“Im actually proud of that scene, because it was pretty tough”, the actor said. ‘Obviously, I just met the kid, and then Doug is not an actor. This dynamic is not unlike the current state of USA politics (with some politicians obsessing over all the different people supposedly coming to kill us, and others calling for unity in troubled times), a fact that star John Cho says was not lost on him or his Beyond castmates. We had to open up. Star Trek has struggled with romance, period, which is why Chakotay and Janeway spent seven years building tubs and Picard and Crush spent all that time giving each other moony eyes instead of just kissing already.
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Actor John Cho has revealed that his gay kiss in “Star Trek Beyond” was cut on the editing table.
The choice, Cho said, was partially intended as a “valentine” to a gay friend he had growing up. And while I am flattered that the character of Sulu apparently was selected as an homage to me, this was never about me or what I wanted. Basically, we couldn’t find an Asian actor willing to play gay in Dubai is my understanding. “I know that was hard, that he couldn’t come out and that he had crafted a straight character”. I was concerned also that there might be Asian-American backlash.
However, Takei expressing his concern over the modifications said, “Unfortunately, it’s a twisting of Gene [Roddenberry]’s creation, to which he put in so much thought”.
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Of this, Cho says, “I reached out to him and told him that this might be happening, and I just wanted to know how he felt”. Does this sound super overthought? It turned out that George’s objection was mostly, as I understand it, ‘This isn’t canon’. “And the fact that they embraced that idea and made John Cho’s portrayal as Sulu a gay man was a lovely move of inclusivity”. “I’ve got to respect him for that”. I thought that having the family deepened his character a little bit. This is an important point for me and I’d like to know your opinion on this too. “He said no, I’m not doing it”.
