Kal Penn
Author of You Can't Be Serious
About the Author
Image credit: Kal Penn
Works by Kal Penn
Clarice: Season One [DVD] 1 copy
Epic Movie '07 1 copy
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Gender
- male
Members
Reviews
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Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 5
- Also by
- 36
- Members
- 153
- Popularity
- #136,480
- Rating
- 3.8
- Reviews
- 4
- ISBNs
- 6
The first part of the book is about how Kal got his start in Hollywood and oh my gosh, the overt, unabashed racism and sexism he encountered was astounding. I know the entertainment industry can be racist and sexist but I thought people perpetuating it were a little more subtle about it. But no – like the producer who told Kal he doesn’t hire “chicks” because he doesn’t want to deal with possible sexual harassment lawsuits. Instead of maybe just controlling himself and not being a jerk? Or the producer who said Joseph Gordon-Levitt would never get a job because he was too Asian. Said this to Kal, who is, hello? Also Asian! Kal was not afraid to call out people who treated him poorly. Most of the time, he doesn’t use names but I bet you could figure out who they were if you tried hard enough.
The next part of the book was about Kal’s time in the Obama administration, which totally makes sense to me now. He was taking an international studies course through Stanford at the time. He was a surrogate for Obama during the campaign and learned a lot so when Obama was elected, he applied for a job. He truly did get it on merit, not because he’s a movie star. His role was not symbolic, he actually made important decisions.
One thing that I thought was odd was that he didn’t talk about being gay at all, other than to briefly mention his first few dates with his finance Josh. Apparently, this book was the first time he publically stated that he’s gay. Since he wrote about his parents struggling with his decision to pursue a career in the arts instead of medicine or engineering like most Indian children, I thought he would also write about how they felt about his sexuality. I mean, it’s none of my business but I just thought it was a pretty big part of his life to leave out since he writes about other personal stuff.
He reads You Can’t Be Serious himself and I think that made it extra funny. He has a conversational style that was really engaging. Highly recommended.… (more)