Harold And Kumar Get Naughtier In Sequel
APRIL 24, 2008
LOS ANGELES (TNA) – Harold and Kumar's second adventure is even naughtier than their first. 
When filmmakers Hayden Schlossberg and Jon Hurwitz sat down to write 'Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay,' it was imparative to them that the film have as much nudity as a late-night flick on Cinemax.
In "Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay," they dope-smoking duo visit a friend for help. This friend is having a bottomless party, where instead of showing their breasts, his female guests wear only tops.
"I think it's just a lifelong dream of ours," said co-writer/director Hayden Schlossberg. "When we had the opportunity to direct a movie, our feeling was, 'Hey, we don't know when the next movie we're going to direct is [going to be]. This is our chance.'"
Schlossberg and his writing/directing partner Jon Hurwitz remember being teenagers searching the Hollywood vaults for stimulation.
"We didn't have a lot of luck with women when we were younger, so you have to turn to the TV," Hurwitz said. "It was like, 'If we could ever make movies, there'd be more nudity than there's ever been.' That's what you wanted when you were 13 and watching Cinemax late at night. You're just waiting, 'I hope there are more nude scenes.'"
The writers' collaboration actually began over the shared viewing of an illicit cable event.
"Our friendship began when I found out that he had the Howard Stern Miss New Year's Eve pageant," Hurwitz said. "It was a Pay Per View special. My parents didn't buy it but his did and he taped it, so I went over to his house to see it."
The boys wrote some hot babes into "Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle," but for their directorial debut on the sequel, Schlossberg said he and Hurwitz realized they could get a roomful of extras to show their bushes.
"Our inner 13-year-old selves were like, 'You just need to put as much nudity in this as possible or you're betraying us. Remember us. Remember where it began,'" Schlossberg said.
Harold and Kumar themselves were overwhelmed by all the bare cheeks. Actor Jon Cho, who plays Harold, tried to encourage Penn, who plays Kumar, to keep a mental tally of the experience.
"Ironically, before the very first shot of the bottomless party, I turned to Kal [Penn] and said, ‘You know, we should take some care in remembering what tonight is like because I think every man will ask us about it for the rest of our lives. Remember about two or three things,'” Cho said. “Having said that, I don’t remember much."
Actor Neil Patrick Harris came out of the closet between the making of 'Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle' and the new sequel, but the filmmakers chose not to address since 'Guantanamo Bay' is set the day after the first film.
Knowing that he has let his horny brethren down, Cho's excuse was empathy.
"I just remember being really embarrassed," he said. "It’s embarrassing to be surrounded by nude people. It’s weird."
For those breast men who lament the skewed focus of the bottomless party, Hurwitz and Schlossberg created a special DVD feature. They shot enough topless footage that a viewer can flip the nudity with the click of a button.
"At the bottomless party, you can see instead the topless party on the DVD," Hurwitz said.
"Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay" also continues the naughty legacy of Neil Patrick Harris. Playing himself in "Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle," Harris snorted cocaine with strippers in a stolen car.
In "Escape from Guantanamo Bay," Harris takes Harold and Kumar to a brothel where he brands a prostitute with his initials.
"They go pretty far," Harris said. "Branding a giant-titted stripper with my initials, my improv mind stops there. I love that they've created this fantasy world in which I exist. They know exactly how I exist in their world, so regardless of how I really am or how I play it, they write [it], they've got an idea and I'm gangbusters. Bring it on."
The real Neil Patrick Harris publicly came out of the closet on Nov. 3, 2006, but the writers decided not to address this in their world.
Actor John Cho, who plays Harold, wanted to put every moment of nudity to permanent memory, but admits he was embarrassed to be surrounded by all the flesh.
"First of all, the movie takes place the next day after 'Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle,'" Schlossberg said. "In a bizarre way, you don't even think about that, but as the writers of that world, we get really in detail about that. So he hasn't come out yet in 2004."
If there is another "Harold & Kumar," Hurwitz may address Harris's real-life sexual orientation. Otherwise, he stands by their conception of "NPH."
"We also always said that while our Neil Patrick Harris has the same career history as Neil Patrick Harris does in real life, the character is just a tad different than how he is in real life," Hurwitz said.
Harris himself would prefer a prequel.
"I'd like to see how he got to be the drug-addled, sex-obsessed hooker-branding derelict that he is," Harris said.
"Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay" opens Friday, April 25.
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