Trivia / Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle

• California Doubling: Much of the movie was shot in Ontario, Canada, with the University of Toronto doubling for Princeton. The White Castle in the end was actually constructed in an abandoned restaurant because there are no White Castles in Canada. Canadian chains such as Shoppers pharmacy and Lick’s Burgers can be seen.
• Career Resurrection: Neil Patrick Harris had largely pulled away from on-screen roles and had built a career in theater. However, his performance in this film electrified audiences, leading to his casting in How I Met Your Mother on CBS, which then got him the hosting gig at the Tony Awards and made him the go-to song-and-dance man for a number of years.
• Completely Different Title: In French, the title is akin to Harold & Kumar Hunt for the Burger.
• Dawson Casting:
  • Harold is supposed to be in his mid-20s, but John Cho was 32 when it was released.
  • Bobby Lee was in his 30s playing a young university student.
• Deleted Role: The movie originally ended with Harold meeting Maria's brother, played by Luis Guzman, who Harold initially mistakes for her boyfriend, and learns from him that Maria has gone to Amsterdam. As humorous as it was, Word of God decided it'd be better having Harold actually see Maria one last time before she goes to Amsterdam.
• Deleted Scene: Kumar's Indulgent Fantasy Segue with marrying a bag of weed (while he was "breaking" Harold out of jail) was originally going to be longer and it used an entirely original song called My Sweety Weedy Pie. It was cut for time purposes.
• Fake Brit: The two British girls at Princeton were played by Canadian actresses Brooke D'Orsay and Kate Kelton.
• Funny Character, Boring Actor: Inverted with John Cho and played straight with Kal Penn, who have both said their real-life personalities are more or less the reverse of their characters'. An example would be how Penn does not smoke marijuana, is a vegetarian (the crew actually made his sliders vegetarian) and is gay (although he publicly came out 17 years later).
• Playing Against Type: Neil Patrick Harris, who was still best-known as the family-friendly Doogie Howser, played a debauched version of himself. He's credited as "Neil Patrick Harris as Neil Patrick Harris".
• Technology Marches On: Early on, Rosenberg and Goldstein sit down to watch the film The Gift on TV—solely because they've heard that Katie Holmes bares her breasts onscreen for around 30 seconds. If the movie had been made even three or four years later, they probably would have just DVR'ed the movie and fast-forwarded to the part that they actually wanted to see (or looked the scene up on an online video streaming site). Nobody today willingly watches a movie from the beginning on live TV just to see a single scene.
• What Could Have Been:
  • According to co-writer Jon Hurwitz, had Neil Patrick Harris turned down the role, Ralph Macchio was their second choice of "Wholesome 80s star".
  • The producers wanted to play Queen's "We Are the Champions" as Harold and Kumar eat their White Castle burgers, but they couldn't clear the rights to do so. They settled on a remix of the "Sunrise" fanfare from "Also sprach Zarathustra".
  • Instead of Hot Dog Heaven, Rosenberg and Goldstein were supposed to be at a Krispy Kreme; they refused the filmmakers permission to use their brand.

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