Interview: James Hiroyuki Liao Says Getting The Call For ‘Star Trek: Section 31’ Was Literally A Dream Come True

James Hiroyuki Liao speaks to TrekMovie at the Star Trek: Section 31 premiere in NYC

Last week, TrekMovie spoke to members of the cast and crew of Star Trek: Section 31 at the premiere in New York City. One of the actors we spoke to was actor James Hiroyuki Liao, a Star Trek fan who was thrilled to get the call to play San in Star Trek’s first streaming movie.

How much did you know about Star Trek going into this?

So I’m a Trekkie. When I was a kid, I started watching Next Generation. So I’m a Star Trek: The Next Generation guy, but that brought me into the world. I started with that, then went back to the original and then through everything else in the entire canon. When I was a kid watching Star Trek, it instantly became my favorite show. Next Generation. And I don’t think—it was by osmosis, I didn’t even realize at the time why I loved it so much other than I felt home. you know, in a lot of ways. When I look back at it now, I felt like an alien myself, right? I felt like I didn’t have a community in a lot of ways, and I just could not stop watching, and I could not feel, “But like, it’s just a television show, right?” But I felt seen… I felt appreciated, I felt valued, all those things. And so that’s how it all started for me, and then now to be a part of the world? It’s literally a dream come true, because I dreamt about living in that world, stepping into the TV screen, and then as an adult, as an actor, that’s literally how I felt when when they called “action!” on that first day, I was like, James, you are literally living something that you dreamt about as a child.

I love this. Were you also familiar with Discovery? And did you watch it to get Georgiou’s backstory, to feel that you were part of that world?

Again, I’m a Trekkie, so yes! I had already seen Discovery way before I got cast. When I found out what the audition was for, I just was like, bonkers, right? So yes. And because Michelle Yeoh is the greatest, she’s the absolute greatest, and she’s been a hero of mine for so long. So when I got the role, I literally… It doesn’t get better than this, because you’re living out a dream, and now another dream to be able to work with her.

And you understood the violent world that Georgiou came from…

Absolutely. So much about what I love, about what I got to do in this, nothing in the Star Trek universe is ever one-dimensional. I mean, literally nothing. So I knew that that this backstory was going to be huge.

James Hiroyuki Liao on the red carpet at the NYC premiere of Star Trek: Section 31 - TrekMovie

James Hiroyuki Liao at the NYC Section 31 premiere event (Photo: TrekMovie/Cleveland Oakes)

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As with all the other actors, he did the best he could with a badly written role in a badly written movie. I don’t fault him at all.

Pretty much my feeling as well.

Ha! Exactly what I thought, too.

Considering the concept was whittled down from a planned series to a two-hour project, I’d say the film was pretty good. So many of y’all went into this film wanting to hate it, I’d even say thirsting to hate it. It could have been the best Trek film since TUC, and you’d probably still hate it. It certainly wasn’t a masterpiece, but it was enjoyable and an enjoyable proper send-off for Georgiou. And by the way, if you hate it so much, why do you make multiple comments on every S31 article?

“So many of y’all went into this film wanting to hate it”

I didn’t go into this film wanting to hate it, so your point is moot. I am on record as MANY times saying I love all things Star Trek, even weaker series like Disco, and that I was going to keep an open mind and that I hoped it would be good. It wasn’t.

“And by the way, if you hate it so much, why do you make multiple comments on every S31 article?”

That’s a complete non sequitur since it implies people should only discuss things here that they enjoy. I post multiple comments on articles since I am a long-time and active member of this forum and enjoy the discussions, both positive and negative–which is the whole point of these boards. Don’t want to read criticism of a movie that bombed badly? Well, then go elsewhere, because almost everyone here hated it. And everyone complaining about this disaster of a film is entirely on topic and welcome to keep doing so. So your weird little attack on me has no merit. Begone, troll.

“And by the way, if you hate it so much, why do you make multiple comments on every S31 article?”

Becuse we hate it.

Why on earth would I go into not only a Trek film, but Any film, ‘wanting’ to hate it? That makes no sense. Conversely, I went into Sec. 31 hoping to be pleasantly surprised by it being decent. Alas, it did indeed suck anyway.

