As Star Trek officer Hikaru Sulu, he encountered alien life forms almost every day. But for actor George Takei, his own experience of “enemy aliens” came much earlier in life, when his family were deemed a threat to America and hauled off to an internment camp.
It is something that will certainly be on the openly gay actor’s mind as he takes to the stage in London this January to star in the musical Allegiance. The show, inspired by George’s own experiences in the internment camps, began in San Diego and was a big hit when it transferred to Broadway.More than eight decades have passed since the shocking attack on Pearl Harbor, but George still remembers it as if it were yesterday.
“The conditions were filthy,” remembers George. “The floor was covered in horse excrement and the stall was infested with flies. My sister quickly got sick, and then so did I.” “But anyone who tried to escape was shot dead on sight. We were categorised as ‘enemy aliens’,” George says, shaking his head. “Outrageous! I’d been born and raised in California.”
“It was surrounded by three rows of barbed wire, sentry towers fitted with machine guns and had half a dozen tanks patrolling the site.” “When I looked at him, I knew I was different. But I’d been different during the war because of the way I looked and I didn’t want to be different in another way because of my sexuality. I couldn’t hide how I looked, but I could hide how I felt.”
It was while he was appearing in a college production that George was spotted by a casting director, who gave him his first acting job. “Nobody got on with Bill,” he says. “He was and is a prima donna. He likes to be the centre of attention. Yes, he started out as the star of the show but he was overshadowed by Leonard Nimoy as Mr Spock, a much more compelling character. Sadly, Leonard isn’t with us any more.
[A bit of proofreading: In the description below the title, the spelling should be “internment” not “interment.”]
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