Fun fact: George Takei himself complained that Sulu is portrait gay in the new movies. He said that even tho he himself is gay, he always played Sulu as a straight guy. But why would the headcanon of an actor be more important than any other
I mean, if it informs the performance meaningfully, it's part of the end product. Doesn't mean it's necessarily canon or whatever, but it certainly has the potential to impact later performances if direction moves away from the actor's previous internal preparation.
I could see it being off-putting to work under a director or with writing that bleeds your public personality into your role, especially if it's one you've gotten to a certain place with.
Like even as a roleplayer, any character i might embody in the moment has a life of its own that's distinct from mine, and would make decisions that I wouldn't. If someone tried to push me into acting a way that's more typical of myself out of character or that's more in line with a different character I play, or if they reacted to the character based on that outside stuff, I'd certainly resist it.
True, I totally see your point. I think there are different ways to see this:
First, it's someone else who played it so he wasn't forced to do anything. It's just a role he played and now someone else does with different interpretations. You wouldn't blame a Hamlett actor for performing differently than their predecessor. Sure, it's different since Sulu was brought into existence by Takei and didn't really exist in a book or something but still a fictional character played by different people.
Since it's just one little scene I didn't even remember after the first time watching, it isn't part of his story or character building or something. He is just greeted by his husband (or partner) and daughter. In my eyes more of a homage or easter egg to Takei than forcing his personality into the character.
Lastly, HolLyWood goNe w0ke aNywAyS. I don't mean this negatively obviously. Media puts diversity into more and more places and it doesn't even have to do with Takei himself.
Even tho I started the last paragraph with lastly, let me add that I think it might even have more to do with losing control of your creation. Sure, Sulu started as the character played by Sulu but he developed further. It's like trying to force the genie back into the bottle. Sulu isn't Takei and Takei isn't entitled to control Sulu.
I can see how he'd be upset by it, and I don't think it's about lack of control. It's like the people writing the character said Takei is just SO damn gay that they have to make everything he's ever touched gay. Like the gay's contagious. He's contaminating characters with his gayness. Some people actually think that's the way it works. Given his age i'm sure he's seen enough of that to be upset by the implication. He's an individual who's lived a long and interesting life, not just some big gay caricature. Though he's definitely that too.
George takei aside, i'm all for making more characters gay. Dial it all the way up. Sure worked for the she ra reboot.
To be fair, John Cho played Sulu straight until it was revealed that he was gay. And even then, there wasn't much gayness to his acting. Unless you count bringing a sword to a skydiving phaser fight, but I'd consider that more bad ass than gay.
And even then, there wasn’t much gayness to his acting.
Care to elaborate?
What is there to elaborate? Other than a brief embrace shown on screen, he didn't appear to play the role in any stereotypical gay manner. That's all...
Why would the character be a stereotype?
I didn't say he was. That's the entire point. They briefly showed some gay characteristics on screen, but otherwise he just played the character plainly.
Yeah, he played the character like a real person (who lives in space and brings a sword to a skydiving phaser fight) and not a caricature.
I'm assuming you don't believe all gay men are stereotypes from 1980s comedies?
So, unless you were expecting there to be hardcore man on man penetrative sex on screen, what would "gayness" to John Cho's acting mean?
I'm not playing this game. You're obviously looking for a confrontation. You'll have to find someone else to play with.
He wasn't a Hollywood camp gay stereotype character.
Why would anyone think he would be?
Because usually when Hollywood includes a gay character they're doing it to villainize them, make fun of them, or show them off to cynically virtue-signal diversity. Having a character that's just a normal character who happens to be gay, without making a big deal about it or using it as a plot point, is rare.
It's not just how Takei played it, the first thing an inhibition-free Zulu does in The Naked Time is to go after Uhura - and Mirror Zulu obviously has the hots for her too.
Takei's Sulu always gave me bisexual energy.
Source: my wishful thinking (aka my ass)
But why would the headcanon of an actor be more important than any other
Idk perhaps because actors can imbue characters with unwritten properties through their portrayal?
With the debatable exception of Jadzia, all those characters were exclusively shown in heterosexual relationships.
Rejoined was a great episode.
all those characters were exclusively shown in heterosexual relationships.
That's not exactly evidence against them all being bi
This is where the wishful thinking, mentioned earlier, comes to play I guess.
By that logic, there's also no evidence that god doesn't exist.
Extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidence. Bisexuals exist and aren't always obvious, so "absent evidence to the contrary, that person might be bisexual" is not an extraordinary claim — hell, assuming similar prevalence of bisexuality then as we see now, which is arguably the lower bound given the cultural changes depicted, it's statistically improbable that there wouldn't be at least one non-straight person in the main cast.
I don't care.
I don't need to know their exact sexual preferences. That is not of any influence to the story. If it was, it would have been in the story and if it was in the story, it wouldn't have mattered what their preference was, because it would have made sense either way in the context of the story.
Issues of sexuality and gender are already being adressed in this show, there is no need to project them into situations where they're not.
Sure, but that doesn't mean they were exclusively heterosexual.
The definition of canon is that which is shown on screen.
Any character that does not explicitly say they were hetero/homosexual is canonically bi until proven otherwise.
If they're not shown in explicitly sexual relationships, they're canonically ace.
if they are not shown going the the toilet, they're canonically in voluntary urinary retention
Julian and Garak were clearly in a relationship. Just ask Garak.
Not too sure what's debatable about Jadzia. Julian on the other hand... pretty debatable.
While she kissed a girl, it was never portrayed as a lesbian relationship, rather the post reincarnation resumption of earlier straight marriage.
Did Bashir ever pine after a guy? O’Brien doesn’t count.
If you've not noticed garak and Bashir.... well, it's worth a rewatch just for that.
Garak is a pleasure to watch, and Andrew Robinson said he’s intentionally coded as bi, but he’s not in this photo.
Julian has a relationship with garak, and while he's obviously a bit confused about what it is it's pretty evident garak is not.
While she kissed a girl, it was never portrayed as a lesbian relationship
That's what I told grandma when she walked in on me and Jenny Davis
Dang I know he was just a simple tailor but such shade as to ignore him entirely?
Kira was a rebel at heart.
Bashir was in the "I've been genetically modified, which is illegal, so should I have kids?" camp, if I remember correctly.
Sisko loved his wife.
Odo was a gelatinous blob.
Jadzia was influenced by past multiple personalities, so she likely loved pans and pots.
O'Brien was a weeb. He only loved his waifu, the transporter room.
Jake was a reporter. He loved crawling into holes he shouldn't have been crawling into.
Quark was a businessman. He loved risky ventures.
He only loved his waifu, the transporter room.
Slight disagree, he only loved his waifu, constantly breaking systems.
Miles "I can fix her" O'Brein
Quark is a straight white male, or my name isn't Jeremiah Paxton
He's a straight green goblin.
This is acceptable
Ah yes gender politics, only thing missing from Star Trek themed discussion.
Naw it's not missing. Always been there.
Agreed on all points except Garak, the simple tailor.
Anybody who misses how shamelessly he flirts with Julian needs their head-canon checked on.
Star Trek memes and shitposts
Come on'n get your jamaharon on! There are no real rules—just don't break the weather control network.
