I don't like when an Asian-American actor says, 'I'm entering this business to change Hollywood.' It feels like the wrong reason - I would prefer they entered the business for artistic reasons, because they need to do it.
— John Cho
'Sesame Street' early on and then 'Little House on the Prairie' was a big deal in our house. I always identified with 'Little House' because they were wanderers, and there was something about being an immigrant.
The scariest thing is to go into a new situation for myself, and yet I have a job where I do that every few months, meet a hundred new people, and then have to perform in a very highly pressurized environment.
'Star Trek' seems to be an appeal to our better nature, the side of ourselves that works toward peace and cooperation and understanding and knowledge and yearns to seek out knowledge rather than the side that wants to divide and control one another.
It's hard in America as a writer of color, an actor of color, not to get caught up in race and culture. But you're also supposed to be able to write characters and scenes in a way where it's just a matter of fact, a component.
I'd like to be in a Western.
Sometimes I feel like I don't dream big enough.
When I saw 'My Fair Lady,' I was surprised at how mean and misogynistic Henry was. Maybe that's why it's dropping out of public consciousness.
With 'The Exorcist,' a lot of things went into it. I hadn't seen the show until they asked me, and then I checked the show out and thought it was very well done.
Whenever I meet a Korean, I ask about their immigration history.
I'm not a natural-born actor. So it's been a very slow learning curve for me.
You're trying to grow up, and you don't want to be like your parents, and that gets mixed up with being Korean... They brought their values from Korea, and I accepted them because I didn't know anything more. But as I grow older, I feel more Korean every year; it's very strange.
When I started acting... the community was largely Chinese-American or Japanese-American, so even then I felt like a minority in the minority.
I've played roles that aren't expected of an Asian.
I've never even seen a Cheech and Chong movie.
I grew up watching the Lakers.
I never saw 'Home Alone.'
Movies may be as close to a document of our national culture as there is; they're supposed to represent what we believe ourselves to be. So when you don't see yourself at all - or see yourself erased - that hurts.
I grew up speaking Korean, but my dad spoke English very well. I learned a lot of how to speak English by watching television.
I think my parents were surprisingly cool with me entering the arts. Although, I think they thought it was going to be a phase, and they didn't expect me to actually stick with it, and rightfully so. They were concerned whether I could afford groceries, being an actor.
The message of 'Star Trek,' if there is one, seems to be that we should try to live up to the very best that we're capable of.
I've thought for years, sometimes against my will, about what kind of son I'm supposed to be, what's expected. Being Korean, that's a particularly charged question. Is your duty to your culture or to your parent? Is your life your own, or the second half of your parents' life? Who owns your life?
I want to walk the bases - I want to do all the actor-y stuff.
It's so funny that Hollywood has become so entrenched in its formulas. Because what I've experienced is that the good stuff comes from places you don't expect.
I have this nightmare that one day I will have to look at every picture I've ever taken with people in an airport or in bars or restaurants, and it will make me very sad.
There's only so much I can do to effect change - and really, the thing that I can do that's most effective is to work and to do good work. That, I feel, is speaking out in its own way.
I wanted to explore Korean-American characters. And 'Columbus' did address that. The father-son dynamic felt very real to me.
I personally would love to see Harold and Kumar with children. I think that would be hilarious.
People expect me to be funnier.
The more roles there are, the more actors there are.
Part of my mission as an actor has been to define what an American is.
The key to doing 'Harold and Kumar' movies is you make it earnest. Primarily what we do is make Harold and Kumar's relationship and friendship believable, and we don't actually work on being that funny.
I try to take roles that don't fall within the parameters of any Asian stereotype.
Just because it's in a movie doesn't mean it's real.
I think Hollywood acts like followers of culture and is constantly seeking to follow trends.
When Mindy Kaling asks, I try my best to say yes.
Whenever I'm on my way to a premiere or something, I always have a good laugh in the car... because it's all so absurd - I'm one generation removed from starvation.
Good things will come from self-expression.
I've found it to be true that sometimes a stranger can give you advice that stays with you, utter truths the closest people in your life have trouble saying.
I would love to do Shakespeare, either onstage or on film.
Our species likes being social.
I am a little curmudgeonly about new media.
I'm not an activist, I'm an actor. I don't want to be an activist.
For a while, I was feeling like I was always playing characters that weren't specifically Korean or specifically Asian, even - that they were characters who were originally written white, and then they would cast me. And I used to consider that a badge of honor because that meant I had avoided stereotypes.
Most people deal with grief in an awkward way, and that can be funny.
I didn't think it was possible for Asians to be actors.
The goal of Asians in the arts is plurality of roles. I've always been hindered by me over-thinking what is a stereotype and what isn't.
I just didn't see anyone on TV who looked like me, and then I saw George Takei being cool and piloting the spaceship on television.
The thing about kissing men - how do people stand it? The stubble is maddening.
I have a few go-to moves like jazz hands, shake the booty, stupid eyes. It was once a mating ritual, but now it's all about looking silly and making the kids smile.
