Star Trek Interviews (2) - Profile of/Interview with
                               Leonard Nimoy/Spock

             Taken from the public domain

1. Profile - Leonard Nimoy/Spock

During Star Trek III and IV, Leonard Nimoy divided his attentions
between the comfortable role of Captain Spock and his gruelling
job of film maker.  For Star Trek V, however, Nimoy has taken it
easy, just portraying Spock and having fun watching his long-time
comrade William Shatner face the challenge of acting and directing
simultaneously.

"Spock has travelled along with me, side by side, for 23 years,"
Nimoy says.  "When I first started playing him, I was much more
interested in his severity, the containment and the sensibilities
of the character.  But we've done a lot of that, and now I'm more
open to giving him a bit more of a twinkle.  It's fun to let a
little out and rein it back in again."

For Nimoy, the path taken has been a busy one with many noteworthy
detours.  He was born in Boston and, attracted to the art of
acting early on, studied drama at Boston College before moving to
the West Coast.  Once in Los Angeles, Nimoy joined the Pasadena
Playhouse troupe.  While in the area, he made his first foray into
films, appearing briefly in Queen for a Day before going into the
armed services.

Throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, Nimoy divided his time
among film, stage and television.  It was then that Nimoy met a
number of people who were to be influential in his life, people
such as Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and William Shatner.
In fact, Nimoy and Shatner guest starred together on an episode of
the Man from U.N.C.L.E. before they signed aboard the U.S.S.
Enterprise.

By 1964, Nimoy had been cast as Spock and appeared in both pilots
("The Cage" and "Where No Man Has Gone Before") prior to NBC's
commitment to Star Trek.  He appeared in all 79 episodes and was
nominated for an Emmy Award for each of the three seasons.  After
Star Trek left the air, Nimoy joined Mission: Impossible as Paris,
the master of disguise.

When Star Trek returned to television via syndication in the early
1970s a new generation of fans sprang up.  Nimoy demonstrated the
range of his talents by producing books of poetry and several
records.  His voice, if not his person, returned to Star Trek for
the animated version of the series.  Nimoy also made his Broadway
debut in the play Equus to positive reviews.

Over the past nine years, Nimoy has continued to act and direct.
First he wrote, directed and starred in the acclaimed one-man
show, Vincent: The Story of a Hero, about the life of artist
Vincent Van Gogh (now on video).  He directed an episode of The
Powers of Matthew Star, produced by Star Trek's Harve Bennett, as
well as a segment of William Shatner's cop series, T.J.Hooker (in
which he later guest starred).  All of this, however, was merely a
prelude for Nimoy's feature debut with Star Trek III: The Search
for Spock.

Many fans had assumed Nimoy's association with Star Trek had come
to an end with his character's death in Star Trek II: The Wrath of
Khan.  However, Nimoy has so much fun making that feature for
director Nicholas Meyer that he admitted he didn't want to leave
the Star Trek universe.  Bennett asked Nimoy about appearing in
the third feature, but to secure Nimoy's services, Paramount
Pictures agreed to let him direct.  When the film came in on time
and on budget and turned out to be a blockbuster, he was quickly
asked to helm Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.

After that film's smash success in 1987, the same executives at
Paramount who had agreed to let Nimoy direct Star Trek III, asked
him to direct Three Men and a Baby for Touchstone Pictures.  An
even bigger hit, it guaranteed Nimoy a career as a feature film
director.

He then looked for another type of film challenge, deciding upon
the drama The Good Mother, an adaptation of Sue Miller's
successful novel.  He fought to cast Diane Keaton in the title
role and won.  While the movie was not a giant moneymaker, Nimoy
still enjoyed the process of making it.  "Drama is where I stared,
really," he observes.  "When I was 17 and 18 years old, I was
acting in Clifford Odets' plays.  When I was in my 20s, I was
doing Tennessee Williams.  I directed A Streetcar Named Desire, so
I'm totally comfortable with it, much more so than I thought I
would be with science fiction or comedy."  After The Good Mother,
he headed to Star Trek V: The Final Frontier to rejoin all his old
friends.

As a director, "Bill Shatner's great," Nimoy observes.  "Bill's
much more physical than I.  I had a good time, a real good time
making the movie."

Nimoy is weighing future directorial opportunities and planning a
proposed sequel to Three Men and a Baby.  He is also enjoying life
with his new wife, Susan Bay, whom he married in late 1988.
"Right now, I'm getting many more submissions for directing, a
steady stream of scripts," Leonard Nimoy says happily.  "I'm very
lucky.  I've really just backed into this amazing new career."

                       * * * * * * * *

2. Interview - Leonard Nimoy/Spock

     Q:  Your career is now going through a change.  At the same
time, Spock, who had died, has been brought back to life,
re-educated and is now coming into his own again.  Do those things
relate to how you are now performing as Spock?

     A:  I think they do.  Even if you don't make a conscious
decision to let them, I don't think you can help but find
particularly when you've been living with a character that's
travelled along with you side-by-side for twenty-two years, that
they do.  When I came in to have meetings with Bill and Harve
Bennett and David Loughery on this script, my feelings was that
Spock, having gone through that process which included dying and
coming back, and as you put it, "re-educated," had come back
better than ever.  And something about me feels comfortable with
that right now.  There are a lot of personal things that have
happened to me, work things that have happened to me, that have
given me a new perspective on myself.  And I think there is a
definite relationship between that and what has happened to Spock.

     Q:  How different is your image of Spock today than that
twenty-two years ago?

     A:  In the sixties he was a little bit more brittle than he
is now.  He was more a character in search of himself at that time
than the integrated character he has become.  I think that has to
do with two things: One, the series of stories we've put him
through, and two, what's happened in my life, my personal life.  I
think he's a little smoother around the edges now.

