Here is what he had to say:
To begin with, how did you get involved with Transformers: Dark of the Moon? Was the role of Jerry “Deep” Wang written specifically for you, or is it a part that you were able to help create?
Ken Jeong: Yeah, Michael Bay met with me a few months before shooting began. From what I understand that was a character that he was thinking of with me in mind. I remember first meeting him and it was great. After the meeting I was just so excited. I really was just like I'm in! I really wanted to do it, you know? When Michael told me all about it, it was one of those things that I was just so grateful for. Ultimately I found out later that Michael is a good friend of Todd Philips, and a Hangover fan as well, so he had thought of that character with me in mind. I just couldn't have been more excited and grateful. I had a blast. Michael was great because we would rehearse at least two or three times thoroughly with Shia, and then he would let us improvise and just come up with stuff. Like some of the bathroom scene where I'm jumping on top of Shia, that was improvised between Shia and I. Michael was loving it. So he was like, “Yeah, let's keep that, let's just put that in the script.” I loved how collaborative Michael was and then you know by the time we shot it we had it thoroughly blocked and we were ready for it. He was great at just going with the flow and letting us improvise, which I didn't know prior to signing on for Transformers.
So you actually were allowed to improvise in the rehearsal process and then when you got to set you were able incorporate a lot of that into the scenes when you were shooting, is that right?
Jeong: Yes, exactly, and I really loved his process of and that helped me figure out the character. He was really collaborative in trying to figure out the character of Jerry Wang being a conspiracy theorist and I really loved that. We would both just go back and forth with ideas. It was great, and the chemistry was just really good. It was instant too, and it was just one of those things that just felt right. Shia was great because he also would say the same thing about how great Michael was at allowing actors to improvise in terms of coming up with the characters. Shia loves doing that so you know we really got along well. It was a blast, and it was one of the best experiences of my career because it was something that I'd never expected to be a part of. Michael Bay’s Transformers is now the fourth highest grossing film worldwide of all time, so you don't plan for things like this, especially for a comedic actor such as myself. For me it was a great learning experience because I'd never acted with CGI before. Acting with a Decepticon in my imagination, that was my first time ever being exposed to that type of acting. I actually consider it to be the hardest form of acting in many ways in movies because usually in comedies it’s easy to bounce off another actor's energy and then just run with it. But here like when Jerry Wang is with Laserbeak, Michael is really depending on me to come up with the appropriate reaction and emotion off of just a huge Decepticon and I have to properly emote off of that. It's harder because it's really up to my imagination to figure that out and Michael's job to modulate that. It was wonderful for me, and I looked at it like kind of a master class for CGI, sci-fi, action movie acting. I want to do more of it.
It seemed like Jerry was really a cautionary tale in a sense for Shia’s character Sam, and that if he didn’t get the right help, Sam could end up unhinged just like Jerry. Is that the way you saw the relationship between those two characters?
Jeong: Absolutely! I was really out to have his back because the subtext was, I don't want you turning out like this. And through Jerry Wang, it was a very bizarre way of telling him, please watch out and please be careful, which I loved. It was kind of using the comedic energy that I'm known for, but using it in a different way to kind of warn Sam and I love that. It was like using it in terms as another type of plot device. I really loved how it was important to the plot for Jerry to inform Sam what was going on a little bit. Everything about that character and the way I was used in the movie I absolutely loved. And I loved the death scene. It was great, for me it was wonderful.
Had you ever done a death scene before, and was it everything you always imagined it would be?
Jeong: Never like that, no. I could never imagine anything like that. When Michael told me at the meeting I was sold. I was laughing, but in a great way. I couldn't believe it and I was laughing so hysterically. I'm sure Michael thought that was really weird, my laughing. He said, “The character's going to go out with a bang.” And I really was like so into it. I don't know if he expected that reaction. "Yeah, your character's going to die," I'm like, “Oh man! Yeah!" (Laughing hysterically) I was really into it from the get go. For me I felt like a fly on the wall learning from the best. I think about those things all the time. Any time I'm involved in anything else that's an action type scene that I'm doing in a movie, or on Community (the TV show I'm on), you know I always kind of reference Transformers.
Do you ever throw that out on the set of Community? "Well, you know … Michael Bay would never do it like this!”
Jeong: (Laughs) Yes, I have that name to drop at my disposal. I hang it over everybody's head. No it was funny because someone in production was asking me all about it, one of the producer's sons. The producer's son had just gotten the Transformers: Dark of the Moon DVD and was asking me questions about the experience and Michael. It was pretty cool, and it does make me look cooler to have been a part of this, absolutely.
I’m sure you were aware of Michael Bay’s previous Transformers films, but were you a fan of the Transformers toys and cartoons in the ‘80s while you were growing up?
Jeong: Oh yeah! Both my wife and I grew up on it, on the cartoon as kids. It was beyond surreal to be a part of this because I'm really known for R-rated comedies, right? So for me to be a part of this was just an amazing opportunity. To be part of another genre, to really learn from the best and to kind of push myself as an actor. That's all you can ask for in this business is to try something new and I definitely did. It was really fulfilling for me personally.
Have you been surprised by the juggernaut success of The Hangover series? The original went on to become the most successful R-rated comedy of all-time and the sequel has done even better, what do you attribute that success to?
Jeong: I'm consistently surprised by how successful it was, and now it's a franchise. Yeah, it changed my life. The Hangover just changed my career. Making the first one, no one knew it would be this runaway juggernaut and for the second one to be a worldwide hit, to be even more successful, it just blew my mind. I think people really care about the characters. I'm just grateful to Todd Philips for having me back for the second one. I remember Shia telling me while we were shooting Transformers that with the first movie, people didn't think it would be that big. I told him I kind of related to what he was saying. He said, "Yeah, the script wasn't as guarded as it is right now and it wasn't as top secret the first time." And I told him, yeah the first time The Hangover came out; it wasn't a guarded top-secret project. So it was interesting for me to hear what Shia was saying. In a way Michael and Shia have this great relationship in how they interact. You could tell they have kind of a second hand way of talking you know. They just have a great short hand way of communicating. They just kind of know each other's moves. You could almost see parallels where it's kind of like Todd Philips talking to the Wolfpack, how he would communicate with them just by a few words or just by gesture and like everyone kind of knows what to do. I felt the same way watching Michael and Shia, and I thought that was great. The cornerstone of any successful franchise is a great product first of all, but then when you dissect it behind the scenes, you know really good chemistry. I found that there's great chemistry on both sets. That was a great thing to see.
Finally, what would you like to see happen to your character and the Wolfpack in The Hangover Part III? There was a rumor that the trilogy might end with the reveal that none of the characters in the franchise actually existed and that everything we’ve seen has taken place inside Doug’s head, how would you feel if Todd Philips ended the series that way?
Jeong: I have no expectations. For me, I'm just so grateful to be a part of that family. To me, Todd Philips is family and so are Bradley and Zach. I would do anything they ask me. It’s pretty much as simple as that. The further I go up, the simpler I try to keep things. It really is as simple as that. I just trust them and I trust them much like Shia trusts Michael. It's the same kind of thing where...it's amazing how far you can go when you love and trust people. I think both franchises are examples of that.
Transformers: Dark of the Moon is available now on Blu-ray and DVD.
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