George Takei on being sent to an internment camp, Star Trek and hiding his sexuality.
Ways to Change the World with Krishnan Guru-Murthy
Channel 4 News
4.6 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 9 December 2022
⏱️ 42 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
George Takei is an actor, activist and author, best known for his role of Lieutenant Sulu in Star Trek.
Imprisoned as a child in the United States for being of Japanese origin, he campaigns for gay and immigrant rights. He brings his award-winning broadway musical ‘Allegiance’ to London, which is inspired by his own memories of growing up in a Japanese internment camp.
George joins Krishnan to tell his extraordinary story, from childhood to stardom and his mission to raise awareness about his life.
Produced by: Imahn Robertson
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Helo and welcome to ways to change the world. |
| 0:04.8 | I'm Christian Garry Murphy and this is the podcast |
| 0:07.0 | in which we talk to extraordinary people about the big ideas |
| 0:10.0 | and their lives and the events that have helped shape them. |
| 0:13.0 | We are on location in a theatre club in Soho in central London |
| 0:18.0 | because we have a very special guest who is a very famous actor. |
| 0:21.0 | He is best known for one role that we've been watching for 50 years or more. |
| 0:29.0 | But he's here in London for a musical based on his own experiences |
| 0:35.0 | as a Japanese American who was sent to intern weekends. |
| 0:40.0 | We know him as Sulu from Star Trek, perhaps, but George Takay. |
| 0:45.0 | Thank you very much for joining us. |
| 0:47.0 | Good to be here with you. |
| 0:52.0 | So I want to dive in right at the beginning. |
| 0:54.0 | Allegiance is the name of the musical. |
| 0:57.0 | And that is the idea that was challenged and exposed in your own internments. |
| 1:02.0 | It was questioned and simply because of our face. |
| 1:08.0 | Pearl Harbor was bombed by Japan, by people who looked just like us. |
| 1:14.0 | We're Americans of Japanese ancestry. |
| 1:18.0 | Just like German Americans or Italian Americans |
| 1:23.0 | with those countries we were at war as well. |
| 1:27.0 | But they happened to look like the rest of America. |
| 1:30.0 | We looked like the people that bombed Pearl Harbor. |
... |
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