John Cho revealed he was worried about the way George Takei would react to the news of Star Trek character Hikaru Sulu being homosexual.
Cho plays the iconic character in the newer Star Trek films that started in 2009. Sulu was recently given a new sexual identity and now has a husband and a daughter. Although Cho ultimately supported the decision to turn his character gay, he was concerned about Takei’s reaction and how this would affect fans as well.
The 44-year-old actor didn’t want Takei to believe he had been “reduced to his sexuality” alone.
Cho stated: “I thought it was a beautiful idea. But I had three concerns I expressed in that office that day. They were immediate and clear to me.
My primary concern was that I was wondering how George would feel, because he’s a gay actor that played a straight part and crafted a straight character. I didn’t want him to feel that we had reduced him to his sexuality by sort of borrowing this bit, if you will, from his life. 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.”
Takei, who has been openly gay since 2005, had previously said he was disappointed in the decision to turn Sulu into a gay character. He later said that this isn’t what Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry had envisioned and instead wished for a brand new character to be assigned such lifestyle.
The actor subsequently added that he fully respects Takei’s perspective, telling New York magazine: “I reached out to him and told him that this might be happening, and I just wanted to know how he felt. His objection was the same as it was a week ago. It turned out that George’s objection was mostly, as I understand it, ‘This isn’t canon.’”