Kal Penn Recalls Having to Audition Against a ‘White Dude in Brown Face’ for ‘Van Wilder’ Role

[hewontgo]

Kal Penn Recalls Having to Audition Against a ‘White Dude in Brown Face’ for ‘Van Wilder’ Role https://t.co/BdG7z9ecvn
- IndieWire (@IndieWire) July 30, 2024

Ryan Reynolds also helped Penn land the “Van Wilder” role to begin with during the final callbacks.
The college comedy stars Penn in a supporting role of an Indian exchange student.

“Ryan

Comments

[daredevilwolf]

fuck those guys what do they think this is

Short circuit

[butifildisaster]

Man when the Short Circuit guy showed up on an episode of Friends I just thought his American accent was really good. I had no idea he was actually an American in brown face in that movie.

[skyler_white_yo]

I watched that this past weekend after not having seen it for years and that accent was bad. Made even worse by the scene where the other guy is asking where he’s from

[gimmemoarjosh]

Well TIL!

I adored that movie as a child.

Besides the problematic issue with that man, does it still hold up?

I cried when those dudes destroyed Johnny 5 or whatever the robots name is. 😢

[syphilisdiller]

'Harold & Kumar' required at least four high-profile cameos

Ryan Reynolds was a "high-profile cameo" in 2004?

[theoryofwar]

Maybe in Ryan's mind he was 😂

[devopet]

For that film I think so? I think he would have just gotten Blade by then.

H&K was also seen as 'risky' cause it had two non-White leads. I remember when it didn't have a great box office opening initially and folks were worried nothing by Asian/Brown leads would get greenhouse again but then it became a cult hit.

[marywebgirl]

It got shoved aside in theaters by Napoleon Dynamite. It couldn't compete being R rated.

[marywebgirl]

I wish Kal and John had gotten cameos in Deadpool. That would have been really fun.

[invisiblegirlx]

A white dude in brown face sounds very 2004.

[progression]

This is a weird story because who was Ryan in 2004? I watched him in Two Guys & A Girl, but that hardly catapulted him to stardom. And Van Wilder… I don’t remember it being a success. So, how was he cameo worthy?

[squirrels_oh_no]

Maybe that one episode of The Outer Limits he was in.

(tbf it was two guys and a girl + van wilder I assume, because Blade: Trinity aka a movie that shouldn't exist came out 6 months after harold and kumar)

[callonme_84]

Just friends , HIS BIGGEST, BEST (poorly aged) MOVIE HDU

[progression]

That came out in 2005!!