01x01 - Highly Unlikely

[bunniefuu]

This is ridiculous,
to do a documentary

about Harold & Kumar.

[narrator]
Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle

follows two underachievers who set out
to satisfy their craving

for White Castle hamburgers.

[David Krumholtz]
It's silly, but you know,

in vain with this whole ride.

Just thinking about those
tender little White Castle burgers,

just makes me wanna burn
this m*therf*cker down.

There's every reason
not to make this film.

[Harold]
What the hell are you doing?!

I'm trimming my pubes.

Name another time
they've ever done this, ever.

Hire two people of color
that you've never seen before.

We're so high right now!

[David] And marijuana
was still ill*gal nationwide.

It's just not on brand for Hollywood.

-[director] Action!
-[David] Maybe it's divine.

Maybe Harold & Kumar's
just meant to be.

'Cause it just makes no sense.

I-- I still think it's crazy.

♪♪

[bong gurgling]

[person coughing]

[John Cho]
Oh, sh*t. This is cool.

[Paula Garcés]
It's the whole-a*s White Castle set.

Is this where I'm sitting here?

It looks like you guys
have had some night.

I never got to be in
the actual White Castle.

Oh, hi, boys.

Oh, wow.
Very surreal.

I actually was on time.

I don't know why I'm apologizing
for being late.

-Hey, you wanna suck on this?
-Mm-hmm.

This is essentially what we built.

[Jamie Richardson] I feel like
I've stepped into a fantasyscape.

Welcome to White Castle.

What year is it?

[crew member] Mark.

Nice slate.
Hell of a slate.

Can we get going?
I'm bored as sh*t back here.

At the time, there were only
two movies to smoke weed to.

The frigging Lord of the Rings...

[laughing]
...and Harold & Kumar.

-[both] Go!
-[tires screeching]

-Dude!
-Oh, f*ck!

-[raccoon screeching]
-[tire popping]

-Sorry!
-Holy sh*t.

[Kumar] Goldstein?

This isn't working.

Can I get you some pink lemonade?

Chill the f*ck out, he's not gonna
look for us in the girls' bathroom.

Dude, Doogie Howser, M.D.
was like my favorite show growing up.

You were my idol.

Can we get going?
I'm bored as sh*t back here.

I was there,
I remember 2004.

-[announcer] Happy 2004!
-[crowd cheering]

[♪ upbeat music playing]

[David] Marijuana was edging
into social acceptance.

But it still felt ill*gal.

[Hayden Schlossberg]
You'd go to see a fake doctor

and you have this
awkward interview.

It got to a point where it's like,
shouldn't we legalize this now?

It was years after Bill Clinton
had admitted to doing it already.

I experimented with marijuana
a time or two

and didn't inhale.

[John Cho]
Makes me a little wistful for my youth.

I'm nostalgic for my own stupidity.

[lights flicking]

Do we wanna sit on opposite sides or...

[bell dinging]

We became friends in high school

and we bonded
over comedy immediately.

I was in college. I was gonna be
an investment banker like Harold became.

[Hayden]
I was planning to go to law school.

We ended up writing
a screenplay in college

to get out of those careers.

[Jon] We both liked
to smoke weed late at night,

and we got the munchies
all the time.

So, Harold & Kumar
was inspired by one of those

stoned nightly drives to get donuts.

Dude, I don't know about you,
but I'm f*cking hungry as ba*ls.

Yeah, no sh*t, dude. Let's eat.

[Jon]
We're like, if we could capture that

and make an audience invested

in these guys just getting a meal.

[paper sizzling]

We wrote it in two weeks.
We showed it to our manager at the time.

He read it and was like,
"This is really funny.

I don't know
what the market is for this."

M-I-L-F. "Mom I'd like to f*ck."

[Jon]
American Pie came out in '99.

By like 2001,
there were just a bunch of things

that were just being thrown out there

and expected to do well,
and then they didn't do well.

[Hayden] No one was buying comedies,
and the ones they were buying

were these high concept ideas.

Our script just didn't fit that mold.

-So, we shelved it.
-[computer mouse clicking]

[toilet flushing]

[Jon] We had
Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle

sitting on the back of the toilet
in our apartment.

