Eric Bana
TrekMovie: One of the things I was most taken with in regards to your performance, is that you play a very different kind of Romulan. Did you do any research into the Romulans? And what other influences did you look at for inspiration? Maybe even pirate movies?Clifton Collins, Jr.
Bana: My point of reference was always Nero as he was written and I tried to develop my ideas based on his genesis. I always go the exact opposite when I was preparing. I watch no movies and definitely nothing vaguely related to what I am about to do. I never used other films in my research. It was basically about It was essentially working on how this guy would look, sound, feel, walk, behave - based on everything that happened to him, and the fact that he was Romulan, obviously. I didn’t want to be overly humanized and overly likable, I just wanted his vengeance to be understandable. Just because I think it is more interesting for the audience. I never like it when we have to accept our villains just because they are villains.
TrekMovie: We just reported about how the whole Nero in Rura Penthe part of the film was cut, which probably took a couple weeks to film. Did JJ have to break that to you?
Bana: You mean the whole thing with him in prison and breaking out of prison…He told me long before seeing the film that they were doing that. I always had complete faith in JJ and so whatever choices he was making was the best for the movie. It didn’t bother me at all. I thought it was cool sequence. I loved seeing that patience in the character. I think we still get a sense of it enough so we keep some of those dramatic elements in the story, we just don’t see it. Saved for the DVD I guess.
TrekMovie: Do you think by cutting the sequence the audience could be losing something in understanding Nero, or do you think it enhances his mystery?
Bana: That is a really good question. They would definitely get to know him more and his plight would be more understandable. In some ways I think it could have made it more threatening. I always loved this notion of a villain who is extremely patient. Someone who is waiting 25 years to exact his revenge. That is far scarier than someone who just reacts to the moment. In some ways it may have added to the threat level.
TrekMovie: What was your research for the role in terms of the Romulans and Star Trek?
Collins: I started off by looking into the movies, but in the back of my mind I was thinking that this isn’t those other Star Trek’s… so I stopped after Kirstie Alley appeared, although she was beautiful, so that threw me off. So I just worked with JJ on the balancing act of how much emotion to show or not show and we played with a range of things.
TrekMovie: You and Eric had an opportunity in this film in that you weren’t stepping into someone else’s shoes, was that freeing?
Collins: You know with all the grandeur of the franchise, none of that hit me until the first day when I walked on and JJ asked me to look down that barrel and announce to the USS Kelvin that this is Star Trek. I have made like seventy-something films and it felt like my first time. JJ was like ‘are you ready for this?’ and I was ‘no’…Oh my god Clifton you are doing Star Trek! It all caught up to me, but the grandeur and the responsibility, which I hold for all of my characters, but this thing is different.
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