SNEAKS: Danny Leiner, Director of
Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle,
Interviews with Abraham Ferrer
What did you think about the film “Harold and Kumar” when the script first turned up on your desk?
When the script first got there, I had heard it was a broad comedy, road trip with these two guys, and I said, I don’t want to this movie, because I had directed DUDE, WHERE’S MY CAR and I wanted to do different movies. I loved that movie, but I just wanted to do other stuff. I was very resistant to it, but I started reading it, and it made me laugh, every single page. I just thought it was hilarious. And I loved the component that it wasn’t two white guys, or a white guy and a black guy, something I had seen over and over. So I was very resistant to it, but once I’d read it, I was like, “God, I’m gonna end up doing this movie.” That’s how it worked out.
How was it working with Kal and John?
Those guys were a pain in the ass. [laughs] No, they were great. We had a great time. We brought Kal and John up two weeks early. We shot in up Toronto, and the idea was to have those guys hang out. And it was great, ‘cause they ended up being really good friends, and that chemistry played into the movie. You could really just feel it as you watch. They’re really comfortable with each other, and they have fun with each other, and a lot of that interaction was added by just those guys getting to know each other. We had a great time, it was awesome. They’re really smart actors and comedians, so we got to add a lot of improv and moments in the movie which was really exciting.
Any production horror stories shooting in Jersey?
Well, we shot most of the movie in Toronto…
Which is kinda like Jersey…
[laughs] Yeah, I think it’d be hard to tell when you watch the movie that it’s not. We had to build a White Castle, ‘cause they don’t have them in Toronto. We basically took an old diner in the suburbs of Toronto and skinned it and made a White Castle, so it was quite a big job for Steve Rosenzweig, our production designer. The whole movie was tough. I mean, we were shooting nights on the shortest nights of the year, and the movie takes place pretty much in one night, so we were just under constant stress, you know, sun’s coming out, and it’s like five in the morning. Then we had cheetahs, we had a lot of crazy elements in the movie that made it a little bit difficult to shoot.
So when it comes out on July 30, what kind of hopes do you have for it?
You know, I’m just excited that it’s coming out, it’s getting a wide release, it’s being treated like a broad comedy, like a studio movie. And I hope it does well, but I’m not that keyed into, you know, I just hope people get it see it. I feel like we’ll do really well with word of mouth. So my hope is enough people get to see it where we get to have a little run, and people get to see the movie. I’ll be really happy if that happens.
And based on reactions that I’ve seen, I think I speak for a lot of people when I say that I think that a lot of people are going to be pleasantly surprised by this film.
Yeah, well, thank you very much. It’s truly dear to my heart. I had a great time making it, and I’m really proud of it.CLICK HERE TO CHECKOUT THE JOHN CHO AND KAL PENN INTERVIEW
WATCH IT (Quicktime: 9.5M)
