Tania Hussain is a seasoned and detail-oriented editor and journalist with more than a decade of experience with major media outlets and foundations.
For anyone who thinks Ken Jeong is America’s busiest actor, you would be absolutely correct. Since 2009, the comedian has been stepping into some of the funniest projects across film and television. To be more exact, you might remember this time 15 years ago, the Detroit native was coming off the mega success of his R-rated blockbuster comedy The Hangover and just days away from the premiere of what would become one of TV’s best comedies of the 2000s, Community.
Jeong discloses with his wife’s blessing and even his mother-in-law’s , he took on the role. But he adds that audiences don’t actually know the whole truth behind his now iconic appearance in the Bradley Cooper, Zach Galifianakis, and Ed Helms-starring film. “I was only there in Vegas for three days for the movie. I was not there the whole time filming,” he says. “So for the first movie, I was only there filming for three days.
Adding how it was the best distraction for him, “artistically,” Jeong approached the film in a way that he’s never approached anything before, nor since. “I just approached it as therapy as opposed to, ‘Oh, we’re gonna make this a great movie.’ I wasn’t even thinking about that, to be really honest.” It’s also a big reason why Jeong admits he never knew the movie would take off and spawn two sequels like it did.
“I think just a frustrated producer-director,” Jeong says. “There’s something in him, but he kind of feels stuck in his town, so he just projects everything out in a negative way and in a narcissistic way onto his employees and to the patrons.” Jeong admits he thought of another role he played years ago that weaved similar threads in the comedy, Role Models with Paul Rudd. “I did think a little bit of my own character, self-referencing, a little bit of King Argotron in Role Models.
Adding how it wouldn’t be “beat for beat,” Jeong says he feels it would portray the balance of life and death and “the real-life stakes of how we live our lives and how art was an escape” for him. “That interests me just as a person, as an appreciator of art and film. I’d be interested in any tale of that ilk of what inspires you in your art. And for me, it was Tran and what she went through and how that changed my life and changed my art, of how I approach things.
Joking, of course, Jeong takes me on a cul-de-sac for some “real talk” about his former co-star . Leaning into the camera to speak to me as if it’s a secret, he admits the two are not only BFFs but that McHale is also someone he can sincerely confide in. “Joel and I were always good friends during the show, but after the show, he’s one of my best friends. It’s amazing, it’s kind of having a college buddy that I got to know even more afterward.
With the episode paying homage to David Fincher movies and shot like Se7en, Jeong reveals it was on the eve of co-star Donald Glover’s exit from the series, so a lot was on Harmon’s mind, particularly when it came to the future and survival of the show. “I was honored that he would share that with me as to why he placed those scenes and why he did those scenes,” Jeong says. “It really made me understand the amount of stakes.
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