Ken Jeong, John Cho crashed The Afterparty 2 and had a blast
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Asian-American actors Ken Jeong (left) and John Cho at the Season 2 premiere of The Afterparty in California on June 28.
PHOTO: AFP
LOS ANGELES – Two of Hollywood’s biggest Asian-American actors – Ken Jeong, star of The Hangover comedy films (2009 to 2013), and John Cho from the Star Trek movie reboots (2009 and 2013) – may be a little late to The Afterparty.
But joining the cast of the murder-mystery comedy for its second season gave them one of the most enjoyable experiences of their careers.
Season 1, which debuted in 2022, was a whodunnit involving a shocking death at a high-school reunion afterparty.
Now streaming on Apple TV+, Season 2 reunites some of the same characters for a wedding, which also ends with an untimely death.
And the list of suspects includes Feng (Jeong), a cash-strapped dessert entrepreneur who is the father of the bride, and Feng’s attention-hogging brother Ulysses (Cho).
The show is created by Chris Miller, who executive-produces it with fellow American film-maker Phil Lord. The pair wrote and directed The Lego Movie (2014), and wrote and produced Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse (2023).
At a Zoom press event earlier in 2023, Miller and Lord were asked how they decided which characters from Season 1’s ensemble cast – which included Ike Barinholtz, Ben Schwartz and Dave Franco – to bring back.
Miller, 47, says it made sense to have Zoe (Zoe Chao) and Aniq (Sam Richardson) – who became a couple at the end of the first season – return, this time to attend the wedding of Zoe’s sister Grace (Poppy Liu) to technology mogul Edgar (Zach Woods).
And when Grace discovers Edgar’s lifeless body in bed the morning after the nuptials, it made sense to have Detective Danner (Tiffany Haddish), who helped solve the case in the first season, aid in investigating this one.
“Zoe and Aniq were really the emotional heart of the first season, so it felt cruel to not bring them back.
“And Detective Danner is the Poirot of the series,” Miller says, referring to the fictional Belgian detective from writer Agatha Christie’s murder-mystery novels.
“It seemed like it’d be fun to get them to work together to solve a murder at a wedding this time. And then we just tried to think of some funny characters, interesting stories and interesting twists.”
(From left) Anna Konkle, Elizabeth Perkins, Zach Woods, Poppy Liu, John Cho, Vivian Wu, Ken Jeong and Zoe Chao in The Afterparty 2.
PHOTO: APPLE TV+
Korean-American actor and stand-up comedian Jeong says Season 1 was, “at this time last year, my favourite show”.
“And so this is one of very few moments in an actor’s career where you get to be on your favourite show. It was serendipitous. Like, I knew every facet of Aniq and Zoe’s story,” says the 54-year-old, who created and starred in the sitcom Dr. Ken (2015 to 2017).
Jeong also appeared on the acclaimed comedy series Community (2009 to 2015) alongside Donald Glover and Alison Brie before they became much more famous – Glover for his music career and for creating the hit comedy Atlanta (2016 to 2022), and Brie for her lead role in the comedy-drama series Glow (2017 to 2019).
Working on The Afterparty 2 reminded him of that experience, he says.
“Because Community was such an important part of my life, and (because of) having that ensemble cast together.
“But what was different was on Community, we started out as relative unknowns, for the most part. And here, everybody has led their own projects and they’ve won their own awards.”
Jeong was struck by “how collaborative every single person was” despite that.
“This was like a dream team of basketball players where everyone is a star, but had this harmonious working relationship. It was really one of the best experiences I’ve ever had.”
Cho, 51, says it also ended up being a masterclass in comedic acting.
“This is a very unusual project because, while you find yourself in a great cast, you’re almost never in scene after scene with the whole cast,” explains the Korean-American star, who headlined the thriller movie Searching (2018) and romantic-comedy series Selfie (2014).
“And the principal pleasure for me this summer was sitting back and watching all of these amazing actors do their thing. I learnt so much. I was so entertained.
“It was just so delightful every single day and is what separates this from virtually anything I’ve done. It was just a genuine pleasure.”
The Afterparty 2 is available on Apple TV+.
