CraveOnline: So is Chang finally part of the study group in season six of Community?
Ken Jeong: Right now it’s really no longer a study group since Winger has graduated and some of them are taking postgrad courses. They’ve introduced Keith David and Paget Brewster who aren’t students, so it’s more of a kind of activities committee of sorts.
I think Harmon has likened it to like “Cheers” where Frasier Crane was once engaged to Diane Chambers about to get married. Then she left him at the altar. He’s still coming to the bar every day and then he hooks up with Lilith. He’s still coming to that bar and now he’s a father, so the evolution of Frasier Crane, I think that’s happened to every character. It’s just become this kind of “Cheers” meeting place that become familiar territory. He’s kind of carved out that universe that people accept that study room. Honestly this is my favorite season right now. We’re in the middle of shooting. We’ve done about six episodes and it’s been my favorite season so far, honestly, in the whole series.
Chang has been different every year. He was a teacher, then a security guard, then he had Changnesia. Is he different again this year?
I mean, he’s always going to be crazy. He was crazy even as a teacher, but there’s one episode that I did this season. It’s probably my favorite Chang moment of the season.
Which episode is it in? We’ll look for it.
I don’t know what order [it airs] but I think for me personally that’s my favorite Chang episode of the series. It was that strong and I don’t want to give anything away because if I say something, it’ll snowball, but it really was my favorite.
What I love about “Community” is that when you read good scripts and work with great people, it makes you a better actor. Then I think six seasons of “Community” has prepared me for things like Advantageous. Having that experience day in and day out on that show, and three Hangover movies, just having all these experiences I’ve had in such a relatively short amount of time has really been my postgraduate work as an actor.
I’m just so grateful. I feel through projects like Advantageous and “Community” and Hangover movies, I’ve become a better actor. The biggest compliment Todd Phillips ever gave me, between Hangover I and II, we’re in Bangkok, I’m doing a scene with Paul Giamatti, [Phillips is] like, “I don’t know what’s happened in the last year, you’ve literally become more of a seasoned pro than you ever were in the first Hangover.” I just said, “It’s ‘Community.’ I’m just having that experience.” And that’s how you get better at anything. At your job, the more you do it, the better you get at it and that’s an exciting feeling of every project I’m doing, I’m getting better at it which is great.
Do you really think The Hangover is over?
You can’t really say it’s over. I mean, we don’t have anything planned at all right now. What I love about Todd and Bradley, Ed and Zach is that we all knew that would be the last one while we were filming it, so it was really cool to go out on your own terms. That last day of filming, we were all there together. We were just taking photos as a snapshot. I vividly remember that day. This is great, end of a great era. You never know. Anything can happen, but that incarnation of that particular Hangover trilogy is done.
To me, it was a bonus that we got to do a second and third one in the first place. It was not conceived to be a franchise. It was a relatively modest movie, that first one, and no one knew how explosive that would be. The Hangover changed my life. It’s the reason why I’m talking to you. It’s ultimately the reason why I get to do movies like Advantageous. It opened up a whole new world to me that I’ve been able to take advantage of and seize that opportunity. It got me “Community.” The Hangover has just changed my life from black and white to technicolor. I just owe my whole career to that movie because it’s allowing me to do the things that I love to do. They’re family to me.
I wouldn’t be shocked if in 10 years there’s a Hangover reunion, get the gang back together.
Oh, I’m always down. I would do anything for Todd Phillips. We’re all family and we all still keep in touch which is great.
Fred Topel is a staff writer at CraveOnline. Follow him on Twitter at @FredTopel.