And one of our friends goes in there,
he's taking a crap.

He sees Harold & Kumar there,
he starts reading it,

and he comes out and he says,
"You guys should be working on this.

I've never seen anything like this,

and this is capturing things
that feel so relatable."

[Hayden]
Our agent, Todd Feldman, said that

t he decision makers,
they just look at the first two pages

and they'll see Asian leads,
a little marijuana.

They're just looking
for a reason to say no.

But they'll read it as a writing sample.

It was submitted as,
"You gotta read this,

and maybe you wanna work
with these writers someday."

[Jon] And that's when we hear
about Greg Shapiro

wants to meet with us,
and Nathan Kahane wants to meet with us.

And suddenly, it became
a lot more real, real quick.

[bell dinging]

Say, man, you got a joint?

[Nathan Kahane]
No one was making movies

that centered Asian-American characters.

That didn't exist at that moment in time

in a commercial R-rated comedy

that was gonna be released
on a wide screen.

[tires screeching]

f*ck.

The majority of stuff
that I was getting was a stereotype.

You're playing an exchange student.

[John]
Gangster, nerd, service people.

It was an explicitly r*cist time.
[laughing]

There's no really--
there's no way to say it.

Hibachi, Benihana, teriyaki.

No more yanky my wanky.

[Hayden] We saw this disconnect
between what was happening in reality

and the representation
of what you saw on screen

with our Asian and Indian friends.

[Jon]
We have a real friend, Harold Lee,

and we had a very good friend
in high school,

and his brother's name was Kumar.

Both those guys were representative
of our entire group.

They were really committed to keeping
the characters as they were.

They were turning the stage around

and bringing background
to the foreground.

Can you hold on one second?

[John] They were playing
with all your expectations.

I can't party tonight, okay?
I gotta stay late at the office.

Dude, f*ck that sh*t.
We had plans.

[Jon] We don't wanna make
David & Jason Go to McDonald's.

The reason we're gonna make this movie
is because we love this script.

I just had not seen guys that look
like that lead a movie,

so I just didn't think it would happen.

[♪ staccato string music playing]

[Hayden] We were like
very young screenwriters

trying to pay the bills,
but had enough experience

to know that just 'cause
you sell something,

doesn't mean it's going to get made.

There were a lot of uncertainties.

[David] I think it was a huge risk
by New Line.

There's a scene where Kal
b*tch-slaps a bag of weed.

-b*tch!
-[bag crying]

[David] If you've been
in the business long enough,

you know how studios think.

This is the antithesis of that.

It doesn't fit into any Hollywood brand.

♪♪

[Jon] It was a theme
throughout the movie,

to put these things that are all
considered underdogs

together in the same film.

White Castle was like
an underdog burger chain.

It was the perfect place for stoners.

[drink gurgling]

[Hayden] But we definitely
had some brand difficulty.

The big one was convincing White Castle.

The association of that time
with an ill*gal substance

wasn't something
that brands really wanted.

[Jamie]
In 2004, I had recently been promoted

to Director of Marketing at White Castle,

and I had the opportunity
to be fundamental

in greenlighting
Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle.

One day, I got this phone call.

They wanted to see
if we'd look at this film,

and I literally had to check the calendar
to make sure it wasn't April Fool's Day.

Seeing the script, I mean, right away,
it's like, "Oh, we can't do that."

We've always had fun, but we had never
really gone to the land of rated R.

Smoking the Mary Jane, behaviors that
we typically wouldn't encourage.

-[toilet gurgling]
-[grunting]

Damn!
You sank my Battle-sh*t.

The heart of the film,
it's so appealing.

It's about a quest.
It's about facing adversity.

And that's the essence

of the American Dream
in so many ways,

but that American Dream
that's available to everybody.

I remember after reading
the script thinking,

oh, I have to talk to my boss about this
'cause this is something we have to do.

Early on, there wasn't a lot of love
for the script. [laughing]

Had some good debate,
dialogue, discussion,

but I wasn't gonna get
the approval I needed.

I wasn't letting go.

The challenge was laid out,
"Well, if you wanna go talk

to Bill Ingram, you can."

Bill Ingram
is our third-generation leader

at the time of Harold & Kumar.

