Sulu takes the helm again

Japanese-American actor George Takei’s fame rests almost entirely on one character he played on TV and in movies since the 1960s – helmsman Hikaru Sulu aboard the USS Enterprise in the science-fiction franchise Star Trek.

But the Star Trek connection alone does not explain his current popularity in the social media universe.

Dubbed the funniest guy on Facebook by Forbes magazine last year, Takei, 76, has built a rapidly growing fan base with more than four million likes on his Facebook fan page and a whopping 656,000 followers on Twitter (@GeorgeTakei).

And he did this in only three years.

In comparison, his former colleague William Shatner (Captain James T Kirk to “Star Trek” fans), has just 226,000 Facebook fans and gets only a few hundred likes for most of his posts.

So how did Takei become one of the biggest breakout stars on social media?

Takei says it all stemmed from his desire to produce a musical based on “a little-known chapter of American history” – the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.

He needed to attract an audience and he thought, why not turn to social media to find one.

“The force of my fanbase at the time were sci-fi geeks and nerds and so I had to build from that. I started out by saying funny things about sci-fi and throwing in a few cute kitty pictures, and that caught on and my audience grew.

“I’ve also been an activist for a lot of civil rights and human rights issues and my audience grew a little bit more. But I had no idea it was going to grow this rapidly and grow this large. Here we are now with more than four million fans,” he says. 

The openly gay actor is an ardent supporter of the lesbian, bisexual, gay and transgender community, and has won awards for his contributions to US-Japanese relations.

Takei’s army of Facebook fans regularly comment and share his posts. His YouTube videos – such as “Fifty Shades Of Takei”, where he reads excerpts from best-selling erotic novel “Fifty Shades Of Grey”, and “The George Takei Happy Dance”, which sees him bust disco-dancing moves to LMFAO’s hit number “Sexy And I Know It” – have attracted more than a million views each. 

Takei’s original objective for boldly going into Twitterverse has been achieved, too.

Last year saw the successful premiere of the musical “Allegiance” in which he stars alongside Lea Salonga and Telly Leung. It is inspired by his own experience growing up in an internment camp during his childhood days.

The musical broke box-office records in San Diego, California, and was crowned “best musical” at the San Diego Theatre Critics Awards. It will hit Broadway soon.

Busy with rehearsals, Takei admits he needs help to keep his Facebook page active, getting help from his partner, Brad Altman, and a group of dedicated interns.

He says: “You can’t do this all alone, what’s important is the consistency to be there posting daily. I spend the weekends preparing the material, but the daily conscientious contact with my fan base is carried on by Brad and the interns.”

Born in 1937 to Japanese-American parents in Los Angeles, George Hosato Takei started his career as a working actor in Hollywood in the 1950s.

In 1965, he got his big break when producer Gene Roddenberry cast him as Hikaru Sulu in the original “Star Trek”. The series went on to become one of the most influential science-fiction TV shows in history, spawning several spin-off series, numerous games, toys and comics, and a slew of feature films under the multibillion-dollar Star Trek franchise.

The latest movie instalment is “Star Trek Into Darkness”, currently showing in cinemas.

Takei says he has not seen the movie but praised American actor John Cho, 40, who plays Hikaru Sulu in it and also in the previous movie, “Star Trek” (2009).

Takei says jokingly: “Cho got cast as Sulu for the last movie and I got a phone call from him to have lunch. He was quite concerned about taking on the role and how to deal with Star Trek fans because they are now a legion and he knows about the phenomenon.

“I told him, ‘Don’t worry, you’re a talented actor, you’re going to do a great job and it won’t be very long before I’ll be known as the old guy who played John Cho’s part’.”

Melissa Kok