Kal Penn Had to Audition for a Role in 'Van Wilder' Against a White Dude in Brownface

Kal Penn has had a long acting career (plus a side-quest working in the Obama administration.) He’s currently starring in Season 4 of Industry and will star in a comedy called What the F*ck Is My Password? Relatable title, honestly. To promote the former, Penn went on Hasan Minhaj’s podcast to talk about his life and career. He revealed that his breakout movie role almost went to a white guy. Penn starred in the National Lampoon movie Van Wilder in 2002, alongside Ryan Reynolds. He played a character called Taj Mahal Badalandabad. Yes, really. And that role almost went to a white guy. In brownface.

“I knew at the end, it was like, ‘All right, it’s me and another actor,’” he said. “I’m like, ‘Which brother is it?’ I’m excited that one of us is gonna get this. I open the door and it is a white dude in brownface who’s already in the waiting room. And my beef is generally not with other actors. Actors are desperate. We’ll do whatever it takes to get a part, right? But I was so fascinated. I’m like, ‘Okay, did his agent tell him to paint his face when he left? Did he do it at home or did he do it in the bathroom? If he did it at home, did it increase his chances of getting pulled over by the cops?’ All of these thoughts going through my head […] But I do remember looking at him while we’re making small talk and in my head just saying to myself, ‘He is not allowed to get that part.’”

Yiiiiikes. Can you blame Penn for leaving Hollywood to go into politics for a bit? He’s gone onto bigger and better things, including being one of Zohran Mamdani’s BFFs, but he’s also remained candid about how things haven’t gotten better for Asian actors. Brownface did not die out decades ago. Disney’s Aladdin remake had white extras in brownface. Max Minghella played Divya Narendra in The Social Network despite not being Indian. Rob Schneider’s entire career is him putting on various kinds of racist make-up and offensive accents to play every ethnicity possible.

Penn is pretty kind to the actor who did this brownface for the Van Wilder audition. He doesn’t name him or put the blame squarely on his shoulders. Obviously, there was a room full of casting specialists and producers who saw no problem with having a white guy go racist to play what was a pretty racist part. How many of those people are still in positions of power in Hollywood, and how many of them would happily get out the brown make-up for an actor if they had the opportunity? I think the answer to that is more than we’d like to believe.