John Cho’s Odyssey From ‘MILF Guy #2’ to Porn-Hating Pastor in ‘Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother’: ‘It Felt Very Lonesome at Times’

“I’m still trying to act, and I want to be better,” offers John Cho. “And you can’t be better without a good role.”

Cho, 54, has been fighting for the right roles since he first gained notice as a high school party boy chanting “MILF!” in the coming-of-age hit “American Pie” (he was credited as “MILF Guy #2). Meatier turns followed in the Chris Rock vehicle “Down to Earth” and Justin Lin’s radical indie “Better Luck Tomorrow” before he took the lead in cult favorite “Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle.” He earned critical raves as helmsman Hikaru Sulu in J.J. Abrams’ “Star Trek” films and became the first Asian American actor to topline a Hollywood thriller in 2018’s “Searching.”

As a Korean American, Cho was subjected to racist typecasting early on in his career, and a humiliating moment while playing a Chinese delivery boy on “The Jeff Foxworthy Show” opened his eyes to just how bad it can get. Though he’s remained steadily employed, it’s been a constant battle for Cho to find exciting parts due to the limited opportunities afforded Asian American actors. But he found one in “Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother.”

Directed by Bassam Tariq and hitting theaters Sept. 25, “Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother” stars two-time Oscar winner Mahershala Ali as Latif, a devout Muslim hitman in Houston, Texas, forced to go on the run with his three children — including a baby boy — when he runs afoul of his employer and a fanatical, heavily-armed Christian pastor Hwan (Cho), whose flock has declared holy war on porn. Sporting a cowboy hat, grill and goatee, Cho makes for a menacing villain who more than holds his own against the heavyweight Ali. It’s his finest performance in years and proof that he can go to deep, dark places if given the chance.

In a wide-ranging conversation with Variety, Cho discussed his Hollywood journey.

What was it like to finally play the villain? It looks like you had fun.

I knew how people saw me and what my filmography was and what people know me for, so I wanted to not distract from the film. I wanted to be in the movie and not taking anyone’s attention away from the story. I was really anxious about concentrating on the work and going as deep as I possibly could with Mahershala. I knew that this would be a singular challenge for me and wanted to do Mahershala justice because I’m such an admirer of his.

This is a very soulful film that humanizes the Muslim experience in America. What was it like to play a part in that? Because this is a very underrepresented community onscreen.

Thanks for asking that. I’m from an underrepresented community also cinematically, so it felt right to help tell an underrepresented story. It felt good and it felt gratifying to be invited to assist in that storytelling. What I related to from the Muslim experience — from Latif’s experience — was the ardent nature of faith. If there was one obstacle I wanted to clear up early with Bassam, it was: “We’re not making fun of Pastor Hwan, correct?” I needed to play him like he really believes his own words and his followers believe what he’s saying. Ardent faith can result in good things and bad outcomes as well, and that’s where I found commonality.

“Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother” is being released at a time where Israel and Palestine are dominating the news and there is a lot of Islamophobia being bandied about. To have a film like this come out that presents a loving portrait of a Muslim American family feels very timely.

What I think is really important and am gratified to see is the humanization of Muslims in this moment. I am personally surprised by how much Islamophobia there is and how explicit it is. If there’s anything we ought to do to tell any story it’s to humanize people and I’m happy to be a part of that.

Were you and other folks on set keenly aware that this was essentially Bassam and Mahershala finally getting to make their “Blade” film? Because they’d been trying to make a “Blade” movie forever and I think they got to make an even better version than any that could have happened under the Marvel umbrella.

If you can believe it — because I feel really stupid saying the following — I was not aware! By the time I was cast and we started rehearsals, we were in a moving vehicle that was going very fast. I’m finding out more about the origins of the story through articles and doing press. They’d talked about working on “Blade” together and alluded to a history, but I was of the mindset of: “If this isn’t helping us right now this isn’t my business because we need to make a movie.”

Pastor Hwan’s whole deal is he conflates consensual pornography with sex trafficking, which seems to be a prevalent issue these days.

It almost passed by me on the first read, like, “Oh, he’s not seeing this correctly.” I’ll say an observation that I have noted for myself in these last few years: On the one hand, there’s more porn ever being produced and it’s more accessible than it ever was; and on this parallel track, you have this growing obsession with trafficking people. One is consensual, theoretically, and one is not. Those two things have grown together and they’re not explicitly connected; you know what I mean? I would say that the general reaction to the Epstein Files is reflective of some of the confusion in our country regarding: What is trafficking, really?

How did your Christian upbringing influence your portrayal of Pastor Hwan? Your father was a minister in the Church of Christ, which is pretty strict, right?

