A Chat With George Takei

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The term "legend" is severely overused. Still, even in Hollywood, there are real legends. Actor George Takei ("takay" and not "takai") is a real legend. As a cast member of "Star Trek: The Original Series", Takei basically laid the foundation for positive portrayals of Asians in motion pictures. Outside of "Star Trek", Takei appears in movies, TV shows, and theatrical plays and musicals. He is a writer, a mentor, and a social activist. Life has been good to him, but George Takei has given plenty back to his community.

On Thursday, 21 October 2004, at 2:45 American Pacific Time, I had a chance to speak with Mr. Takei. My friends at Paramount Pictures and one of my professors at Chapman all told me that he is a very nice and pleasant person. You know what? Mr. Takei is actually nicer than how he was described to me by everyone!

Eddie Feng: Good afternoon, Mr. Takei. I'm Eddie Feng with DVDTown.com, and I'm going to ask you a few questions for the upcoming release of "Mulan" on Special Edition DVD.
George Takei: Call me George.

EF: Are you sure, sir?
GT: Yes, please--just "George".

EF: Sure! How are you this afternoon, sir?
GT: Very well. Thank you!

EF: Great! Let's jump right into the interview. How did you become involved with "Mulan"? Were you asked to be a part of the production due to your other voice-acting work?
GT: Yes. Apparently, there was a specific role that was selected for me--that of the Great Ancestor. Disney casts according to past work, and someone decided that I had a "fat" voice, which is really odd to me because I am not "fat". (chuckles) I've run the marathon several times, so I definitely don't look like the Great Ancestor!

EF: So there's voice typecasting going on?
GT: Perhaps. I'm not quite sure, though I'm still amused that they would think that I have a "fat" voice.

EF: Were you able to play off of the other voice actors, or was everyone recorded separately?
GT: Everyone was recorded separately. I was a bit disappointed about not being able to work with any of the other actors, especially Eddie Murphy. However, Disney prepares a lot of things to help actors get into the groove of things. When you walk inside the recording booth, you see the walls lined with sketches by the artists, and these sketches give you a visual idea of what the characters look like. The series of sketches give you a sense of the rhythm, a good sense of what the artists want to do with your character, stuff like that. They also use video cameras to capture your facial expressions, your gestures, and your body language.

EF: Would you say that Disney is the most-professional and most-prepared when it comes to this sort of work?
GT: Oh, certainly. They are very prepared to make everything go as smoothly as possible. With a lot of those Saturday morning cartoons, you just walk in and walk out. I mean, when we did "Star Trek: The Animated Series", Jimmy Doohan would walk out of the recording booth, and I'd walk in. After I walked out, Leonard Nimoy would walk in. Sometimes, you just have no idea of what you're playing. You don't know what the characters look like; you don't know what they're doing. A director is there to tell you, "Say things faster", or "Say that line with more anger" or something like that, but it's not very creative or satisfying.

EF: How much time did you spend working on "Mulan", and did you have lengthy recording sessions?
GT: They called us in by scene. We'd go in for a scene as they needed us. A couple of weeks later, they'd call you in to do another scene. Disney does things with thorough, extended schedules so that the artists can develop things scene by scene. The recording session duration would depend on the scene. There were times when we were there for quite a while, and there were times when we finished in three or four hours.

EF: This is probably where the video footage that they record helps--they can modify the artwork to reflect the real actors' appearances and movements.
GT: Exactly, that's absolutely right.

EF: For your performance as Mulan's Great Ancestor, did you emulate a particular authority figure who you've known?
GT: I just based my performance on the drawings that I saw, so I played him as this, you know, grand, obese, authoritative presence.

EF: Who are the biggest fans of your "Mulan" work in the Takei family?
GT: (laughs) Well, I would have to say my nephew's little girl. I can't wait for "Mulan II" to come out so that I can give the DVD to her.

EF: When you watch these movies with her, does she actually say, "Oh, that's you!"
GT: Yes, she does! She's my nephew's daughter, but she calls me Uncle George and not Grand-uncle George. She'll say, "Uncle George! You're too fat!" Though calling me Grand-uncle George might not be a bad thing, you know.

EF: You're very active in directing attention towards historical and social awareness. Would you say that your decision to work on "Mulan" was an extension of your desire to promote American understanding of Asians?
GT: With this movie, I was selected to do a certain part, but I was delighted to be a part of this movie anyway. I was delighted to participate in sharing something of China's legends and lore. This movie also projects a wonderful image for young girls. Most of Disney's heroines have been very traditional, very feminine. However, Mulan is a very strong, powerful character; she goes out to fight. She still has a very feminine image, but she has strong independent thoughts, and she doesn't wait for a man to sweep her off her feet. The character is very contemporary in that regard, and I would say that she's a good mix of the contemporary and the traditional.

