In the new coming of age dramedy Don’t Make Me Go, out Friday on Prime Video, John Cho plays a single dad who embarks on a cross-country road trip with his less-than-thrilled teen daughter, played by newcomer Mia Isaac. Cho tells ABC Audio it was a movie he wanted to make the second he read the script.
“The father-daughter relationship obviously was the thing that was really attractive,” he says. “I’m a parent, so there was so many similarities for me in sentiment and worldview. But beyond that, my impression when I closed the script was, I wish I could see this movie…I wish it existed. And it seemed like something I would watch.”
The Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle star particularly enjoyed the road trip scenes, noting, “It was a lot like a real road trip. There were games and singing and trivia and conversation and being bored and snacking.”
Don’t Make Me Go marks Isaac’s big-screen debut, and the 18-year-old actress admits she wasn’t that familiar with her co-star’s Harold and Kumar movies until her parents filled her in.
“I remember like getting off of the directors call back and I was like, yeah, apparently I’m supposed to be working with this guy, John Cho,” she recalls. “And my parents were like, ‘John Cho!’ And I was like — and then of course they had me watch everything. And I was a true John Cho fan by the time we got to New Zealand.”
Jokes Cho, “That seems like irresponsible parenting, if you ask me.”
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