A Chat With George Takei
George Takei worked on Disney's Mulan series
By Yunda Eddie Feng
http://www.dvdtown.com/article/achatwithgeorgetakei/983/


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.