Ken Jeong is in the new film Pain & Gain for a few scenes, but his role as Johnny Wu, a cheesy self-help guru, is a constant presence. In a recent interview with ReadExpress, he said he studied tapes, looked on YouTube for Tony Robbins while preparing for the role.
“There are good motivational speakers and bad ones, and I wanted to play a bad one. And I wanted to say stupid, empty things with authenticity. How do you yell empty catchphrases with such gravitas? That was the goal,” he said.
The film was directed by Michael Bay. Besides Ken Joeng, it stars Dwayne Johnson, Mark Wahlberg and Anthony Mackie.
Read more of the Q&A here.
