Aside from how Pegg, director Justin Lin and (to a much lesser extent) John Cho
may have mismanaged their conversations with him, Takei may be dealing with an
implication from all this that the Sulu he portrayed was closeted, something he
likely wants to avoid.
That this is the big news for the film two weeks before release suggests to me
that Paramount really isn't interested in capitalizing on the film. Publicity
is pretty minimal, with just a single late show appearance from any of the
stars so far. With this being the 50th anniversary year, I'd have thought
there would be more attention generated than there has been so far. (And would
it have been such a hassle to premiere the film closer to the September 8th
anniversary date?)
David
From: PGage <[email protected]>
To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, July 8, 2016 5:33 PM
Subject: Re: [TV orNotTV] Takei hissed with "Beyond" director, writer
I agree with Pegg and the others here. But Takei's opposition is interesting.
There is of course a long history of trying to get ST out in front on LGBT
issues - as late as Next Gen promises (or at least indications) were made ,
and then backed away from. "The Outcast" was about as close as they got, and
that was half-assed. When Yakei says a gay Sulu is not what GR wanted, it is
possible he is really saying he dos not want to give GR credit for the vision
or courage to have one of the characters he created be gay. Also, I suspect
Takei does not want it suggested he was not a good enough actor to prevent his
sexuality leaking out in the character, even though a gay Sulu is hardly the
most surprising re-imagining...
On Friday, 8 July 2016, Tom Wolper <[email protected]> wrote:
On Fri, Jul 8, 2016 at 4:04 PM, David Lynch <[email protected]> wrote:
I'm pretty much in a similar place with it. On top of it not being Gene's
franchise anymore, it's not like rampant heterosexuality was one of Sulu's
defining characteristics the way it was with Kirk and later Riker and the world
has changed to the point where I'm sure that any writer who was as devoted to
diversity as Roddenberry was would have some character who is not straight
and/or not binary-gendered. It's a big blind spot that Trek has had and the
go-to excuse that it wouldn't fly commercially hasn't been true since before
Enterprise was on the air.
I think Simon Pegg had the best response (below). Especially as he notes that
showing a legacy character as LGBT keeps the audience thinking about the
character and introducing a new character who happens to be LGBT becomes the
defining trait for that character and is, in effect, tokenism.
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/jul/08/simon-pegg-defends-gay-sulu-after-george-takei-criticism
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