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George Takei On His New Book "It Rhymes With Takei"
Beasley Digital
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3 days ago
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Fun
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00:00
George, how are you, sir?
00:01
I'm doing great in New York City. How are you, Jim?
00:05
In the lovely city of Detroit, Michigan. I assume you've been here many times?
00:10
Many times. And my nephew, a grandnephew, my nephew's son, was there at the University of
00:17
Michigan and just graduated and got his job at GEICO as a tech engineer. So he's very proud.
00:28
It rhymes with Takei. This book, to do this, I have to be honest, George, when I saw the concept,
00:35
I went, do we need this? And then I started reading it. It creates a conversation. When I
00:41
was reading it, it made me think about questions, not only to ask you, but just in general. You must
00:47
be aware that you're creating a bigger conversation with this in a good way.
00:51
Absolutely. Because most of my adult life was behind invisible barbed wire fences. I grew
01:01
up behind iron barbed wire fences, courtesy of the U.S. government, simply because we look
01:08
different. Well, I'm of Japanese ancestry. My grandparents came from Japan. But after Pearl
01:17
Harbor Harbor, that hysteria that swept over the country made us just like the Pearl Harbor
01:24
bombers, we're Americans. We had nothing to do with Pearl Harbor, but we were imprisoned. And
01:31
then I realized after the imprisonment, after we were released, that I was different in another
01:42
way, not in the way that I looked, but the way I felt. I was nine years old. And other boys became
01:54
attractive to me, other genders. Bobby had the sweetest smile. Richard, who was an athletic
02:03
guy, came from an obviously poor family. His mother didn't buy him new clothes. And he had very
02:09
tight, small t-shirts, which stopped at the midriff. Pants were tight. And when he was spent playing
02:16
basketball, and he threw the ball up, his whole body was exposed. And that was exciting to me. And I
02:24
knew I was different again, but not visibly. It's the way I felt. And you addressed that. And that's so
02:32
beautifully done in this. And to deal with the, it's candid without being, I don't know what the
02:40
right word is, George. But I just, it made me think about like, how many years we've treated people
02:44
differently because of something that it's who they are. And you show that. And I feel bad. I always
02:51
feel bad, George, that it took till 2005. I mean, that it took so much of your life to deal with this.
02:56
I was a passionate lover of acting, movies and theaters. And I wanted to be an actor. But I knew
03:07
that I could not hope ever to be hired as an actor, if it was known that I was gay. And so I put myself
03:17
into another kind of imprisonment behind invisible barbed wire fences. And I lived my
03:25
entire adult life until 68 years old as a closeted person. But particularly in my casting in Star Trek,
03:36
you know, you're working with the same people day in, day out, coffee, urn, and then going into makeup
03:44
and costume. And you get to know each other well. And I never came out to them.
03:52
Never. Never. But never.
03:55
Did you want to? Was there a point where you wanted to tell?
03:57
Well, it wasn't a matter of my want. The actors, Hollywood people are sophisticated people.
04:05
And they knew who I was. But they didn't talk about it because they knew it could be damaging.
04:15
If they talked to me or let it let it out that I was gay, then I would be dropped.
04:22
Don't you, George, the irony of it, George, that like you're on a show that was so progressive,
04:27
that showed us so many things that we had never seen before in network television.
04:30
And here you are having, in some ways, pretend to be something you're not, to be on that show
04:36
that was trying so hard to be proactive. The irony is not lost on me. At the time,
04:40
you must have been shaking your head going, really? This is what we're doing. Okay.
04:44
But they became very good friends. And they were silent on the fact that they knew that I was gay.
04:54
But there are episodes in our relationship where they let it be known. In fact, there's one
05:04
crazy day and night, we were going to a Star Trek convention, and the storm made it impossible for us to land.
05:14
And we missed our connecting flight to West Virginia, Charleston, West Virginia. And I had to share a room
05:23
with Michelle Nichols. I went to bed with Michelle Nichols.
05:29
And so it's an interesting anecdote that I was able to talk about for the first time in the Rhymes with Takehi.
05:40
They knew, as a matter of fact, when finally marriage equality became legal in California,
05:46
I wanted my dear friends to be a part of my wedding party. So I asked Walter Koenig,
05:53
who played Chekhov, to be our best man. And I asked Michelle Nichols to be our matron of honor.
06:02
She said, I am not a matron. If Walter can be the best man, why can't I be the best lady?
06:13
Not at all with that.
06:14
Of course you are. You are our best lady.
06:17
But at the same time, I was thinking, the opposite of best man was best woman. Michelle just gave
06:25
herself an upgrade to lady.
06:28
I know we only have a couple minutes, George, and it's always fun talking to you. And this is a
06:31
beautiful book. It rhymes with Takehi. I encourage people as well, when you're looking through it,
06:37
the artwork of your family, of your mom and cooking for you, that had to be emotional to see that
06:44
artwork come to life, in your mind's eye, and telling the story to these illustrators.
06:50
The illustrator, Harmony Becker, is wonderful. She did capture my mother and my father,
06:58
each in their unique way. And my father passed earlier, and how Brad, my husband,
07:07
related to my mother, and how the reproduction of my mother by Harmony is really so sensitively,
07:18
beautifully done.
07:19
It's beautiful. And the last thing is, I have a son who's 21 years old, and he goes to college
07:23
here in Detroit. And I was telling him, trying to explain Star Trek to him. And he's never watched
07:28
an episode. Where would he start?
07:30
Where would he start? Well, with the original series.
07:36
With the original series.
07:37
Yes. And the first season, I think. My favorite episode is from the episode titled Naked Time,
07:47
when I had become half naked, took my shirt off, and got my fencing foil, and terrorized the
07:54
Enterprise with the point of my foil. That was a fun episode. And I,
08:00
and that's illustrated too, in, it rhymes with decay. And she got my pectorals. Great.
08:10
George, God bless you for what you're doing. I hope you understand all the people's lives
08:14
you've touched over the years, not just with Star Trek, but what you've done,
08:17
your conversations with Howard Stern over the years will resonate a hundred years from now.
08:22
What you did and the way the two of you have that connection, and to just be able to share this
08:27
the way you've done it, it matters. I hope you understand you. You've impacted a lot of people
08:31
with this, George.
08:32
He's a great, Howard is a great guy. And he's a colleague of mine in fighting for equality for
08:41
LGBTQ people. Howard is a true hero.
08:45
You're always welcome here in the Motor City. You know that. We would love to have you here.
08:48
It rhymes with decay. And it's an amazing book. It's a must read. God bless you. Have a great day.
08:53
Okay. Live long and prosper.
08:57
Thank you, George.
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