Exactly. No one went into this movie WANTING to hate it. That’s nonsensical. No one does that. We obviously all wanted to like it. But it was terrible, so viewers near-universally rejected it. For some reason, iMike has a problem with that. OK, that’s fine–but maybe a fan board where people are expressing their opinions isn’t the best fit for him, then.

Somewhere it needs to be pointed out how bad Star Trek got under Kurtzman, who youst doesn’t get Trek. Maybe the backlash will let Skydance know that drastic measures must be taken or a once great franchise will loose even more value, as Kurtzman said Trek is a dying franchise, and still doesn’t grasp it that when someone who is a fan and understands it is able to touch the magic of Trek and the heart’s of the fans can produce successful Trek content, like Terry Matalas and Mike Mcmahan. Funny enough Picard S3 and Lower Decks the shows where Kurtzman was almost not involved.

Thanks for all these Section 31 interviews. I liked that they were able to expand on who San was as that was one of the things Discovery never answered.

If they do make more Section 31 content with Michelle Yeoh, I’d love it to go full camp with Georgiou leading a team of drag queens. Tons of costume changes, saucy banter, slay b!tches, and seeing a certain segment of the “fandom” lose their $hit.

On a serious note, I know nothing about marketing, but I’m all in for Section 31 and Jinkx Monsoon playing the Maestro villian.

Um…… wut?

I can’t imagine that’s actually a serious suggestion. Lol. Granted, Jinkx Monsoon has never been the wrong choice for anything she has ever appeared in… so I’d be game!

Still trying to figure out why he wasn’t 150 years old at that point in time.
And no, that was not my biggest issue with the whole movie.

This script was a huge mess. I doubt the writers even noticed that San’s age made no sense.

Oh my God, I never thought of that.

My headcanon is that the nature of the ion storm-created portal made it a passageway through time as well as universes so that it was a portal specifically to her former era. This isn’t based on anything other than a need to make it make sense haha.

LOL. You’re already a better writer than whoever scripted this film’s horrific screenplay.

Tough break. He genuinely sounds like big fan and a really insightful guy. I’m sure the reception of the movie wasn’t what he invisioned when he got the call he’d be joining the franchise. He was great in Barry so like the other cast members he was just doing his best with what he given.

Armin Shimmerman was already a big Trek fan when he was cast in “The Last Outpost”. He bounced back from that mess and went on to give us Quark. I hope James gets his own second bite at the apple.

Agreed!

Yes! I would love to have him back for a better role. SNW is still filming…

Didn’t mind the actor and the character was OK but man this movie was total trash.

And they went the tired villain revenge route yet again. Think outside the box a little NuTrek. We got this in all 3 JJ verse movies and now this. This ‘movie’ was so bad in so many ways but I would’ve liked it more if San killed Adolf. I don’t think I wanted a ‘villain’ to win more than I did here. She’s a truly terrible and disgusting person.

I still can’t believe someone even approved this nonsense?

It’s sad we went from something great like the LDS finale to this crap which doesn’t even look or feel like Star Trek. And it sucks on top of it.

Too bad it is a Star Trek film most Trekkies will never watch.

James Hiroyuki Liao Says Getting The Call For ‘Star Trek: Section 31’ Was Literally A Dream Come True….but little did he realise it was a nightmare of string cheese writing and blandness through out.You know when writers and show runners are on their last leg using tired rejected recycled story lines and weak dialogue. I’m surprised they didn’t use canned laughter at the funny stuff…

Can’t even make myself watch this load of crap.

You’re dodging a bullet, because other than a couple of performances, it’s just terrible.

I’ve always said that I would read the comments and reviews and decide thereafter, but also that I would give it a chance… But honestly the reviews, ALL the reviews have been so bad that there’s simply no point. But I just can’t fathom how anyone of even minimal competence or intelligence would think this would be successful and make money. What did they think would happen? Since you work in the industry Lorna, do you have some insight?

