Ken Jeong has the best Community story ever

Two roles have come to define the early career of actor Ken Jeong. First was the loud, aggressive Leslie Chow, who leapt onto the screen (and out of a car trunk) butt naked, in the blockbuster movie, The Hangover. The second was the loveable, slightly less aggressive Señor Ben Chang, the Spanish teacher on the comedy series Community. 

It was during the latter role that Jeong learned one of the greatest lessons in his acting creator, courtesy of Community creator Dan Harmon, and it will forever change how you watch this key scene. Jeong learned how to eat a pine cone sandwich, literally and figuratively, and was all the better for it. 

In an interview with Tom Power during JFL 42 in Toronto, Jeong explained how it made him a better actor.  

On the fifth season of Community, as Jeong explains it, he was getting burned out. His character was becoming one dimensional and becoming the butt end of every joke. But moreso than that, he was burning Jeong out.

"I was getting frustrated because, like, I'm living in an air vent, putting Vaseline on myself and I'm eating a pine cone sandwich. I'm like, 'I used to be a doctor, ok?,'" says Chang, who was an actual doctor before becoming an actor. 

So Jeong emailed Harmon and asked him to alter his character's arc. This was during a time after both Chevy Chase and Donald Glover had left the show, so "they were filling a character vacuum," says Jeong. But he felt strongly enough that his character needed to change.

Please eat this pine cone sandwich for Uncle Dan and I promise, the next episode, I'll write you a monologue where you will cry in a scene- Dan Harmon to Ken Jeong

"Can you give him an arc where he tries to redeem himself, even if he makes things worse?" Jeong remembers asking in the email. "I even said, look, I know I'm that actor complaining, I get it. So I just want you to know I'm not doing this out of my ego. I'm only doing it because I love the show so much and I love the character."

Harmon sent "the nicest email back," which, as Jeong remembers it, causes him to choke up.

In the email, Harmon explained why Jeong's character was doing "all these obvious jokes," and how the writers were depending on Jeong for some of the only guaranteed laughs on the show. Jeong understood that, but what happened next surprised even him.

"[Harmon] goes, 'Please eat this pine cone sandwich for Uncle Dan and I promise, the next episode, I'll write you a monologue where you will cry in a scene and even your daughters will go, 'Wow, my dad has amazing acting range.'' And I said to myself, 'Well I'm not that good an actor. I can't cry in a scene.'"

Sure enough, Jeong ate the pine cone sandwich, and when it came time to shoot the scene Harmon promised, he got the surprise of his career. 

"My monologue, every word in my script the next episode, was the email that I wrote, with my words, that I wrote to him in an email. And I just started crying," he recounts. "Action, boom, and every word I read was from me talking about my character. It was meta upon meta upon meta upon meta, and that's why I love Community so much, because it made me a better actor."

To watch the scene that Jeong is talking about, fast forward to the 9:00 mark in the video below. To hear our full interview with Jeong, tune into q Oct. 2.