EF: Do you hope to see animated features based on Japanese legends the way that Disney did with "Mulan" and historical Chinese culture?
GT: We now live in a multi-ethnic culture, and we certainly live in a global economy. Therefore, Disney can both profit and do something important if they were to do the same thing with other cultures the way that they've done with "Mulan" and the Chinese.

EF: You've done quite a bit of voice work throughout your career. What do you find challenging about voice acting, and what are the some of the rewards?
GT: Well, I grew up on radio--which shows you how long I've been around! Radio is wonderful for audience participation, especially for science fiction. You can make weird or strange things without the burden of a huge budget. The only tool to stimulate the imagination is the human voice. I was just so transported by radio dramas. Again, radio is great for engaging full audience participation since people have to use their imaginations to visualize fantastic stories.

EF: Here comes the "expected" part of the interview--a few questions about "Star Trek"!
GT: (laughs) Oh, that's always inevitable, but it's a good thing.

EF: Just to let you know, I started working as an intern at Paramount for the StarTrek.com team this week.
GT: Great! Good for you! Congratulations!

EF: Thank you, sir! Now, you've already mentioned "Star Trek: The Animated Series" earlier in this interview. During the 1970s, what was it like playing Sulu again in a cartoon show?
GT: Since the series was canceled, fans were determined to revive "Star Trek". There was the "Star Trek Lives!" movement that got Paramount aware of fan interest. Actually, Paramount gave us a start date for a new TV series, but that date got pushed back. When the new start date approached, Paramount pushed it back again. It got pushed back until the idea basically fizzled away. We had gotten very cynical at that point with all of these false alarm start dates. When they announced that they were going to do an animated series, we all said, "Oh! A cartoon! They'll make that for sure!"

When "The Animated Series" was first announced, Walter Koenig, Nichelle Nichols, and I were not a part of the cast. It was only Bill Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, and Jimmy Doohan. Jimmy was going to do the voices of Scotty, Sulu, and Chekov, and Majel Barrett was going to do Uhura. Then, Leonard heard about how some of us weren't a part of the show, and he basically said, "I won't do it. 'Star Trek' introduced a multi-ethnic cast, and that's a large part of the show's success." After Leonard threatened to walk out on "The Animated Series", they brought us on board. Unfortunately, we didn't get Walter back for some reason; they said that they couldn't fit him into the budget.

Anyway, to this day, I am very respectful of and grateful for Leonard putting his career on the line for us. You know, he says that the "Star Trek" motto is "Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations", and to him, it just wasn't right that the minority actors were the ones who were cut out of the new show.

EF: You continue to be Sulu's voice in the "Star Trek" videogames. Do you find voice acting for videogames to be different from voice acting for animation?
GT: Yes, there is a big difference. With animation, at least you're still acting, you know. With videogames, you get a lot of, "Now press 2. Now press 3." It's just deadening sometimes.

EF: Well, now you know what it feels like for Majel Barrett to record dialogue for the computers in "Star Trek"!
GT: (laughs) Yes, that's right!

EF: Obviously, your life experiences have influenced you in terms of promoting the fair treatment of minorities in America. What kinds of progress have you seen, and in which areas do you think society can improve?
GT: Historically, African-Americans have suffered the greatest with slavery in the past. Among minorities, they have made the most progress, certainly in entertainment. In music, today, African-Americans basically define contemporary trends. They're also responsible for what is considered to be the most recognizably-American musical form--jazz.

Now, Asians and Latinos have not had the same progress as African-Americans. There are certainly better movie roles today than there was when I started out. However, Asian actors are usually assigned to specifically "Asian" roles, like in the past when they were cast as certain types of villains or just stereotypical roles. But, really, we're everywhere, from gas station attendants to professors, from secretaries to hospital administrators. Roles don't have to be "white" or "Asian"; actors should play people as people are in real life. My hope is to see people de-exoticize Asians in the industry.

EF: Yeah, Ming-na, the lead in Mulan, has had success in being surrounded by non-Asian actors in things like "The Single Guy", the TV sitcom.
GT: Yes, and also in "E.R.".

EF: Which is in sharp opposition to Lucy Liu, who's playing dragon ladies. In fact, she's even doing a new "Charlie Chan" movie.
GT: Yes, of all things to resurrect, why "Charlie Chan"? Why can't we just have an Asian female detective without that sort of connection? Her Asian-American antennas aren't screwed on right. (chuckles)

EF: Well, we're almost done! When and where can fans find new work featuring you?
GT: They can certainly check out my website, GeorgeTakei.com, which will have information as things become available. Right now, I have a science-fiction thriller called "Patient 14" coming out soon. Also, whenever something new is released, I'm sure that the producers will do things to get the publicity machine going.

EF: That's it for today. Thank you very much, Mr. Takei!
GT: Thank you, and take care.

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