#Cowboy Bebop Star John Cho Has Never “Taken A Role More Seriously”

“Cowboy Bebop” certainly looks cool, and Cho looks more ripped than he ever has onscreen. We’ve seen him fencing as Sulu in “Star Trek,” but that was over a decade ago and it sounds like “Cowboy Bebop” put more physical strain on him as an actor. At the same time, his age may have enabled him to give a deeper dimension to Spike as a character:

“I am strangely better suited at this age. I don’t think I would’ve done justice to the emotional depth we tried to give Spike. There’s always a trade-off. What young men are typically best at as actors is rage. And that might’ve been a more pronounced element in the character. What I’m better at, being older, is showing weakness and vulnerability and love. Those things are more accessible to me. Personally, I’d prefer the version I’m able to do now. That’s my taste.”

For “Cowboy Bebop” fans, there’s a lot riding on this live-action adaptation, but Netflix appears to be going all-in on it, with a blitz of books and comics exploring more of the show’s universe. Cho himself was new to the franchise; his first exposure to it came through the script for episode 1. It made him fall in love with the world of “Cowboy Bebop,” and we can only hope it will have the same effect on first-time viewers while doing right by the original Japanese source material.

“Cowboy Bebop” hits Netflix on November 19, 2021.