By Gill Pringle

What is your relationship with the franchise? How old were you when you first watched it, and what impression did it leave on you? “I was probably seven-years-old when I first saw Star Trek. That would have been the original series, in the late seventies. So it was in reruns. I thought it was funny and hokey. The costumes and the special effects were dated, especially because I’d probably just seen Star Wars, which was a huge thing. But as an immigrant from Korea, it was a big deal to see an Asian person in space, on the bridge of the Enterprise. That was striking and it was really exciting. Back then, you’d call family members into the room when you saw an Asian person on television. It was like seeing Big Foot. And then, I did really get into the series, in the sense that they were very intelligent. The two most intelligent shows that I remember from my childhood were probably that and The Twilight Zone. They were thematically complex and challenging and far and away some of the most interesting television that I’d seen.”

Do you have a deeper understanding of the show now? And what it was really about? “I don’t know if I have any special insight, but I’ll go back to my childhood. We lived in Houston, Texas when we had immigrated. When we had visitors from Korea, we would take them to NASA to see the rocket ships. It was a great introduction to the country. My parents would say, ‘This country got somebody to the moon.’ And Star Trek’s appeal to me has always been, ‘This is the best that our American pop culture does: we thought of this.’ Also, in a broader sense, there’s the hope that our species can attain this. It is an optimistic view of what we are capable of. People respond to that. I think about that when we’re shooting…I think about what it is saying about us. Hopefully we leave this world in one piece.”

What can you tell us about the evolution of Sulu in this movie? “In the first movie, he was an ambitious young man, who was overreaching and overwhelmed, and then he became comfortable with himself. He assumed the captain’s chair in the second film, and now I feel like his ambition may have gotten him into a little bit of a hole. It involves his family and challenges his belief system. That’s where I think he is going.”

John Cho as Sulu in Star Trek Beyond
John Cho as Sulu in Star Trek Beyond

How did you feel when Justin Lin was chosen as the director for this new film? “I was very excited. I had worked with him before. He was an old friend. I was worried that J.J wasn’t doing it, at first. That was a concern, and then I saw what they were doing with Justin, and I was glad that he was also being empowered to be his own storyteller. He wasn’t given parameters. After he agreed to do the film, I went to his office and we chatted about what he was doing and where he thought the characters were going. Of course, in particular, we talked about where Sulu was going. It was like he was doing an indie again, in the sense that Roberto Orci was going to direct and had produced a script and then they decided to go a different way. I’m not privy to all the details of what happened. My understanding is that it was peaceful and polite and they agreed to part ways, but it did put a time crunch on Justin. He was flying by the seat of his pants and making a lot of instinctual decisions. He was sure of a couple of things that he instinctually wanted, and he was trying to build things around it. It felt like an independent film in the sense that it felt like a lot of gut decisions are in this film. So it will be interesting to see if it works.”

Simon Pegg is of course an actor on the film, and now he’s a writer too. What did he bring to the movie, and how has his writing affected his acting? “Simon knows the Star Trek universe better than anyone alive! He’s a big fanboy, and he knows what is required of a Star Trek film. He also knows us as actors really well and as people really well, so he tailored the parts to us a bit more as people. We’d spent a lot of time together. He and his partner, Doug Jung, leaned into us as people a little bit. For us, it was great having him as an advocate, as a man on the inside. There were things going on that we weren’t privy to, and he was keeping us up to date and looking out for our best interests. We knew we could trust him. He’s also really funny. That is useful in a movie with themes as big as this, and with tragedy as big as this, and with action as big as this. It also has moments of levity. I always think that it is psychologically true to have people joke in the midst of mayhem; that’s how people cope. Simon is one of the funniest people on earth, so that was always useful. But he gave himself all of the funniest lines!”

Zoe Saldana and John Cho in Star Trek Beyond
Zoe Saldana and John Cho in Star Trek Beyond

What about new people, like Idris Elba or Sofia Boutella? “Sofia fit in like a glove. She was fantastic. She fit in with the rest of us dumb boys really well. I love Idris, and when we saw him socially, he was a great bro and I loved hanging with him. On set, he needed to be in a different space, which I totally respected. It was fearsome to watch. I learnt a lot from watching Idris. Newsflash: he’s a pretty good actor! So write that down! It was interesting to watch him and get into it. Having done three movies with the other cast too – and this is changing the subject a bit – but I see how each of them work now, and each of them come at it a little bit differently. It’s very interesting to watch it now having done enough work with them that I can see how they get to where they need to go. Everyone is different. Sometimes we’re widely different. We’re always working in the same space. It’s fascinating to watch. But from my perspective, we all fit together and we seem of a piece. I don’t know how that happens but it happens.”

The villain always has a British accent… “Yeah, that’s because British people are evil. Not evil. Immoral, I should say. Idris is our Brit, but he doesn’t have an English accent as such. So, no evil Brits in this movie, I don’t think.”

Simon Pegg? He can be the evil Brit… “No, he’s a Scot, so he’s good.”

The crew of the Enterprise in Star Trek Beyond
The crew of the Enterprise in Star Trek Beyond

Can we talk briefly about the fans? Do you have any personal favourite interactions with fans over the last three films? “The fan interactions have never ceased to amaze me. The stereotype is the Saturday Night Live sketch with William Shatner. Have you seen that? Sweaty people. But I have found that to be widely diverse. I live in a very gay part of town, and there is this very strong gay Star Trek contingent that I wouldn’t have guessed, because it’s not part of the stereotype. I’ve seen wonderful things. We were at The Griffith Observatory, me and my family, and we went up to the telescope one night. It was closed to the public, but there was an astronomer in there; he noticed me and said, ‘Come on in.’ He told me that part of the reason that he is an astronomer is the Star Trek original series. It inspired him. We had a little tour and we looked through the big telescope. Things like that will happen, and those are the most gratifying things…those unexpected moments. It’s been around for fifty years, so the ripples have gone very far at this point. It’s just amazing where and when you’ll run into a fan and who they are. They are all over the place. They’re allllllll oooovvveer the place, he said ruefully.”

Star Trek Beyond is released in cinemas on July 21.

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