Advantageous was written by Jennifer Phang and Jacqueline Kim and stars Kim as a woman who works in marketing in the future. She’s heading the campaign for a procedure that can transfer one’s brain into a younger body, and is considering undergoing the procedure herself. Ken Jeong plays a man from her past in a dramatic performance. He also served as the film’s producer.
Ken Jeong sat down with me in the Acura lounge at Sundance to talk about Advantageous and the new season of “Community” coming to Yahoo in March.
CraveOnline: Whenever a comedian does a dramatic role, this happens. Sarah Silverman is here with a drama and everyone’s surprised she’s doing drama. Do you face that when you want to do a dramatic role?
Ken Jeong: Yeah, of course, absolutely. Jacqueline actually watched me in Hangover II, found some nuances that I did as Mr. Chow and said, “We gotta get Ken.” I was so moved by that and I never in a million years thought that I would be able to get a role like this from the body of work I had before. So I was very moved and I think that for them to have that kind of faith in me really meant a lot .
If anything, I came on set very serious, maybe almost too serious, probably overcompensated a little bit, was too focused. If anything, Jacqueline and Jen loosened me up and we had a really nice groove after a couple of takes. When you’re in a zone when you’re filming a comedy, you’re hitting a groove. If you’re saying something scripted, it’s natural. If you’re ad libbing, it’s natural. Same thing with Advantageous. You’re not ad libbing, you’re not improvising but you’re just finding a groove of tone. Comedians who think of acting in terms of tones and shades, I think they tend to do well in dramas. That’s my opinion.
What was the scene in Hangover II that made her see Han?
It was like an elevator scene in Bangkok. I think it was right before Chow sang “Time in a Bottle,” I had shades on. It was a very tiny thing but I did it on every take and I was flattered that she noticed it. I sublimely like the song and I’m kind of looking around to see if anyone’s gonna sing the song. It was literally a split second shift of eye movement and it was something I was consciously doing just for me. It wouldn’t necessarily be instrumental to that scene but they’re just little touches you’re just adding for fun and for color and she picked up on that vibe I was going for in that scene. I was just very flattered that she picked it up.
