Kal Penn Shares Racist Audition Scripts on Twitter: ‘They Were Awful’
Actor Kal Penn is famous for his stereotype-breaking role as Kumar in the hilarious Harold & Kumar series. But recently, he’s been shining a light on the issue of racism in Hollywood.
On Tuesday, he took it to Twitter to share pictures of blatantly racist scripts from early in his career.
Jeez I remember this one! They were awful. “Can you make his accent a little more AUTHENTIC?” That usually meant they wanted Apu pic.twitter.com/3F5XRORO3n
— Kal Penn (@kalpenn) March 14, 2017
The Indian-American actor was trying to land roles in Hollywood in the late ’90s, and some of his auditions were for famous TV shows at the time. King of Queens had Kal pronouncing the Indian name Sanjib in various ways.
Friggin King of Queens man! I used to love that show until I got to audition for it lol pic.twitter.com/2BYu0nnd57
— Kal Penn (@kalpenn) March 14, 2017
Another audition was for an MTV show. He tweeted, “The big joke was an accent and too much cologne.”
I do not remember this audition except that it was for some shitty MTV show and the big joke was an accent and too much cologne ???????? pic.twitter.com/7HZbhQCkaB
— Kal Penn (@kalpenn) March 14, 2017
Some of Kal’s auditions included commercials. One of his first was for a Pakistani computer geek who is in a perpetual state of perspiration.
The 39-year-old’s career has since come a long way. In addition to his acting roles, he also served as an associate director in the White House Office of Public Engagement under President Obama.
Isla Fisher and Sacha Baron Cohen are #relationshipgoals.
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