Takei’s lifelong passion for activism — and acting — grew out of his childhood experiences behind the barbed-wire fences of Japanese internment camps. He was born in Los Angeles’ Boyle Heights to native Californian, Japanese American parents. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, when Takei was 5 years old, his family was sent to an Arkansas internment camp. They were later relocated to a higher security camp in Northern California, where Takei lived until he was 9…
The experience was alienating and terrifying. But there were moments of levity — after-dinner dance performances in the mess hall or late-night movie screenings. An old Samurai film was life-changing for him. After the movie’s soundtrack broke, a Japanese resident voiced the characters while another made sound effects with coconut shells, bamboo sticks and other found objects.
“It fascinated me, I was swept away,” Takei says. “I told my father: ‘Those men are magicians!’ I always remembered that. It could have planted the seed of wanting to act.”
via Actor-activist George Takei takes command in cyberspace and beyond – LA Times.
George is one awesome hombre!
I adore this man.