menuBarBack
Beam Up News | Join | Your Account
Home
Advanced Search
boxBottom
News Tribblets
boxBottom
Stardates Calendar
News Story

Features

John Cho Says Sulu is Not Just Japanese, But is a Pan-Asian Character

Features

By GustavoLeao / 06:30, 23 March 2008 / Star Trek: Nemesis

New America Media posted a new interview with Star Trek actor John Cho, the new Sulu. Here is an excerpt.

You are playing (Hikaru) Sulu in the new Star Trek. How do you feel about playing a Japanese character, being a Korean American?

J.C: I'm insulted! [sarcastic]

No. I don't feel like it has any particular bearing on this role because he is Japanese American. I wouldn't take a part that is Japanese from Japan, or a recent Japanese immigrant, because I don't think there is a way that I could do that accent really effectively and convincingly.

As far as the surname goes and cultural background, I think it's irrelevant. I think it's more, "Can you be convincing as an actor?" Sometimes you're better off casting someone who is really from that culture because the role calls for an accent that's going to be convincing. But I talked to George (Takei, the actor who first played Sulu) about it, and he said that (Gene) Roddenberry's original intent was that everybody on the bridge of the Enterprise was supposed to represent the entire world. He said that Sulu was supposed to represent the continent of Asia. They didn't have a specific cultural origin for him before the show was cast. Then George was cast and they needed to come up with a name. Gene was looking at a map and saw the name Sulu Sea and it bordered multiple Asian countries, and he thought that this was kind of a Pan-Asian name. When they came up with a first name, George is Japanese American, so they give him the name Hikaru. But the intent was not really to create a Japanese-specific character, the intent was to create a Pan-Asian character.

The full interview is here.



More Top StoriesComments
Nov 22Quinto, Urban, Saldana, Cho and Greenwood on Their Hopes for Star Trek XII2
Nov 22Exclusive Digital Content Now Available With New Star Trek Movie on iTunes
1
Nov 22No J.J. Abrams Version of the U.S.S. Enterprise in the Star Trek Online MMORPG 0
Nov 21Faran Tahir on His 10 Minutes as Captain Robau in J.J. Abrams Star Trek Movie2
Nov 21J.J. Abrams, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman on Shatner and Nimoy7
Story Archives...Browse:   

Talkback

11 comments Post New | Help
View:

RE: As Long as we're on the Subject... | Report this post to moderator
By: Endeavour (Odo's file, contact) @ 13:19:05 on Mar 23, 2008

Wasn't Sulu supposed to be from San Francisco, so he's an American...

...although it seems on the show with all the swords, he was supposed to be Japanese

Reply
Reply
Quote
Quote
Parent
Parent
Talkback Top
Top
RE: As Long as we're on the Subject... by OV-101 @ 13:34:22 on Mar 23
    RE: As Long as we're on the Subject... by IamKirok!!! @ 13:53:10 on Mar 23
       RE: As Long as we're on the Subject... by OV-101 @ 09:04:16 on Mar 24
Promenade










TrekWeb Merchants
Amazon.com
Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.ca
Amazon.de
Barnes & Noble

Get Firefox!
Privacy Policy | About Us | Legal Notice | Contact Us | | Get Firefox!
© 1996-2009 TrekWeb.com and Steve Krutzler. All rights reserved.