Sadly, it’s a common problem. Decisions are made by corporate types with no creative bones in their body. They don’t care about quality. They don’t care about what viewers want. And they half the time have no interest at all in the properties they pursue. They might make a Transformers movie, for example, and dump a lot of money into it despite thinking–and openly saying–that Transformers is crap. But they figure it’ll make them money, so they’re fine with it. And they want to sell toys, so they force the screenwriters to make script alterations that enable sellable tie-ins. And they are fine with the movie bombing, because they cane still make tons of money with tax write-offs. All that matters to them is making money, whether by a film being a success or by it being an abysmal failure, and they’ll go full-on bull-in-a-china-shop in the meantime, making asinine decisions that everyone else recognizes as poor since they end up badly damaging the final product. It’s filmmaking by committee, and that is a recipe for disaster. It’s why indie movies and non-U.S.-made movies are often so much better than what comes out of Hollywood. I’d gladly work on a dozen indie sets to make the same amount I’d make on a single Hollywood set. The pay is typically less and the budget far smaller, but the creative atmosphere is magnitudes better, and dealing with the folks at the top is often far more pleasant. When filmmaking by committee screws up badly, as it has with Section 31, a lot of good people lose their jobs and reputations as a result, but the suits don’t care. People tend to view Hollywood as bohemian and risk-taking, as a bunch of talented minds getting together to produce something with meaning and impact, but that’s typically only true on the creative end. On the corporate end, the same kinds of thieves and narcissists infesting the U.S. government tend to run the show and make the decisions. They have no interest in acting, writing, directing, costume design, music, effects, any of that–and they have no interest in the viewers, either. They care about money, and that, unfortunately, isn’t going to change soon, particularly with the oligarchy direction in which the U.S. government is now heading. Another thing to remember: In Hollywood, studio heads want to be told that a new project is just like an old project that made money. When you pitch something, you don’t say “I have something new I want to bring to you.” Instead, you compare it to something else–even if it’s not really like that other property. Gene Roddenberry knew this truth way back in the 1960s–it’s why he sold Star Trek as “Wagon Train to the stars,” even though Star Trek wasn’t like Wagon Train. So if you want to get a greenlight on a Star Trek movie, at a time when Star Trek movies have been one failed dead end after another, you have to say something like “This will be a Star Trek film, yes, but we can capitalize off the superhero films that are all the rage right now. We can give you Star Trek meets Suicide Squad.” And then the corporate execs, those creatively limited coin counters, will say “Ooooo, shiny things! Me like!” So how does all that relate to Section 31? Well, chances are very good that the people at the top at Paramount/CBS thought this: “Hey, Michelle Yeoh won an Oscar! We can use that. Turn that show we never got around to making into a movie instead. Star Trek fans are easy to manipulate. They’ll flock to this film, whether or not it’s good, and then we can sell action figures and comics and plushies and whatever else. So make sure the characters are wearing superhero-like outfits instead of Starfleet onesies, because that’ll give us cooler-looking toys. And make sure they spout a lot of cheesy one-liners, because Guardians of the Galaxy and Men in Black are really popular. Think Suicide Squad. The more Suicide Squad-like, the better. And make sure to mention the Prime Directive, because Star Trek fans are nerds and they want to hear that kind of stuff, but don’t bother going into any real depth with it because we’re looking to pull in the MCU and DCEU crowds. Oh, and fill the movie with sex jokes. Sex sells. And get a hot woman. Trek fans want cleavage. What’s that species called? The orgy people? Oh, right, Deltans. Get a hot woman to play a Deltan. But then kill her early on, even if she’s actually a fun character, because we can’t have TOO many women on the show. We already have Georgiou and Garrett, so the rest should be hyper-testosterone dudes. Oh, and see if you… Read more »

Sorry, folks. My post had paragraph breaks, but they’re not showing up unless you click on “Read more.” :)

Thank you for this in-depth analysis. It does clarify things and I see corporate types are the same in Hollywood as in everywhere else. I do work in the corporate world and have had to deal with so many brain-dead self-professed superstars who think they’re the smartest person in the room when in fact they have the mental acuity of koalas.

Hopefully you can find reprieve by working on indie projects, as constant exposure to this Hollywood environment doesn’t sound very motivating.

Koalas could make a better movie than most Hollywood execs.

And no, it’s not motivating at all. During the pandemic, I started focusing more on indie work. I’m much happier, now.

Nice write up, perhaps it was just like that , I mean it’d have to be pretty close in order to get this end result.