I walk in, this cushy carpet,

it's Mahogany Row,
he's at this desk.

He looks like he's a million miles away

and my universe is just
shrinking in on me.

It wasn't that warm out,
but I was pretty sweaty.

And all I could blurt out is,
"It has sex, drugs, and rock n' roll.

Other than that,
it's really good for us."

♪♪

And he got really quiet, and he said,

"Well, you know, if you think
it's a good idea, we should just try it."

He didn't even read it?

Oh, my God, that's some trust.

Bill had not read the script?

He just trusted Jamie?
And Jamie's taste?

Kudos. That's a baller move.

-[metal clanging]
-[Kumar screaming]

[Greg Shapiro] There was one stipulation
that I remember.

New Line wanted a director
who's had at least one hit with a comedy.

-[siren whooping]
-[tires screeching]

We went searching,
Danny raised his hand,

and he had just done,
Dude, Where's My Car?

which was a big hit.

Dude, where's my car?

[Greg] He understood that you just
need to sort of sh**t the script

and let the actors do their thing.

That was his special skill,
I think, as a director.

What's going on behind me?
I see a--

I see a Kal Penn shirt behind me.

[Greg]
We started the casting process.

We're gonna go cast a really wide net.

I remember laughing my a*s off

and thinking it was the funniest thing
that I had ever read.

I'm sure I assumed
it was gonna be offensive.

I read it, and it was not,
and it was really funny.

My recollection is there was something
like six months of auditions.

There aren't that many
famous Asian Americans,

and so we don't need a big name.

So, we're just gonna find the best actor,
and we're not gonna use

the Asian kid from American Pie.

We're not gonna use the Indian kid
from Van Wilder.

-And look where we ended up.
-[chuckles]

[Nathan] They were the best,
and they also-- they were handsome.

We wanted everyone in the audience
to identify with Harold and Kumar.

[David] It's risky
to cast two unknowns, basically.

Kal and-- and John?

That rarely happens nowadays.

[David] Why wouldn't they think
this is a ruse?

Where's Ashton Kutcher
with the Punk'd mobile?

[Jon] And then,
there was a major stumbling block

right before the production.

We were told that New Line
isn't gonna greenlight the movie

unless we have two more
recognizable people

that are on a certain level or above.

[Kal]
"They need to stack this with cameos

because nobody knows you guys."

[Jon] We're all here.
Like, they're gonna really not make this?

What we were told at the time was,
"No, they're not gonna make this."

[Paula]
This movie might not get finished.

[Hayden] When it came to cameos, it was,
"Hey, what connections do we have?

Everybody, uh, dig into your resources."

[Greg] Biggest cameo
was Neil Patrick Harris.

And maybe the--
the toughest one to get in.

Yeah, I remember going like,

will Neil Patrick Harris do this?

Like, who's your backup?

'Cause we're not gonna get
Neil Patrick Harris.

So, who is the backup?

Your only choice actually is...

Neil Patrick Harris.

-He was written into the script.
-Yeah.

-There was no second choice.
-[chuckles]

I don't know what we would have done
if Neil hadn't said yes.

-[both laughing]
-Me either.

-[Kumar] Is that a hitchhiker?
-[Harold] What the hell?

Excuse me,
are you Neil Patrick Harris?

Yep.

[Neil Patrick Harris] Got a call
from a fellow actor who said,

"Dude, I'm auditioning
for this movie that you're in."

I had no idea of what he was speaking
because I wasn't getting

any of the movies
I was auditioning for.

Was this really amped-up, super alpha,

druggie version of myself.

Especially then,
I had played nice, positive,

Doogie Howser, TV movies.

[Nathan] We really felt
it would be good for him.

We felt it would break him
out of that stereotype.

I said, yeah, let's do it.

Hey, guys.
Thanks for picking me up.

[Nathan] Every little
physical choice that he made,

like humping the backseat,
it's just his attitude.

I gave him lots of fodder
to be singularly ridiculous.

That's kind of all I know.

It's kind of all I do.

I think the joke for me

was more just the overt,
heterosexual stuff.

Forget White Castle,
let's go get some p*ssy.

