Kal Penn says his first manager accidentally set him up with a pimp after he came out
Kal Penn didn't disclose much about his sexuality until the release of his 2021 memoir, You Can't Be Serious. That may be at least partly because when he first came out to his first manager at the start of his acting career, it landed him in an awkward situation with a pimp.
"You know, I shared my story with my brother and my parents first. I was like, 'Hey, super gay. Just FYI,'" Penn recalled in a new interview with Kelly Ripa on her Sirius XM podcast Let's Talk Off Camera. "But then I called my manager and I said, 'Hey, I don't know if this is ever gonna impact anything in work, but I'm just curious: How do actors meet nice people to date? Like how do you know that somebody that you're dating wants to date you for you? Like what are the ground rules here, and is it any different?'"
Allen Berezovsky/Getty Images Kal Penn
Though Penn's manager at the time wasn't gay, he set Penn up for a sushi dinner with a colleague who could give him some guidance — but things didn't go quite as planned.
"He goes, 'Yeah, I mean, I'm just gonna email you a list just of some guys and their photos.' And I'm like, 'Whoa, that's so cool! Playing matchmaker already,'" Penn explained. "And he goes, 'Yeah, and, you know, they're not that expensive, and they're never gonna say anything.'"
Whoops!
Penn continued, "I was like, 'Sorry, I think you don't understand. No disrespect to sex workers, but that's not what I'm looking for. My question to you is, how do I meet a nice guy, go on a couple of dates?' And he goes, 'I don't know anything about all that.'"
While promoting You Can't Be Serious in 2021, Penn revealed to PEOPLE that he was engaged to Josh, his partner of 11 years. They first met working together in the White House under President Barack Obama.
"I've always been very public with everybody I've personally interacted with. Whether it's somebody that I meet at a bar, if Josh and I are out or we're talking to friends," the Harold & Kumar star said at the time. "I'm really excited to share our relationship with readers. But Josh, my partner, my parents, and my brother, four people who I'm closest to in the family, are fairly quiet. They don't love attention and shy away from the limelight."
Listen to Penn's full conversation with Ripa on the latest episode of Let's Talk Off Camera.
Want more movie news? Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free newsletter to get the latest trailers, celebrity interviews, film reviews, and more.
Related content:
