John Cho Talks Sulu

John Cho Talked with Sci-Fi Wire about what he is bringing to the role of Hikaru Sulu in the new Star Trek movie.

George's Sulu was a veteran, and he was always in control of the ship," Cho told reporters in a group interview in Los Angeles last week. "And ... since this is his first mission, he's thrust into the position of helmsman by accident, and all of these things are happening. ... He's not supposed to be on the ship; he's not supposed to be doing all this stuff. So ... I wanted this Sulu to be a little bit more innocent, a little bit younger and a little bit more caught off guard by all of this stuff. And I felt like it would be a nice way to begin that arc, since we're going back in time."

"It's probably more due to George Takei than Sulu [the character], but I thought, 'George is such a iconic personality,'" Cho said. "You know, he's around, and he's very famous, and I just felt it best not to imitate him. One, I do not have the vocal cords. They do not do that voice. They don't do that sound. I think there's exactly one person in the world that can do that voice. So I just felt that that would be a bad idea for me, and it would just scream imitation."