To Be Takei

George Takei (b. 1937) became world-famous as starship pilot Hikaru Sulu in the classic TV series . Decades later, the American actor with Japanese rootsis still active as an actor, gay rights activist, social media phenomenon and a voice reminding Americans of the wrongful internment of Japanese Americans following the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. No, this spunky seventysomething has no intention whatsoever of putting his feet up and taking it easy! For three years, documentary filmmaker Jennifer Kroot followed Takei and his husband and manager Brad – from a meet and greetat the Comic-Con in San Diego and musical rehearsals in New York to a visit with radio personality Howard Stern. Although Takei is now completely open about his personal life, his early years were blighted by imprisonment and racial stigma, and for a long time he remained “in the closet” because Hollywood had problems accepting homosexuality. In this portrait, Kroot intersperses archive footage illustrating Takei's life, such as the internment of Japanese Americans, and clips of him in the many roles he has played, as well as interviews with many of his colleagues. In Takei's own words, “My life transformed almost as fantastically as science fiction,” a fact that nobody can deny.