"I always felt the Asian gay men that I knew had much heavier cultural-shame issues"
Star Trek’s John Cho insisted that his gay character’s on-screen husband had to be Asian man too.
The Harold and Kumar star plays Hikaru Sulu in the upcoming film Star Trek Beyond. The film will show Sulu’s husband. Cho told The AV Club that he personally asked for an Asian man to be casted as his on-screen husband.
“I had requested that my husband be Asian”
Cho explained his rationale to Vulture,
“Basically it was a little Valentine to the gay Asian friends that I grew up with. This may be presumptuous, but I always felt the Asian gay men that I knew had much heavier cultural-shame issues… I felt like those guys didn’t date Asian men because of that cultural shame.”
Cho envisages a positive future for representation in the film industry,
“I wanted it to seem really normal in the future. I thought that would be the most normal thing, that there was zero shame in the future. I don’t know if that hit or not, but it was something that I felt in my gut and asked for that.”
Paramount Pictures ‘Star Trek Beyond’ screenwriter, Doug Jung, will play Sulu’s husband in the film.
George Takei, the actor who originally played the role of Sulu on NBC’s Star Trek in the 60s, has objected to the decision to make the character homosexual, telling the Hollywood reporter,
“It’s a twisting of [Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry’s] creation,” Takei, who is gay himself, told The Hollywood Reporter. “I think it’s really unfortunate.”
Star Trek Beyond, directed by Justin Lin, will be released on July 22.