Penn takes us through his life growing up as an Indian/Asian-American and the stigmas he faced while trying to make it in the world of Hollywood with his background. After years of countless rejections, he finally landed the prominent role of Dr. Lawrence Kutner, an Indian-American diagnostic fellow on Dr. House's team on the hit medical drama, House M.D.
If you're not familiar with the show House, what led to Penn's character Kutner's involvement with the show happened at the start of the season four. The previous season ended with the show's lead, Dr. House, looking (or forced to look) for a new team. The ever misanthropic, curmudgeon of a doctor decides to make it a Survivor-style game, bringing in 100 candidates to compete for the three positions. Originally, Kutner's character was axed, but returned when he flipped his first number six upside down to become nine, which essentially won him a spot on House's team.
Behind the scenes the crew was actually very close. Coming up and playing mini-games in between shoots while on set. It was Olivia Wilde, who played Thirteen on House, who urged Penn to attend an Obama campaign rally that included many Hollywood celebrities with her, knowing his interest in politics and current affairs. He, reluctantly, attended, but found that he actually enjoyed it and it turned out to be the best of both worlds.
Penn was able to participate and volunteer to support the Obama Campaign, and continue to fulfill his responsibilities on House because the screen writers were on strike and not writing any new scripts. It was even brought up by President Obama himself during a campaign event in Iowa. Obama inquired that it must be slow with the writers' strike, but Penn added they were still filming episodes before the strike. Soon after, Obama said, if they finish and they are still on strike, he would love to have Penn as an organizer more.
It was interesting to see how Penn approached the the House executives when he told the producers he was offered the position with the Obama Administration. They had no knowledge of the position. Even though Penn told his agent, who informed him that he would not be able to get out of the contract, it was not because the show executives were blocking his exit so he went straight to the show's creator, David Shore.
Contrary to what what his agent said, Shore was excited for Penn and thought of ways to write Kutner out of the show. But everything was not in the clear just yet, the waters were about to get muddier. The exact way Kutner's character was to be written off the show was going to be sudden and straight to the point, but with one caveat, Penn could not accept the White House job until the show aired. That was four months away. Would the job still be there?
It was definitely one of those moments, that we've all had: do you accept the sure-thing (your current role on a hit TV show or whatever it may be) or go all-in for something that you really want?