It is. There are different denominations and I don’t want to speak out of turn, but it is fundamentalist. It felt very normal to me growing up and did not bear a cosmetic resemblance to Hwan and his church. The thing that I took from that experience for the role was conceiving of Hwan as someone who, even though his actions are megalomaniacal, he thinks he’s a servant. And those are the kinds of pastors I grew up with: People who believe they were in service to their congregation.

Houston was the first place we immigrated to from Korea, so playing Pastor Hwan touched a lot of nerves for me. Let’s say we landed in America when I was six, and started going to church, and we’re in Houston — how does [Hwan] get here? But it was pleasurable also to return to Houston wearing a cowboy hat in this marvelous action package. I didn’t quite see it coming but this kind of tickled the boy that immigrated from Korea to Houston.

I read that the Church of Christ rejects instruments and performs music a cappella. And you have a big a cappella performance in this movie where you’re singing a hymn to your flock while wielding a machine gun.

It was very natural to go into an a cappella performance and sing, and my first day on set was doing that scene and singing to the people. Mahershala was shocked that that was my first scene and I could walk right into that, but I think it was my upbringing where I could walk right into that and say, “Yeah, let’s go.” I got plopped right in!

I’m half-Korean, so I’m curious what it was like for you as a Korean American actor and an Asian actor trying to break into Hollywood in the ‘90s and early aughts? As a viewer, it seemed like you were one of the only ones out there.

I didn’t grow up wanting to be an actor or even conceiving that that was possible. I just assumed that a lot of the Asian actors on television were amateurs or something — like. when they needed an Asian actor, they’d get somebody from the bank to come in. I didn’t realize that they were professionals that went to acting school, moved to L.A. or New York, and got agents. All of it seemed so far beyond the realm of possibility for me, so I was on an island.

The reason I decided to become an actor was I did a play in college [“The Woman Warrior”] where I met all these other Asian American actors and found a community. The thing that I struggled with and continue to struggle with — even in “Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother” — is that the lack of cinematic vocabulary for Asian American actors makes it hard to imagine bigger and makes it hard to conceive of other ideas. I never had that library that I could pull from in my mind, so I thought, “What am I supposed to do?” “How am I supposed to navigate this?!” It felt very lonesome at times. It doesn’t feel as lonesome anymore.

I’ve spoken with Randall Park about this, but what was your experience like reading for roles in the ‘90s and early 2000s? Was it a lot of racist Asian stereotypes with accents?

Sure. I remember those first few years back when network television was a thing, right around November you’d get an audition for the show’s “Chinatown” episode. That was when, as a young Asian man, you’d maybe get an audition. But I was never good for that! I never looked like the tough guy, so I was going down a gangplank there. I got my leather jacket from the thrift store and tried to look tough, but it never really worked!

I do remember very clearly doing a role early on where I was a Chinese delivery boy who had a Southern accent and that was a laugh because he didn’t have a Chinese accent. It was for “The Jeff Foxworthy Show,” and I remember standing there and seeing everyone laugh and thinking, “I don’t want to do this. This is not worth it, whatever I’m getting paid.” I didn’t like that laugh. I remember feeling something in me, and so I tried to say no to those auditions going forward because I didn’t want to be in that position again.

Looking back on those early days, did it even seem feasible to you that you’d become a leading man one day?

It’s complicated, because you try not to think about it, but you also have to dream. For a time, in the late- ‘90s, it seemed like some progress could happen if the independent filmmakers broke through. It wasn’t the revolution exactly that we wanted, but there was that strain of hope on the independent side. I tried not to think about it too far, and maybe that was a trick that I was doing for myself. But it didn’t seem within reach or logical.

In 2015, you tweeted, “Stop turning Asian roles white. It’s bullshit and we all know it.” I believe this was around the time of Scarlett Johansson being cast as the lead in “Ghost in the Shell,” but what prompted you to write that?

I can’t exactly recall. At the time, it felt like, “I have this much on my plate and you’re taking that off my plate. I have three ribs on my plate, and now I have two ribs, and now I have one rib.” It felt like that. When you’re in an environment of diminished resources, you get hangry. I was also thinking about Asian-themed films that were being helmed by white characters, which seemed illogical. There were a lot of things I was thinking about.

The following year, the viral #StarringJohnCho campaign happened where your face was superimposed onto movie posters to highlight the lack of Asian American representation in Hollywood. How did you feel about that?

Even though it bears my name, I feel distanced from it because it wasn’t my idea. Though I know the creator Will [Yu], he didn’t ask for my permission and then it had a life of its own that didn’t involve me. I admired it, but I was also embarrassed about it to some degree. It felt like I was taking an ad out in Variety! You know what I mean? And I wasn’t doing that. I’m just over here working. I don’t think it was the intention, but it also suggested: “Give this guy a handout over here!” And I was like, I’m good, I’m over here working and doing my best. I would say, at the end of the day, I’m glad the discussion was had and you might as well use me as a point of initiation, but yes, it was odd!

