George Takei (Elder Panda)

You’ve come over from the US specially to do Love Monster, so what was its appeal for you?

Love Monster celebrates inclusive behaviour and collaboration and that’s also very much my philosophy - we find strength, in alliances, joy and vitality in diversity coming together.

So what’s it like playing Elder Panda?

Well, I never imagined myself being a panda but I’ve always enjoyed seeing pandas, especially the young cubs because they’re so cute! But now I am at the opposite end of the cute pandas... They still seem whimsical, fun-loving and life embracing, so I suppose Elder Panda is just an older version of the cute, cuddly, happy panda cubs. I suppose it’s a reflection of my standing in human life!

What do you enjoy about voice work?

I am of the radio generation. I grew up on radio drama - we didn’t have television, it was all audio, and imagination played a big part. I always marvelled at those who could use their voice to help you create that mental vision of the situation and the characters and the story.

Are you looking forward to being embraced by a new generation of children?

I believe in communicating with young people to prepare them to build a better future for all of us. I just published a graphic memoir about my childhood which I wrote aiming at the young reader. It’s titled They Called Us Enemy. As a child I was incarcerated during the war, as were many Americans of Japanese ancestry. My mother was born in Sacramento, California, my father was a San Franciscan - we had nothing to do with Pearl Harbor but we looked exactly like the people that bombed Pearl Harbor so we were imprisoned. My memoir is aimed at pre-teens and teens because they are the ones that eventually become the voters and movers and shakers of future society.

Do you enjoy working in the UK?

I’m the son of an Anglophile. I was born in 1937, the year of George VI’s coronation. My father had all the kings and queens memorised. My brother, when he was born, was round and fat and roly poly and very demanding just like Henry VIII so guess what my brother’s name is! We’re Japanese Americans named after English kings. So I’m an Anglophile because my father was and I’m a chip off the old block.

I graduated in theatre studies at UCLA and I was expecting as a graduation present at best a fancy dinner in a fabulous restaurant, but my father completely blew me away - it was a summer session at the Shakespeare Institute at Stratford upon Avon, Shakespeare’s birthplace. It was my first trip to Europe. I spent six weeks at the Shakespeare Institute and during that time I read A Midsummer Night’s Dream in the cemetery at the Trinity church, where Shakespeare’s a-mouldering, by the Avon river flowing with its evil swans! So I have a happy history in the UK.