this post was submitted on 26 Feb 2024
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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.
Oh, I assumed he was talking about something written for him recently. Sulu showed up in Lower Decks not too long ago, and I know the franchise in general has a penchant for nostalgia at the moment. He certainly seemed to have a little more of a Takei tone in his LD appearance, but that may also just be him having grown more into himself over the years.
But yeah, if it's someone else playing it and it doesn't inform an established performance, then whatever.
I was referring to the 3 parter beginning 2009. Sorry if I didn't make it explicit.