Kal Penn found his big breaks in Hollywood doing silly comedies like the Van Wilder and Harold and Kumar films. He stands by that work, as he continues to make another H&K, but there's always been a serious side to Penn. He gets to explore that in The Namesake.
Kal Penn on The Namesake
"I like mixing it up," Penn said. "I like doing dramas and comedies both. I mean, when you study theatre, you do both. You do dramas and comedies, and it's just kind of when you start working in LA that people assign you to what you do. I think if you're a pretty blonde guy from Iowa, then you work on the WB for a couple years. If you're not, then it's a little harder to get your foot in the door. I think if you're under 35, you, not gravitate towards, but there are more opportunities in comedy to begin with, which actually is a lot of times different than your own career goals. If you know that you want to be an actor for the sake of acting, for the sake of telling compelling stories, then that's what you do."
The Namesake follows the life of Gogol Ganguli (Penn) from his conception, through his teenage years and adulthood. At each point, he deals with the pressures of his Indian heritage and modern American society in different ways. Being an American born Indian, a connection with Gogol was not inherent to Penn.
The Namesake Poster
"I think there are similarities and there are a lot of differences. The biggest assumption that people seem to come up with is that I enjoyed playing the role because we're both Indian Americans, which could not be farther from the truth. I think that's actually the most boring reason to be attracted to a role, because of ethnicity. On the contrary, when I read the book, it reminded me of The Catcher in the Rye, which is weird, because the two stories are completely different. I loved Holden Caulfield, I'm not a rich kid from New England who went to boarding school, and yet for some reason I was drawn to that character when I was 14 and read the book. And it was a similar experience. We both, in this case, do have a similar background in terms of being first generation Americans of Indian descent, whatever. But there was something intangible about the character that attracted me to the story. And we're totally different. He's an architect, I'm an actor. He's kind of self-absorbed, especially after his college years. He goes from being a little bit cynical to being a little bit self-absorbed. So those are sort of the differences that I found interesting to play with."
Getting to portray an entire life, at least through middle age, on film was an irresistible opportunity. "That was incredible. And not just an entire life, but a life based on a book that you could refer [to]. I mean, if you look at my copy of The Namesake, it's all beaten up and highlighted and stuff is falling out of it. And you really can refer to everything in the book from where Gogol loses his virginity to what his ATM password is. All that stuff is in the book, so you refer to it constantly."
Of course, a movie cannot be an entire book. "When I knew they were turning it into a film, I was really curious to see how they were going to do that, because obviously unless it's a miniseries or something, you can't have every scene from the book. I'm really happy with the way that it turned out. I thought that the Yale years were a lot of fun to read in the script and it would have been cool to shoot in New Haven, but I don't think it detracts from the film adaptation of it."
The Namesake open to theatres on March 9th.
For the trailer, clips and more movie info, go to The Namesake Movie Page.
Stay tuned for updates.
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