alright, in Kal Penn's real life?
KP: I'm actually not a vegetarian right now, but um, I still think White Castle is disgusting. (Laughter.)
Raffman: We all know Van Wilder 2 is gonna be ginormous; that's pretty obvious. What's next? What's on your plate for 2007 and beyond?
KP: Oh well there are a couple things actually. I'm on the new season of "24"; it's note every episode but it's off and on. And I have that movie that I already told you about, The Namesake, which comes out in March 2007. Let's see, I'm probably doing (checks with manager to see if he can talk about this) and episode of "Law & Order SVU" which I guess is coming out in the winter, so I guess those are three drama things. I'm also developoing a couple of comedies that we're hopefully gonna shoot later on this year, and then in January we start shooting the Harold & Kumar sequel.
Raffman: Very cool; I can't wait for that to come out. Alrighty Kal, last question. Do you have any quick advice for your fans out there that are aspiring actors?
KP: Sure man. It's actually a great time to get into that. Obviously you would pursue it like every other career; you know, no one is ever going to go to a guy that calls himself a doctor but never went to med school. That's sort of my philosophy, that if you train to be an actor it's much easier to get a job. It's still incredibly competitive though; I don't want to mislead you by saying just because you majored in it you're gonna be able to get a job. But your odds are definitely going to be greater, especially if you want to do theater or independent films. But right now I mean especially with stuff like YouTube all you really need is a video camera and shoot anything right with your friends, and if you have 200,000 views in one week than you've obviously done something right. Then you can go back, shoot stuff, rewrite it, and keep doing it until you have an audience base and that's a great way to start out.
Raffman: Well Kal that is all the questions I have for ya man. I really appreciate your time, as I know by hearing your schedule today that you're a pretty busy guy, so thank you again!
KP: Cool man, thanks a lot. I appreciate it!
Raffman: Thank you and have a good day!
KP: Thanks man, you too!
- Back to all the Celebrity Interviews.
- Back to the Main Page.
So I'm surfing around the net and come across this website with this beautiful woman and realize she's signed up at this website of local people just basically looking for casual sex and I think to myself, how badass is this? The best part is
is that it's 100% free to sign up for! It's always nice to find someone that is looking for the same thing you are....just a piece of ass. You can check out this sweet
ass website by clicking here; your new fuck buddy is just one click away! Whether you're looking for threesomes, one on one, or tag-team action, milf sex, or teens; I'm sure this site can fulfill your every need. Outside of the people just looking for straight up sex, you can also register to find people that are just
looking for a good ole' fashion relationship. The only reason why we are posting this website is because it is free to register and we're always here to help out the broke college student in his/her quest to make every penny be used to buy more beer.