“Everything he does in the “Star Trek” universe, it’s like What Would Jesus Do:’What would Roddenberry do?’ I’ve got to respect him for that”.
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He said: “Obviously, I just met the kid, and then Doug is not an actor”. Chris in the bar scene we really get to see that friendship. “What he was talking about was taking away the connective tissue that binds the crew together and seeing what happens when it’s taken away – will they dissipate or will they be a cohesive union?” “But I think he was very much a part of it in spirit, and certainly in the film now, and will be a part of anything we do moving forward for sure”. “I don’t know if that hit or not, but it was something that I felt in my gut and asked for that”.
John Cho, who recently revealed his character Sulu is shown to be in a same-sex marriage in the upcoming sci-fi movie, says that a kiss with his character’s husband did not make the final cut. Star Trek, of course, takes place in the future, and a future society would likely continue to develop an even greater sense of social tolerance.
On a desolate planet, the main bridge crew is paired off: Kirk with navigator Chekov (Anton Yelchin, who died in June), Spock with Dr. McCoy (Karl Urban), and helmsman Sulu (John Cho) with communications officer Uhura (Zoë Saldana). “I’m actually proud of that scene, because it was pretty tough”. They were immediate and clear to me. Lastly, I didn’t want it to seem like we were setting up sexual orientation as a choice – because it was the same genetic Sulu in two different timelines. “At the end of the day, this is a blockbuster summer popcorn movie – we’re not trying to delve into any of these themes explicitly-but what “Star Trek” represents is the idea that unity will always overcome hatred”. I also had concerns about how Asians would view it. “I feel that this version is able to give more to the women and people of colour in the cast than Roddenberry was able to do”. Arguably that could’ve been with a wife and daughter, but in any case I just thought that having a personal life was a nice addition to the character.
He also had a couple of other worries, adding, “Asian men have been basically eunuchs in American cinema and television, and I thought maybe it would be seen as a continuation of that”.
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Follow NBC Asian America on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr. And in “Star Trek Beyond”, some of the new, gritty and self-determined characters act out of feeling abandoned or minimized by a system. You know? And his opinion was important to me, and I would have rather had him support the decision than not, so I wanted to reach out to him. Doug may have to play him!’ It started out as a joke.
