A biography for John Chohasn’t been written yet.
“Even though there's a lot of horror from Asia in the American cinematic tradition, I hadn't seen Asians at the center of it.”
“The worst thing for a kid is to move around and switch schools, but as an actor, you go from job to job, meeting strangers and becoming very close right away. I've become adept at that.”
“Everyone posts everything in real time as it happens.”
“When you get something off the ground, it's fantastic, and you feel really close to that group of people.”
“Ninety per cent of being a parent is just being present and available.”
“I grew up speaking Korean, but my dad spoke English very well. I learned a lot of how to speak English by watching television.”
“I don't know if I trust entertainment to teach anyone anything.”
“Whenever I'm on my way to a premiere or something, I always have a good laugh in the car... because it's all so absurd - I'm one generation removed from starvation.”
“I'm not a good improv-er, which is what a lot of comedic actors are really good at. I have failed miserably when I've been asked to improvise.”
“I've found that one's language abilities, especially for Korean kids like me, get frozen at the age you immigrated. So I've always associated Korea with being a child and being infantilized through my inability to speak.”
“It'd be nice if Asian actors could be perceived as profitable, which is the bottom line. We're perceived as not mattering much fiscally.”
“I'm not an activist, I'm an actor. I don't want to be an activist.”
“I never saw 'Home Alone.'”
“I think Hollywood acts like followers of culture and is constantly seeking to follow trends.”
“I think about John Lennon all the time. What would John Lennon do? What would John Lennon say if he got this part? How would he act? I don't know, but he's my moral barometer.”
“Sometimes I feel like I don't dream big enough.”
“I get called Harold the most. I think maybe 'Harold & Kumar' fans don't know my name, and 'Star Trek' fans do know my name... Harold fans are vocal!”
“I wanted to do 'Manzanar' because I'd never done anything like it before. The spoken word there is between a drama and an essay, and I'd never worked in concert with an orchestra.”
“That's a huge part of being a human being: looking for love and finding a partner in this world. When you constantly play characters who don't have that life, it feels incomplete and not totally human.”
“Culture is this thing that exists apart from our real life but is something we all have tacitly agreed to in America. And what film and television do, particularly in this country, is lay out the characters involved in this invisible agreement and dictate who and what can participate.”