More Cast Interviews

The Star Trek cast is making the rounds to fill theatre seats for tomorrow's night opening of the movie. Below are snippets from each but click the links to read the whole thing.

Zachary Quinto - Two video clips from ABC. The first clip is an interview were Quinto discusses the movie, becoming Spock, and Trek tradition. After a commercial break, the second clip airs wtih Quinto talking about what would be on Spock's iPod (classic rock and Bob Dylan). Thanks to Brian for the link and info.

Karl Urban (Leonard "Bones" McCoy)

Did you and JJ sit down and decide to go that route with Bones –to make him the one that would be the closest to the original?
Urban: No, actually. We never really had that conversation. As a long-term fan I felt it was important to see some semblance of continuity to the wonderful work Mr. Kelley had done. And really, to me, it is about the character’s attitudes. And there is a certain specific way that the character of McCoy reacts in certain situations and I really could only do my version of what that could be. There were certain character traits that were keys for me. Finding a voice was important. I remember JJ coming up to me one day and he says "what you are doing is wonderful, it is not DeForest Kelley, but it is something that is Bones, but it’s different, and keep on doing what you are doing." I had a lot of fun working on this character. I got to do and say some fun things. I am just very grateful that the character has gone down well thus far. I look forward, if I get the opportunity, to continue to develop it in further installments..

TrekMovie: As a fan. what was your biggest fanboyish moment in making this movie?
Urban: I think it was meeting Leonard Nimoy and being on set the very first day that he became Spock again, the first time in seventeen years. to be this close, as I am to you, to an actor and character of such iconic status who you have enjoyed and has been part of your childhood — to be that close to him was such surreal moment. To hear him deliver those lines in that Spock cadence — I’ll never forget it. I feel very privileged to be part of it and blessed that he was part of our film.

John Cho (Hikaru Sulu)

TrekMovie: Once you got the script, what was it like for you, since Sulu is a little different than he was in the show and has a lot of action. Were you nervous about that or excited?
Cho: A little bit of both. I was thrilled he was out of his chair and getting into the mix. If I had one complaint about the old show, as an Asian-American, I wanted to see Sulu get involved a little more and kick some booty. And this is it, this is happening. I can’t believe I am fulfilling my own personal dream and having Sulu shaking it. And secondly, I was like ‘I have never done this before’, I have never done action before so it was a completely different way of working for me, where I led with my body. Strangely, that stunt work we did a couple of months prior informed everything else. I was surprised by that. That the way my body changed as a result of doing all that training, kind of made me a different person. I was like ‘I like this, I am going with this’ it was a little like an Academy experience for us. It informed how I sat in the chair, how I attacked every line. It was surprisingly useful.

TrekMovie: You talk about getting back into the chair. You and Anton [Yelchin] still do a lot of ‘in the chair’ work in this movie. So you and he worked out some system so you know what does what at that consoles? Like you guys have figured out a system where you know what to do if Kirk says ‘fire the photon torpedoes’?
Cho: Not precisely, but vaguely, yeah. We made decisions and it was building from scratch. I went in there and I called JJ over and I was looking at the set and I said ‘what is the language?’ I realized we are setting something here, we have got to feel confident going forward. The set was an in interesting mixture of the digital vibe of the original show, and kind of the — I hate to bring this up — but the analog vibe of Star Wars. The bumpiness and used feel and the real dials. It was funny, Star Trek was such a smooth sleek view of the future and how do you combine that. Do you depress things? We could have gone in a bunch of ways. We relied on the touch screen more than anything else.

Zoe Saldana (Nyota Uhura)

TrekMovie: You mention kissing aliens, so I can’t help but bring up something. I would say as a Trekkie it was the most surprising thing about this film. Were you nervous about the love connection with Spock and tell me how you prepared for it.
Saldana: I thought JJ [Abrams] was out of his mind when he and Bob Orci and Alex Kurtzman decided to take that route. My concerns was what effect it was going to have on the fan community and whether or not it was going to go according to what they had known for so long. But at the same time there was no way to disprove that something like that had taken place before on the Enterprise. So after I gave myself that permission I allowed myself to go back to the script and read the story and focus on these characters and their journey and it made perfect sense to me. He is half human, half Vulcan, at some point if he was only going to be a Vulcan man, then why even make him half human. You are constantly waiting for him to break. It is that battle that makes Spock who he is and connects Spock to the beautiful friendship he has with Kirk and keeps him connected on a sensitive level when it comes to life. And I felt Uhura was a very commanding and — Nichelle [Nichol]’s Uhura was just so sexy and she always had things together and she had a swagger to her that was absolutely sensuous but confident. And she had already gotten there. I couldn’t necessarily start here there because there would be no journey for her. She was definitely very determined and a very strong woman and really wanted to be on that Enterprise and be the xenolinguistics expert since she was like five years old. So who else but Spock for her to look up to and have an infatuation with, more than Kirk.

Zachary Quinto (Spock)

TrekMovie: I know that you have tried to make this role your own, as directed by JJ and as Leonard [Nimoy] understood. But what would you say is the most different about your interpretation of Spock, and on the other hand what would you say was the most the same?
Quinto: I will take the second part first. I think there are a number of characteristics of Spock that are inextricable from who he is and what his heritage is and what his cultural history is. There is a certain way he carries himself and a certain way that he speaks and way that he relates that is defined ultimately by Leonard, but more than that, by the history of the mythology of the character. For me that was the part of the character that was most similar to the version that Leonard played. I think the versions that were different is that that he is much less at ease about his duality. He is much more in conflict internally and I think he has much less control over the stirrings of his human emotion, and that allowed me a little bit more room to play with then many Leonard felt he had with his experience with the character.

TrekMovie: How did you prepare to literally go where no Spock has gone before? It is very new territory.
Quinto: [laughed] It is new territory, but I think it is very important to our movie. On one hand, I think it infuses the story with a certain levity and a certain humor between Kirk and Spock and this sort of rivalry. Between Kirk and Uhura there is this sort of cat and mouse thing going on. And that is the source of a lot of laughs for me. I think between Spock and Uhura it actually provides a sort of depth and complexity to these characters and relationships that adds a kind of value to this movie and sets it apart from what has come before it. Uhura represents a canvas onto which Spock is able to project the emotions he cannot express. To that end I think it is a valuable device and I think it is well laid in to the evolution of this story and I hope that it is not too disruptive to the die-hard Trek canon fanatics.

Eric Bana (Nero)

Let's talk about your character, Nero. He has such a tragic back story. Did you ever feel like a tragic hero?
That's a good question. Tragic hero? I guess to a degree. I never really saw him as a villain, even though he sort of performs that function for the drama of the story. To me, yeah, he was Nero, leader of the Romulans who has been wronged and is seeking revenge, and that's kind of how I see him so I think. Yeah, I like your description.

I'm curious about your movements in character. You're very aggressive and strong, did you come up with any of those reactions and jumps yourself or was it all planned out?
Some of them were a bit spur of the moment. It was a pretty intense character. I passed out, I think, once during one of the takes, I got so carried away. Lost about twenty seconds, down on the floor, and got up, and the camera was still rolling and it was like, "I guess I just continue now." Um yeah. It was pretty crazy.