The biggest boss has the clearest desk.
John Cho
I’ve been called a funny person for a long time. I don’t know that I know anything about comedic acting.
John Cho
Good things will come from self-expression.
John Cho
I like to flip flop, but making your days work to find a laugh is a really good way to spend a day. I appreciate it more going away and then coming back to it.
John Cho
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.
John Cho
Ninety per cent of being a parent is just being present and available.
John Cho
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.
John Cho
Most people deal with grief in an awkward way, and that can be funny.
John Cho
I feel like there’s this need that the Asian-American community has to feel like people. It’s something that Asians in Asia do not understand about us.
John Cho
With acting, you are a small part of the creative process, and sometimes it is hard to feel like you are making an impact.
John Cho
You know, I always root for the older athlete. I root for the second album. I root for solo careers after the rock star breaks the band apart.
John Cho
For me, the most interesting thing is longevity and sustaining a career, because that’s what’s truly difficult.
John Cho
Lost’ was a phenomenon, like Elvis.
John Cho
It’d be nice if Asian actors could be perceived as profitable, which is the bottom line. We’re perceived as not mattering much fiscally.
John Cho
Just because it’s in a movie doesn’t mean it’s real.
John Cho
I never saw ‘Home Alone.’
John Cho
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.
John Cho
I try to take roles that don’t fall within the parameters of any Asian stereotype.
John Cho
I grew up watching the Lakers.
John Cho
The thing about kissing men – how do people stand it? The stubble is maddening.
John Cho
I’ve never even seen a Cheech and Chong movie.
John Cho
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.
John Cho
Part of my mission as an actor has been to define what an American is.
John Cho
I’ve played roles that aren’t expected of an Asian.
John Cho
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.
John Cho
The more roles there are, the more actors there are.
John Cho
When I started acting… the community was largely Chinese-American or Japanese-American, so even then I felt like a minority in the minority.
John Cho
I didn’t think it was possible for Asians to be actors.
John Cho
People expect me to be funnier.
John Cho
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.
John Cho
I personally would love to see Harold and Kumar with children. I think that would be hilarious.
John Cho
I’m not a natural-born actor. So it’s been a very slow learning curve for me.
John Cho
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.
John Cho
I wanted to explore Korean-American characters. And ‘Columbus’ did address that. The father-son dynamic felt very real to me.
John Cho
Whenever I meet a Korean, I ask about their immigration history.
John Cho
I’m not an activist, I’m an actor. I don’t want to be an activist.
John Cho
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.
John Cho
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.
John Cho
I am a little curmudgeonly about new media.
John Cho
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.
John Cho
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.
John Cho
Our species likes being social.
John Cho
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.
John Cho
Sometimes I feel like I don’t dream big enough.
John Cho
I would love to do Shakespeare, either onstage or on film.
John Cho
I want to walk the bases – I want to do all the actor-y stuff.
John Cho
I’d like to be in a Western.
John Cho
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.
John Cho
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?
John Cho
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.
John Cho
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.
John Cho
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.
John Cho