KEN JEONG ON CRAZY RICH ASIANS, COD AND AMUSEMENT PARK
Actor, comedian and licensed physician, Ken Jeong seems to be tackling as many forms of media as possible, film, TV, animation and now video games. We recently talked to the Community and Hangover star about his work on Justice League Action, the upcoming animated film Amusement Park, his recent work on Call of Duty, and why the film adaptation of the novel, Crazy Rich Asians is kind of like The Avengers.
IGN: What can you tell us about your new animated film, Amusement Park? Have you wrapped yet?
Ken Jeong: We’re close. I’ve been working on that for the last two years. It’s amazing. It’s been so much fun because it’s a very personal project project for him (director, and former Pixar animator, Dylan Brown), and what I love about that movie is that it lends itself to more drama. The part I’m involved in is the escapism that the protagonist goes through. Even though I’m comic relief in that one, I just love the script and the story.
IGN: Another project that’s on our radar is the adaptation of the best selling novel, Crazy Rich Asians. Can you tell us anything about the project?
Ken Jeong: [Laughing loudly] Uh, no. [More laughing] I can’t. I can tell you this much, I literally just got back last night from Malaysia and it’s like an 18 hour flight total and I’m hella exhausted. Needless to say it’s great. My wife and I are big fans of the books, by Kevin Kwan, Crazy Rich Asians and China Rich Girlfriend. It’s a trilogy, I think the new book (Rich People Problems) is coming out later this fall or summer. It’s everything I wanted it to be. It’s a studio movie with an all Asian cast. It feels like this Ocean's 11 of Asian actors, not only in America, but around the globe. You have Ronny Chieng from The Daily Show, who is Asian-Australian. You have Jimmy O. Yang, who plays Jian-Yang on Silicon Valley. It’s so star studded, it's insane. And you have Michelle Yeoh from Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, and Gemma Chan from [Transformers: The Last Knight]. You don’t see things like this often.
IGN: It’s like you have your own Avengers thing going on, the best of the best.
Ken Jeong: There you go, I like that, Asian Avengers.
IGN: What was it like working on Justice League Action as the Toyman?
Ken Jeong: First of all, thanks for knowing about that. Those guys are so much fun to work with. There’s something very special about Justice League Action, where it’s like a bit of Super Friends with a sense of humor. My wife and my kids love how I look as Toyman. To have a sense of humor about itself in the DC Universe is not often talked about, compared to the Marvel Universe, but it’s there in the form of Justice League Action.
IGN: What can you tell us about working on the voiceover pack for Call of Duty?
Ken Jeong: I found myself really getting into the spirit of it so quickly. What I really loved about doing the sessions here is that, Call of Duty knows exactly who they are, and they’re allowing me as a guest in their home to demonstrate my own sense of humor. I had no sense of vanity about it, I just wanted to serve the spirit of the game. Seriously, it was a lot of fun.
Ken’s next film, Amusement Park heads to theaters on August 10, 2018, and Crazy Rich Asians is currently being filmed in Singapore and Malaysia.
While you wait for those two films, you can find Ken’s Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare voiceover pack, where he calls out killstreaks and enemy activity. The Ken Jeong VO Pack is available for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC.
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