Ele não está entusiasmado
Takei tinha muito a dizer sobre isso em uma entrevista de 2016 com The Hollywood Reporter , e em um post 1 em sua página no Facebook logo após essa entrevista foi ao vivo; os destaques de ambos incluem:
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Em geral, ele está feliz em ver um personagem abertamente gay, e ele está "lisonjeado" que eles fizeram Sulu gay como uma homenagem a ele:
"I'm delighted that there's a gay character,"
Let me be clear: I am not disappointed that there is a gay character in Star Trek. On the contrary, as I made clear, I am delighted that the Star Trek franchise has addressed this issue, which is truly one of diversity. It is thrilling to know that future generations will not see LGBTs go wholly unrepresented in the Trek universe2.
[...]
I am flattered that the character of Sulu apparently was selected as an homage to me
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Ele sente que as intenções de Gene Rodenberry para os personagens não estão sendo respeitadas:
"Unfortunately, it's a twisting of Gene's creation, to which he put in so much thought. I think it's really unfortunate."
[...]
"I said, 'This movie is going to be coming out on the 50th anniversary of Star Trek, the 50th anniversary of paying tribute to Gene Roddenberry, the man whose vision it was carried us through half a century. Honor him and create a new character.
On the specific question of Sulu being gay, when I was first approached with the concept, I responded that I hoped instead that Gene Roddenberry's original characters and their backgrounds would be respected. How exciting it would be instead if a new hero might be created, whose story could be fleshed out from scratch, rather than reinvented. To me, this would have been even more impactful.
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Ele também está insatisfeito com a implicação de que Sulu é (ou foi) " no armário ", algo que ele acha que a humanidade teria crescido no universo de Star Trek :
"I told [John Cho, who plays Sulu in the film], 'Be imaginative and create a character who has a history of being gay, rather than Sulu, who had been straight all this time, suddenly being revealed as being closeted.'" (Takei had enough negative experiences inside the Hollywood closet, he says, and strongly feels a character who came of age in the 23rd century would never find his way inside one.)
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Finalmente, ele expressou seu descontentamento a Justin Lin, sentiu que estava sendo ouvido e que mudanças seriam feitas, mas em última análise não eram; Ele está compreensivelmente chateado com isso também:
Honor [Rodenberry] and create a new character. I urged them. [Justin Lin, the director] left me feeling that that was going to happen," Takei says.
"I really tried to work with these people when at long last the issue of gay equality was going to be addressed," Takei says. "I thought after that conversation with Justin that was going to happen. Months later, when I got that email from Simon Pegg, I was kind of confused. He thinks I'm a great guy? Wonderful. But what was the point of that letter? I interpreted that as my words having been heard."
Depois de ver o filme ...
Relatórios da CNET nos comentários de Takei feitos nas celebrações do 50º aniversário em Los Vegas; agora que ele viu o filme, Takei não acha que foi uma cena muito significativa ou impactante:
"If you blinked, you missed it," said Takei. "There are others who are dealing with LGBT issues much more profoundly." He called it "a whisper of a scene."
1 Para facilitar o acesso, tirei uma captura de tela da postagem em questão
2 Como foi apontado nos comentários, e outro lugar neste não é estritamente verdade que esta é a primeira vez que Star Trek retrata sexualidades não heteronormativas, embora eu acredite que seja a primeira representação da homossexualidade masculina