8 Asians

Meet the newest star of Heroes… SULU?

That’s right, George Takei, everyones favorite gay Asian-American actor from the original Star Trek series has recently been cast on NBC’s X-Men clone original science fiction drama Heroes as the father of one of the characters. But before you dismiss this blog post as just another “meh, Asian person on TV” blog posts, what I found interesting about the fact that George Takei’s character will be speaking exclusively in Japanese.

“My agent called and asked whether I speak Japanese. And I said, ‘Yes, of course,”‘ he said. But the producers were unconvinced and faxed over a scene for Takei to play.
“I got the pages, and they were in English! And I said, ‘I thought they wanted me to do it in Japanese?’ And my agent said, ‘They want you to translate this.’ They want me to translate this as well as play it … “So I went and auditioned, and they were blown away.”

I wonder if his Japanese has an American accent or not. (Hey, my Chinese does.) Since I have yet to see any clips on YouTube of his segments on the show, here’s a clip where George talks about his newest role and about depictions of Asians and Asian-Americans on television:

Other posts you might be interested in:

• Asian Pacific American Heritage 2008 Local Heroes
• George Takei is not creepy and can call me “sweetie” anytime.
• Yay for the 7307 Takei Asteroid!
• Masi Oka gets smart at the Apple San Francisco store
• POP 88 #12 - Thanksgiving Pt.2 - ALL NEW SONGS!

Comments (5) to “Meet the newest star of Heroes… SULU?”

1. susan wrote:

   I love this! Can’t wait to see him.

   Posted on 29-Jan-07 at 7:45 am | Permalink

2. Mike wrote:

   “…and I am beaming! Ha ha ha.”

   Ah. The Takei wit. Awesome.

   Posted on 29-Jan-07 at 11:22 am | Permalink

3. Robin Yap wrote:

   Yeah George. Good for you and the press for the Asian-North American community! We need as much diversity, perspective, and exposure in the media as we can get.

   Very cool… and can’t wait for next week’s episode. It’s on my iTunes download list.

   Posted on 02-Feb-07 at 8:05 am | Permalink

4. mel wrote:

   Go George! A perfect homage to sci fi on TV, too.

   Posted on 03-Feb-07 at 3:15 pm | Permalink

5. Aya wrote:

   I met George on a trip to Tule Lake (site of the Japanese concentration camp where my father was born) and his Japanese doesn’t have any accent that I can detect. He speaks comfortably, fluently, and with that awesome low voice of his.

   He did a poetry reading and all of the young Japanese ladies sighed at how sexy it was.

   Posted on 05-Feb-07 at 1:29 am | Permalink

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