John Cho has had an interesting rise to fame from "Average Joe" to off-beat Hollywood funny guy after moving to Los Angeles to become an actor. Moonlighting as a junior high school teacher in the day while acting in the night, Cho eventually broke out to a wider audience after landing a role in the 1999 hit American Pie. From there Cho went on to do two more American Pie films before landing the co-lead role in Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle in 2004 with fellow funny-dude Kal Penn. Since then, Cho has gone on to appear on several of today's top shows - even a regular stint on the cancelled-before-its-time Kitchen Confidential - and now John Cho is back on the big screen with Kal Penn for a second time in Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay. Next up for Cho - the role of a lifetime as Sulu in J.J. Abrams' upcoming Star Trek.

Leading up the release of the second Harold & Kumar movie on April 25, John Cho sat down with the press to talk bottomless parties, the American Pie legacy, how people have stopped calling him MILF, the evolution of Asian stereotypes, and how it feels to walk on the bridge of the Enterprise.

John Cho on his parents viewing the movie:

"I mean we’ve gone pretty far and I feel that if there’s a line, I’ve already crossed it. But I do feel though, that the movies are pretty good natured and I think they have a good attitude in them that sexuality isn’t pervy, or it is pervy in a very adolescent boyish way. You know, I’d rather be doing this than some of the other violent product that’s coming out of Hollywood. And I think the fact that it’s funny - as long as it’s funny, I think I’ll go for it."

Cho on how the first movie and how the American Pie movies changed his life:

"It’s sort of par for the course. I’ve been in the public eye since American Pie, I suppose, and every day of my life somebody is yelling something at me. And now it’s Harold, so it’s good. They used to yell Milf, which wasn’t a name. Harold is a name, so that’s a step up."

On the day they shot the "bottomless party":

"It’s the strangest day, I’ll tell you that much. It’s weird. It’s thrilling on a boyish level and it’s also work, and it’s also surreal and uncomfortable. I mean you get a room full of clothed people and have them take their clothes off, it gets weird. I guess if you’re not nude, too, and in private it’s hard to see the sexuality of it. It’s a doctor’s office, somebody has got a coat on and somebody has got their clothes off."

On how he went from teaching for a year to becoming an actor:

"I had moved down to Los Angeles with the intention of becoming an actor and I was teaching during the day. I taught two classes in the morning and I was in plays at night. That was the hardest year of my life and it was the hardest job I’ve ever had, teaching 7th and 10th graders.

John Cho on the stereotyping of Asians in film:

"I do feel that there is some shift happening. But having said that, I feel like the progress isn’t anywhere near what it needs to be. I notice a lot of Asian Americans in television commercials right now, which is encouraging because they’re trying to sell us something, which means if they’re trying to sell us soda or detergent, they’re likely going to try to sell us entertainment at some point, which is good. On the other hand, there’s a lot of cosmetic progress as well. Because there are more of us on television doesn’t mean the quality of roles has increased either. Just because there’s more receptionists that are Asian at the ER doesn’t necessarily mean that we made narrative progress. I used to say that the pilot season doesn’t really exist for Asians. The pilot season being the time of year when the networks are casting all of their pilots and there’s a flurry of auditions and people are trying to land roles on shows. They didn’t want Asians and so that season - they called it "the season" as if it were some monolithic thing - so Asians weren’t going out on those casting calls. But I always said there was an Asian season in the Fall when all of the episodics did their Chinatown episode. You know, like on CSI there was a 'murder down in Chinatown’ and they needed Asians and there was a real season, like November, August, and there were all of these auditions. So just because there are more of us out there, it sometimes masks the fact that the quality hasn’t improved."

On taking on the role of Sulu in the new Star Trek:

"It gives it a measure of personal significance for me. I’m very pleased to be associated with that role because it meant so much to me. Growing up, it was a beacon on the television."

Cho on how it feels to walk on to the bridge of the Enterprise:

"It’s a dream. It’s more like a dream than anything else.

John Cho on the differences of working on Harold and Kumar and then going to Star Trek:

"In terms of acting, I’d say it’s pretty similar. You prepare the same way, especially as the straight man of the duo. I’m not really looking for funny bits, you know. I’m trying to stay true to the situation and stuff. But there’s some planning, and comedy gives you some extra curve balls. After every day of filming the directors and I would get together in my apartment and we’d have a beer and we’d talk about what happened that day and talk about the next day and plan out how we could punch out the scene, [like] if there was a line change that could be funnier. It’s more script work, maybe."