I wonder if at some point someone in a meeting room mightve raised their hand to suggest that since the movie is set in the ‘lost era’ of ST maybe including a maroon uniform, maybe for Garret at some point, or an excelsior class ship would be a fun thing for older trek fans, but were swiftly met with blank looks and then told to leave the room

Your post also brought back memories of Simon Peggs comments that Orci’s script for Beyond which dealt with altering the timeline and Shatner Kirk was ‘too star trek’ so had to be jettisoned for something more like Guardians and Fast Furious (even hiring the director of those movies over anyone else)

Yes, exactly. In Paramount’s corporate climate, comments like “we need maroon uniforms and an Excelsior since this is in the Lost Era” would be met with eye rolls. Those at the top wouldn’t know or care what a maroon uniform or an Excelsior or the Lost Era was. They’d care about toys. The answer might be “Show me the maroon uniforms. Are they as cool looking as cybersuits? No… no, they’re really not. Those maroon uniforms look like Santa Claus. Stick with cybersuits. They make better toys. And what’s an Excelsior? Sounds like a kitchen appliance. Ooooo! Space kitchen appliances! Yes! Come up with some cool space kitchen appliances. We can sell a playset. And I have no idea what you mean by ‘Lost Error.’ Let’s not worry about computer lingo. Keep the dialogue light.”

 maroon uniform, maybe for Garret at some point, or an excelsior class ship

More pointless Easter eggs would not have saved this turkey of a movie.

I wish I had your will power my friend.

When there’s an electrified fence with a warning sign saying “Warning, severe shock. Do not touch!” you just have to touch the fence don’t you? :)

nice to see actors who want to do star trek and get excited for it. wasn’t always like that. my friend was the casting director for trek in the 80s and 90s and 00s and he said many actors didn’t want to do it. scifi on tv was looked down on. that’s why when he found actors who were great they would use them multiple times.

Doctor Who was in a similar boat until the revival 20 years ago. Just needed the fans to grow up into actors, producers, casting directors etc.

It’s crazy to hear that since you do see a lot of big actors saying they been wanting to do Star Trek for decades. But I guess when you’re established enough it’s just a fun side thing to do.

But then you have very well known Trek fan actors like Tom Hanks and Rosario Dawson and probably a lot more who are closeted Trekkies.

Yeah, but we know which ‘flavour’ of Star Trek they prefer! Tom Hanks ‘aint going to be appearing in this level of production any time soon.

While Cromwell was great I often wonder what a post Gump/Apollo13 Hanks could’ve done for First Contacts box office

scifi on tv was looked down on. that’s why when he found actors who were great they would use them multiple times.

That was hardly unique to sci-fi in the late 20th century. Tricia O’Neil and Ricardo Montalban and Joanne Linville all guest starred in HAWAII FIVE-O several times in different roles, for example.

I feel sorry for the cast including the actor featured in this article.

With the greatest respect to Trekmovie, who did a ton of interviews for this movie and no doubt feel duty bound to use them, could we please move on from this nightmare and get back to discussing other ST topics.

Yeah, those actors got caught in a real stinker of a movie and then had to promote it.

It’s not even showing up at all on my main P+ page anymore. All of the other Star Trek movies and shows are.

More like a nightmare for the people who had to sit through it. sheesh.

The Rotten Tomatoes score says all: 18% critics score,16% audience score.

The Critics Consensus is, “Beam it out of here, Scotty.” Sadly, this single line—despite being obvious and clichéd—is more witty and more clever than all of the dialog in the movie.

I’m not familiar with this actor but I hope his career can recover. He did his job.

18% critic score and 16% audience scores? Wow, why so high? 😁

In all seriousness this is actually the first thing in NuTrek that has a Rotten Tomatoes score IIRC going all the way back to the first Kelvin movie. Everything else has been fresh up until now. That really shows what a complete dog of a movie this thing is when it’s not just rotten but bottom of the barrel with both critics and fans.

This is probably the biggest misfire in Trek since TATV. Like seriously, what were they thinking?

I just read the Vulture review for S31 and agreed with all of it.

I‘m so sorry he was in what I consider to be the worst outing of the Star Trek franchise by a landslide. He deserved better from Craig Sweeney, Olatunde Osunsanmi and Alex Kurtzman.

Another actor who didn’t know what he has signed up for, and now has Section 31 in their resume. Imagine being excited to be part of Trek as an actor and then having to work with that low of a quality script and realizing it’s not even Star Trek.