-Huh?
-It's a f*cking sausage fest in here, bro.

[Neil] I think there was a sexlessness
to me in a way,

that when I was doing
the Harold and Kumar things,

it was just so overtly f*ck.

Did you ever get it on
with Wanda off the set?

Dude, I humped every piece of a*s
ever on that show.

Then, I think that made people go,
"Oh, that's cool. He's human."

It really did adjust the trajectory
of my path and my career.

That really changed a lot for me.

Did Doogie Howser
just steal my f*cking car?

[Kal] And then, I remember when
we were sh**ting Van Wilder,

Ryan Reynolds was like,

"One day, you're gonna be the lead

and I would love to,
like, be there for that."

Marijuana?

-[monitor beeping]
-But why?

[Kal] Anthony Anderson,
I had worked with

on Malibu's Most Wanted.

Same with Jamie Kennedy,
Jamie was the lead

in Malibu's Most Wanted,
so reached out to him.

He plays the guy
pissing in the woods.

Why'd you pee right next to me
when you could, like, choose that bush?

Once that happened, then New Line
was officially on board at that moment.

[Kal]
John and I kind of bonded on set.

[Jon] Well, we're supposed
to be best friends,

so let's-- let's get to be best friends.

I don't know if a lot of people know,

but John and Kal personally

are opposite of their characters.

[John]
Kumar was more like a Fonzie.

When they said "action,"

he became this cool dude, and I don't--

'cause he-- sorry, dude.

He's not suave.

I'm not suave?

In life. [laughing]

But like, as Kumar,
he's f*cking suave somehow.

[Kal] One of the first times
that I remember feeling

like Cho was a brother,

we were in the studio
sh**ting in the car.

During a-- a lighting setup,
he opens the door to stretch his legs,

and right before he shuts the door,

he, like, leans back and blows out

the most gigantic fart
that you've ever heard in your life.

And that's where I-- I was like,
oh yeah, we're brothers.

[Jon] People always say
it's like summer camp.

We were there for a couple months.

[Nathan]
I mean, they did an amazing job on set.

The dailies were really, really funny.

[Jon] We got to have your own
White Castle adventures.

It was just super fun.

We weren't smoking
real weed in the movie.

You're not allowed to do that.

Uh, but, man, we were high as hell.

I got super high-- oh, sh*t.

[scoffs]
My parents are gonna watch this.

Next ques-- what's next?

[Jon] Premiere night
was actually amazing.

The whole cast was there.

[Paula] White Castle was there
handing out burgers.

[Jon] The movie had tested really well
and they thought

it was gonna be this big hit.
They hired us to write a sequel.

We get in a limo
and we're gonna go from, like,

theater to theater to see it
with, like, different crowds.

[Kal] And there was, like,
nobody in these theaters.

It was like 15 people in one,

like seven people in the other.

We went to the next one.
[laughing] Zero people.

[Jon] It's like election coverage
and like, okay,

we're getting initial numbers in,
and it's looking like sh*t.

[♪ soft music playing]

The next day, we get a call
to say stop writing the sequel.

Oh, my God,
and they said that to them?

That is insane.

[Kal]
I remember my manager at the time,

the calls he was getting
were from other executives

in Hollywood saying stuff like,
"See? We told you.

Two Asian American men
can't open a studio film."

Anything that an actor of color did,

if it was not successful,

the assumption was that
you were ruining it

for all people of your race.

That was tough.

[Hayden] So much excitement,
so much buildup.

And then, just in the span of 24 hours,
it's like,

"It's bad, and you should
just stop everything,

and just-- let's be depressed right now."

[Jon] At some point,
it came out on DVD.

[Kumar] Hey Roldy, check it out,
we're on DVD.

I wonder if they're gonna have
that deleted scene of you

licking Freakshow's buttcrack.

-How about a foursome?
-Ah!

[Kal] And all of a sudden,
it was just people

gifting each other the DVD,

doing, like, watch parties
in their dorm rooms and apartments.

They were loving these characters.

Dude, that was awesome.

Where the hell did that come from?

[Hayden] It became kind of mythical,
like, how many DVDs?

[Nathan] It was very successful
as an afterlife movie.

