Back in 2014, the charming and gregarious Garrett Wang, of Star Trek: Voyager fame, gave us a tremendous interview covering: his experiences with Trek, both with official and fan-made productions; his geek-to-the-core nature and love of the convention circuit; and a deep-dive into his experiences as an Asian man acting in Hollywood – including his good-natured lament on the fact that he wasn’t able to play Glenn on The Walking Dead. Read on for a brief excerpt of the interview, and check out the full video on our website. If you’re a fan of Star Trek, geek culture in general, or just handsome, friendly guys, you’ll love this dip into the GayCalgary vaults.

Garrett Wang: I love going to conventions and letting the fans see the part of me that they’re not used to seeing – which is the real me, you know? Everyone sees the very serious Ensign Kim on episodes of Voyager, so I like to show the other side.

Gay Calgary: Compared to an Avery Brooks or a Brent Spiner, you seem to be a lot more willing to embrace the convention circuit. Where does that come from?

GW: Being a geek first, probably? Being a science fiction, fantasy fan, before getting on Voyager, I think changes a lot of it. A lot of people don’t realize that, of the 44 or 45 living actors from Star Trek, including the cast from TOS, TNG, DS9, Voyager, Enterprise, and JJ Abrams’ crew, there are only like four of us that are fans first, and that changes it big time. If you’re already into sci-fi, and then an actor on a TV show, going to conventions is a no-brainer. Like, yeah, of course! If I wasn’t an actor on a show, I would be here anyway.

CG: What sorts of stories and media were you into before being cast on Voyager?

GW: First fandom would be 1977 Star Wars... and then, after that, I watched original Battlestar Galactica, and pretty much anything... sci-fi or fantasy-based that would come out before I got onto Voyager. I followed it, I watched it.

GC: You had some really interesting perspectives on race in a previous panel – would you tell us a bit about your experience as an actor through that lens?

GW: [One of DW Griffiths’ early films] Broken Blossom was basically a film about a Chinese man who falls in love with this Irish girl and, before they can consummate their love, the father of the Irish girl finds the Chinese man, and kills him! So that just sort of set the precedent in Hollywood. I don’t know how to put it, other than, it has been ‘unfortunate’ that Asian-American males, specifically, have not been portrayed as sexual beings whatsoever.

GC: So as fan of Star Trek, an actor and an Asian man, what did it mean to you to see George Takei in the role of Sulu?

GW: It was really an eye-opener. Just a sense of pride knowing that, look, that Asian male actor is not speaking with some crazy chop-socky accent; he is not delivering Chinese food... and he was really the only one at that time who was allowed. So thank God Gene Roddenberry had the vision and the foresight and the emphasis on IDIC – infinite diversity in infinite combinations – that was just so groundbreaking at that time."