The fact that the #StarringJohnCho viral campaign inspired Jon M. Chu to adapt “Crazy Rich Asians” into a movie is pretty wild.

That part is wild. Jon told me that and I didn’t know. If I had read that in an article, I might have raised an eyebrow and not believed him, but it’s authentic and for that single reason it was worth it.

One thing that kind of infuriated me as a Korean American was how none of the actors in “Parasite” were nominated for major awards or were even in the conversation for them. It served as a major example of how Asian actors are overlooked — that you can award behind-the-scenes people on a film but not those in front of the camera.

I was at the Oscars the year “Parasite” won, and I remember walking to the Governors Ball and somebody — I don’t remember who it was — shaking my hand very vigorously and saying, “Congratulations!” You draw up the conclusion you will from that. But with the Oscars, I don’t track that very seriously for myself because with the history of the Oscars, I think about all my favorite movies and actors and go, “Oh my god! Miss, miss, miss!” There are a lot of misses in Oscar history and they’re very personal to me because a lot of my favorite films and performances have been misses.

What I will say is: Mainstream culture, especially with representation and especially as it relates to Asian representation, has always wanted to declare it “over” and say, “Are we there now?” “Is this enough?” And for me, it’s not about whether we’ve had enough accolades; it’s an ongoing process of people being allowed to participate in this tradition. Are we excluded or included? I do see a lot of good signs underneath, which is filmmakers, showrunners and writers working at a high level. We didn’t’ have that infrastructure in the ‘90s. That, to me, is encouraging.

The lack of Asian representation in Hollywood studio movies has always rankled me because more than half the box office for a blockbuster movie comes from Asia, so it would even financially behoove studios to cast an Asian actor in their big studio movie and yet it still doesn’t happen all that often.

I suspect you’re reading my diary based on what you just said! I’ve had the same thought as well. What is preventing you from seeing very easy math? When a movie is being conceived, it’s usually the question of: How can we convince this individual to gamble this amount of dollars? And those individuals are not necessarily doing great vetting. It’s really about the people who write checks and what their makeup is. But I share your frustration. And not recognizing Asian actors is also curious. We’re still dealing with a layer where people are not conferring 100% humanity on a lot of Asian American performers. When I got my start in the ‘90s, there was a very explicit belief that Asians were not capable of being funny, so it was hard to get auditions for comedic roles — unless you were the butt of the joke.

As a fan of the “Harold & Kumar” films, I’d be remiss if I didn’t ask you about what’s going on with “Harold & Kumar 4.”

That would be fun and I can confirm that it is allegedly gestating with me and Kal Penn. We’re older and if we do this, I think it would be really interesting because I can’t believe how many fundamental things have changed in the time we’ve done these movies! The headliner is that weed is legal. The movies talk about cultural politics and national politics and everything there has also changed, so I think it would be interesting to see what this movie would be.

The first time I saw you onscreen was in “American Pie” as “MILF Guy #2.” What are your thoughts when you look back on playing “MILF Guy #2?” And have you ever met Jennifer Coolidge, and was that awkward for you?

I have met Jennifer Coolidge, and it was not awkward in the least! She’s lovely! Let that be the headline. But I haven’t worked with her; I’ve only talked… about her. I didn’t know what I was getting into. The movie is so sweet and unassuming in its own way, and it spawned all these Xerox copies of “American Pie” in the ensuing years, but they only copied the raunchiness. It felt small, and I was away for the summer it was released, and when I came back to town it was just people chanting, “MILF! MILF!” at me all the time. At that age, I was not equipped to handle what that was — people laughing and pointing and high-fiving. And people still recognize me from that one line in the movie, if you can believe it. It was my first experience with notoriety, and I was not prepared for that.

It’s funny that you helped popularize the term “MILF,” which is a popular category of porn, and in “Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother” you are going to war on porn.

Yeah! Maybe I willed it to happen. I’m killing my younger self.

I wanted to ask you about the Quentin Tarantino “Star Trek” movie that never came to fruition. From what I understand, it was based on the “Star Trek” episode “A Piece of Action” that’s set on a 1920s gangster planet, and Tarantino described it as “‘Pulp Fiction’ in space.”

Ugh. I’m actually entering a deep depression right now that it didn’t happen. At the time I’d heard rumors, and Simon [Pegg] is way more inside of it and was privy to information that I was not. I heard that Quentin Tarantino was interested and there was a pitch, but the details were not relayed to me. Was I crossing fingers underneath a desk? Oh yeah. I can see why people might have paused. Are we making a “Star Trek” movie or just using “Star Trek” to make a Quentin Tarantino movie? It’s a legitimate question, but I just wanted to make a Quentin Tarantino movie. That would have been a dream.