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SYFY & USA's Chucky star Lexa Doig talks George Takei's legacy and Asian representation in science fiction
When SYFY sat down with Lexa Doig — star of USA and SYFY’s upcoming series Chucky — to talk about Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, Asian representation in science fiction, and who inspired her growing up, the first name that came to mind was George Takei.
“Specifically in regards to being an actor, it’s hard. It’s a difficult thing growing up and seeing no representation of yourself onscreen,” Doig says. “I grew up in the ‘70s and ‘80s and so seeing people like George Takei or Rosalind Chao or even Nia Peeples — who I love and got to work with — it was amazing to kind of see faces that looked like my family, to see faces that I could relate to.”
Takei has long been an advocate for Asian representation in pop culture and beyond. Just last year, he worked with writers Justin Eisinger and Steven Scott, as well as artist Harmony Becker, to publish the Eisner Award-winning graphic novel They Called Us Enemy, which is based on Takei’s own experience of being forced alongside his family into Japanese Internment camps in the mid 20th century. However, genre fans best know Takei as helmsman and eventual captain Hikaru Sulu from the Star Trek universe. For decades, Star Trek has used science fiction as a lens through which to see a better world: one in which race, gender, sexuality, and even species doesn’t stop someone from being a hero and making the universe a better place.
“Starting with George Takei, we haven’t done a bad job in the science fiction genre of representing Asian characters,” Doig says. “I would love to see more South Asian characters, to be honest.
“What I’d love to see is more leadership roles,” she continues. “I’ve loved the science fiction genre because of its metaphorical storytelling abilities and how we can tell these fantastical stories that very much relate to the real world we live in.”
Doig is no stranger to the sci-fi genre either. She starred as Dr. Carolyn Lam in Stargate: SG1 and enjoyed a stint on The CW’s Arrow as the legendary Talia al Ghul. This fall, she’ll grace the small screen once again as Chucky’s Bree Wheeler, a woman held to such high standards that it results in her keeping a dark secret from her husband Logan (Devon Sawa) and nephew Jake Wheeler (Zackary Arthur). How this secret will intertwine with the stabby desires of the titular doll possessed by a serial killer is unknown — but it’s sure to be a murderously good time.
Watch the rest of our interview with Lexa Doig below, and be on the lookout for Chucky when it premieres this fall on USA and SYFY.
