Star Trek Beyond actor John Cho 'proud' of Sulu's cut gay kiss

'I would have rather had George Takei support the decision than not'

It was recently announced that Star Trek character Hikaru Sulu will be gay in the franchise's third outing as a mark of respect to George Takei, the actor who played Gene Roddenberry's creation in the original series.

The openly gay Takei, however, expressed his concern with the addition to Star Trek Beyond stating: "Unfortunately, it's a twisting of Gene [Roddenberry]'s creation, to which he put in so much thought. I think it's really unfortunate."

It has now emerged that, in the new film, Sulu actor John Cho filmed a gay kiss that has since been chopped from the final cut of Justin Lin's sci-fi adventure. In an interview with Vulture, the actor said, "There is a kiss that I think is not there anymore" (something we can confirm having seen the film).

The actor also revealed he had some initial concerns about how Takei might respond to the tweak of the character.

He said:

"My primary concern was that I was wondering how George [Takei] would feel because he's a gay actor that played a straight part and crafted a straight character. I didn't want him to feel that we had reduced him to his sexuality by sort of borrowing this bit, if you will, from his life. You know? And his opinion was important to me, and I would have rather had him support the decision than not, so I wanted to reach out to him." 

Despite this hesitation, however, Cho remains "proud" of the scene that he ended up filming.

He added:

"It wasn't like a make-out session. We're at the airport with our daughter. It was a welcome-home kiss. I'm actually proud of that scene because it was pretty tough. Obviously, I just met the kid, and then Doug [Jung, the film's co-writer] is not an actor. I just wanted that to look convincingly intimate. We're two straight guys and had to get to a very loving, intimate place. It was hard to do on the fly. We had to open up. It came off well, in my view."

Star Trek Beyond was written by Jung and Simon Pegg who also stars in the film alongside Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Idris Elba and the late Anton Yelchin who died in a freak accident last month.

The film is released in cinemas on 22 July.