I think probably 'cause people
like to be stoned

when they were watching it.
[chuckles]

It's a very beautiful story.

[Jamie] One of the top financial people,
just puzzling over,

"Why are our sales doing so well?
It must be that the weather's good."

I think I meekly remember saying,
"The DVD came out."

It's only the second time in our history
we almost ran out of hamburger.

-[tires screeching]
-[cars honking]

[Greg] It was an underdog movie
about underdogs,

and it had an underdog
box office experience,

where it came out, it got knocked down,
but it got back up,

and it got enough eyeballs,
and it got into the zeitgeist.

And then it became, like,
they were talking about a second movie.

[Greg] At the end of the day,
nobody cares what box office numbers are.

What they care about is,
did you see the movie?

Is it a classic?

[Jon] When something
comes off the assembly line

that doesn't fit in the mold,

I think that's always a cause
for celebration.

Making this, I thought
it was gonna be good.

But I never thought it would have
the lasting status that it had.

It became that kinda like cult classic,
which was-- which was awesome.

[grunting]

[Hayden] Right after the last
Harold & Kumar movie gets made,

you start to see decriminalization,
legalization all over the country.

[David] It was when the world
sort of admitted...

most of us smoke weed daily.

That weed is universal.
There's no race divide.

[Kumar] Oh, my God!

-Whoa, man!
-Ow.

Perhaps it even led
to the legalization of marijuana.

[reporter]
They lined up in Denver today

for the state's first legal retail sales
of recreational marijuana.

Anything, when you give it visibility,

people start to see that it's just--
it's happening anyway.

I should have leveraged this
into a cannabis empire.

I'd be really wealthy.

[laughs] John Cho Kush.
That could have been a thing.

[lighter flicking]

[Kal] But if the appeal of this movie
was only for stoners

and only for Asian Americans,

it would not have done
the DVD numbers that it did.

-We gotta go to White Castle.
-Yes, yes!

I knew you had it in you, dude.

[Kal] People watched it
because these two friends

reminded them inside
of the friendships that they have.

The American Dream
is something that should be celebrated,

and I think that's the reason why
it resonates with so many people.

I'm not risking my life
over a bunch of hamburgers, man.

Okay, so you think this is just
about the burgers, huh?

[Greg] If you strip away everything,
it's a platonic love affair

between two guys
that have each other's backs.

-Right. Right.
-No matter what.

And they're very different people.

They were the ultimate odd couple.

They have different mentalities.

They have different outlooks on life,

-but they love each other.
-[Nathan] Yeah.

[Greg] And they're willing
to support each other.

-[Indian accent] Thank you, come again.
-[laughter]

-You okay?
-Yeah, dude, I just hate those assholes.

[Malin Akerman] I feel like it's ahead
of its time, really.

Thank you, come again.

It was really a door opener.
It really was.

It was a door opener for all of us.

It was a door opener for

more inclusive casting in-- in comedy.

[Greg] I'm so happy that the legacy
of Harold & Kumar

has lived on through decades now,

and people still really enjoy it.

I love that we're having
a ribald conversation

about how they fit
into our cultural zeitgeist.

And then, it's also a movie
where there's, like, jaguars

and life-size bags of weed

and, like, a guy with a ton
of pubic hair.

[Malin] It's one of those things
where it's lightning in a bottle,

and all the pieces just fell together.

The right people took the chances,

and then you got this really fun film.

We made it, dude.

What it put into the world
was overwhelmingly positive.

Every interview you do, like,
"Will you eat some on screen?"

[laughing] Oh, my God,
what are you guys making me eat?

It's all good.
This is different.

Oh yeah.

-Cheers.
-Yes, cheers.

Let's do it.

I get it. You know?

I get it.

Delicious.

This is so good.

[kiss smacking]
Chef's kiss.

Whoo!

It was pretty delicious.

[Jon] You don't get that
at the end of a doc.

That's a treat.

[♪ "All in My Head"
by Computer playing]

♪ It's all in my head,
it's all in my head ♪

♪ The things that you said,
the things that you said ♪

♪ Get out, I don't wanna be here ♪

♪ Be here ♪

♪ Get out, I don't wanna be here ♪

♪ Be here ♪