A Dubai-based model and part-time actor who was shortlisted to play the role of Hikaru Sulu’s husband in the upcoming Star Trek: Beyond says he didn’t know he was being considered for the role, or the name of the film, until much later.
Jake Ofrasio, 33, originally from the Philippines, says he was contacted by Dubai casting agency Miranda Davidson Studios for a ‘project’ and was asked to send his headshots.
“After about a week Miranda called me and told me that I had been shortlisted for Star Trek, and that it was actually a part and not just an extra,” Ofrasio, who works in Dubai as a video editor, tells Gulf News tabloid! “I was ecstatic! I couldn’t believe it.”
A few days after the call, a video audition was arranged in Dubai where Ofrasio was briefed about the role he was considered for.
“It was for the role of Sulu’s husband and I was supposed to be [on] another planet eagerly waiting for my husband to come home from a space exploration. But then our planet comes under attack and I have to do everything I can to save our daughter.”
Demora, Sulu’s daughter, has already made an appearance in Star Trek Generations (1994), but the husband is a completely new character created by Star Trek Beyond writers Simon Pegg and Doug Jung.
John Cho, who plays the famous helmsman in the movie, revealed the news earlier this month, saying the move was intended as an homage to George Takei who played Sulu in the original TV series.
Unfortunately for aspiring Dubai actor Ofrasio, the role went to writer Jung, who is all set to make his acting debut.
“I wasn’t disappointed. I was just honoured to even think that all these powerful people in Hollywood had even seen little clip,” he recalls. “I think the fact that John Cho couldn’t make it to the Dubai shoot had something to do with it. It was such a good experience anyway.”
And it’s not all bad news. Ofrasio was offered the role of an extra in a scene shot in Dubai with Jung and a little girl, who he believes played Sulu’s daughter.
“There were hundreds of extras on the day we filmed at DIFC. They divided us into five groups and I was part of the scene that was closest to the main actors. Our brief was that our planet has been attacked and there are spaceships firing at us and they told us to look at a specific direction and we had to run for our lives,” he says.
“Everything was so professional. They even had people to hold the umbrellas for us while were standing between shots.”
Ofrasio, who aspires to be a full-time actor, says he was paid Dh1,000 for the day’s work, which lasted about 10 hours.
The cast and crew of Star Trek: Beyond, including Pegg who plays Scotty, Zachary Quinto (Spock), Karl Urban (Bones), Chris Pine (Captain James T. Kirk) and the late Anton Yelchin (who played Pavel Chekov), were in Dubai last year for a few weeks to shoot around the city. They filmed in four Dubai locations: Meydan, Almas Towers, Burj Daman and Central Park Towers in DIFC.
“This is such a stunning city,” Pine said at a press conference in September last year to formally announce the film’s shoot in the city facilitated by the Dubai Film and TV Commission. “I woke up this morning, opened up the blinds and looked out. It looks like whatever tomorrow will be. It’s future land.”
Don’t miss it
Star Trek: Beyond releases in the UAE on July 21.
