Kalpen Suresh Modi aka Kal Penn, an Indian origin American actor, producer and chef exposed the never-talked-about racist stereotypes that existed in Hollywood during the late 90s by tweeting pictures of his old audition scripts.
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Penn was seen in popular films and TV shows including “How I Met Your Mother”, “The Big Brain Theory” and “24”. He is currently playing the role of a speech writer in political drama “Designated Survivor”.
On March 14 Penn revealed through a series of tweets that he was a victim of racism as a struggling actor.
Found a bunch of old scripts from some of my first years trying to be an actor. pic.twitter.com/GydOwlUKGW
— Kal Penn (@kalpenn) March 14, 2017
Jeez I remember this one! They were awful. “Can you make his accent a little more AUTHENTIC?” That usually meant they wanted Apu pic.twitter.com/3F5XRORO3n
— Kal Penn (@kalpenn) March 14, 2017
The actor took it all with a pinch of salt.
This was a pilot called The Stones. Tried to convince them to let me speak without an accent & make it funny on the merits (was told no) 😂 pic.twitter.com/SuUVYT7rip
— Kal Penn (@kalpenn) March 14, 2017
Womp womp pic.twitter.com/fyonwmreBa
— Kal Penn (@kalpenn) March 14, 2017
Ha! In this audition for Smart Guy, they didn’t even give the character a name! pic.twitter.com/z2D8E5rx8J
Advertisement— Kal Penn (@kalpenn) March 14, 2017
His struggles were much more than any other Hollywood actor.
Oh wait yes they did pic.twitter.com/xwB3qIoXoF
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Top Most Characters of Mahabharata— Kal Penn (@kalpenn) March 14, 2017
Friggin King of Queens man! I used to love that show until I got to audition for it lol pic.twitter.com/2BYu0nnd57
— Kal Penn (@kalpenn) March 14, 2017
I do not remember this audition except that it was for some shitty MTV show and the big joke was an accent and too much cologne 🙄😂 pic.twitter.com/7HZbhQCkaB
— Kal Penn (@kalpenn) March 14, 2017
Whoa I remember this! This was one of my first commercials. The makeup people would use Vaseline to get the sweaty unwashed look going pic.twitter.com/X7z4EI4drQ
— Kal Penn (@kalpenn) March 14, 2017
This was for some project called The Marriage Clause I guess. pic.twitter.com/0yKjepAHqy
— Kal Penn (@kalpenn) March 14, 2017
Sabrina the Teenage Witch! Man. We got INTO it about why he had to have an accent. I’m laughing about it now but they were such dicks 😂 pic.twitter.com/kXdHjVsqvT
— Kal Penn (@kalpenn) March 14, 2017
Also when you cast things like @shorez, largely color & gender blind, it’s more interesting & ratings can look like this. Which is awesome! pic.twitter.com/qr1f7vWASK
— Kal Penn (@kalpenn) March 14, 2017
Kal Pen has also served as an associate director in the White House Office of Public Engagement under President Barack Obama.