     Q:  Do you like him better now?

     A:  I've always enjoyed playing the character.  I've always
enjoyed the opportunities this character has given me to study
mankind in an interesting kind of way; to stay outside, to pretend
as if the character is outside the mainstream of the emotional
experience, though he really is in touch with it and understands
it all.  Now I'm enjoying him in a different way.

     Q:  As Spock has now come into his own, will you play him
with his feelings a bit more up front?

     A:  I think it's still fun to let a little out and rein it
back in again.  I enjoy doing that and I think the audience will
enjoy that.  We are playing Spock for an audience, we mustn't
forget that.  I don't think the audience wants to see that get
entirely lost, because that's a fun part of watching the
character.

     Q:  The Voyage Home was a comedy.  That mood has partially
carried over to this film.  Partially your input?

     A:  Yes.  When we started working on The Voyage Home we -
Harve Bennett and myself - were asked to come up with a concept
for the movie.  We immediately agreed on two things:  that we
wanted to lighten up and we wanted to go back in time, to do a
time travel story.  We had played three very severe stories.  In
the first Star Trek motion picture, humour was completely
forbidden.  There was some in the second.  It was jaunty.  It was
Nick Meyer who was jaunty.  There was less in the third because I
was very much concerned, very much interested in the passion of
these characters for saving their friend.  I felt that I wanted to
focus on that intensity rather than the humour, though there was a
moment of laughter here and there.  Having done that, I wanted to
lighten up.  I thought, okay, done.  Spock's alive.  Let's have
some fun.  We worked very hard to put it in there.  I really
enjoyed working the humour in that picture.

     Q:  Where did the idea of the Whales come from in Star Trek
IV?

     A:  It was a long process.  We knew we wanted to come back to
the twentieth century, so we asked "Why are we coming back?  Is it
an accident or is it a time warp?  Are we looking for a person?"
I read a book called Biophelia by a Harvard biologist.  He wrote
that be the end of the twentieth century, we'd be losing as much
as 10,000 species per year off the planet.  So I thought, "That's
interesting.  Suppose we didn't know what all those species are.
So there's an awful lot of species we're losing.  What does that
mean to society?"  That gave me "we're coming back to find
something that's extinct."  I thought whales would be great fun
cinematically, as well as being a very current concern.

     Q:  What's your biggest challenge in this particular film?

     A:  There are a couple of interesting challenges.  It is
Spock's brother who is kind of the motor that runs our operation,
gets us going, gets us involved.  The challenge in that is, on the
one hand, I know that Sybok can be very impassioned and therefore
not a very predictable or necessarily reliable individual.  On the
other hand, he is my brother.  I've got to give him some room,
some leash to run on, and maybe even support him or help him in
some way while trying not to be disloyal to the captain or to
earth or the crew.  So I guess it's a question of balancing
loyalties and friendships against my compassion for this man who
asks for our help.  It's a delicate dilemma.

     Q:  What's the most refreshing thing in this film?

     A:  The physicality of it.  I think this is the most physical
of the movies we've done and I think that reflects Bill's energy,
Bill's sense of what is fun for him, which he always enjoyed doing
during the series, and which the movies have more or less gotten
away from.  I'm just talking sheer physical running and jumping.
We haven't done much of that so that's fresh.

     Q:  How do you feel about the subject matter of this film?

     A:  For me the subject matter has to do with the brother
thing, the rest of it is what it is.  I'm not on a search for Sha
Ka Rhee or infinity or the final frontier.  My brother is.  He
infects other people with that idea.  I think that Spock remains
curious but not really sold.  Even Kirk begins to believe that
maybe it can happen.  I don't want to say that Spock is cynical,
but he is preoccupied with what is happening to his brother.  If

Sha Ka Rhee is there, fine, it's there.  If not, it isn't.  Sybok
for me is the focal point.

     Q:  Spock re-experiencing his separation from Sybok?

     A:  Even after re-experiencing their separation, Spock says,
"I'm not the outcast, the lad you left behind so many years ago...
I've worked that out."  Let's deal with what's now, and what's now
is this brother of mine who is obsessed with this idea, and I
can't simply drop my loyalty here to carry on with him.  If these
people want to go, I'll go with them, and help them if possible.
But I was essentially saying, if you force me to choose sides, I
have to choose this side, because this is real to me.

     Q:  So having chosen that side and lost his brother
permanently...?

     A:  I think there's a great sense of loss.  I wouldn't
describe it as pain.  I think the loss of Sybok - the pain of that
loss is something Spock dealt with years ago, as part of that
process that he's worked through.  I think Spock and Sybok had
more to say to each other in that speech where Spock says, "You're
my brother, but you do not know me," I think Spock would say much
more like, "although you're my brother, I've gone through far
more, and far more personal experiences, with these people.  I've
gone through more brotherly experiences with these people.  I have
spent more time with these people.  I have been helped, given back
my life by these people.  Things that never happened between Sybok
and Spock.  Therefore, although in blood and name we have a
relationship, the relationship with Kirk and the rest in a way is
more real, more valid."  And therefore when it's over, when this
whole story is over, I think Spock has to feel he made the right
decision.

     Q:  Did you make those sorts of observations in the story
meetings?

     A:  I had one major concern, in that when Sybok does his
magic with Spock, as he has done with all his other people and now
McCoy, and they all chose to go with him, my concern was that, no,
Spock can't do that... Sybok tries to play his magic on Spock
using information that [he] has... [but] Sybok does not have all
the necessary information, and that's why I said that Spock has to
say, "Sybok, you haven't got it.  You don't understand what you're
dealing with here.  You may be able to do what you do with people
whose feelings are not resolved.  But mine are resolved.  I have
died, come back, been re-educated, gone through that whole
process."  At the end of Star Trek IV, Spock is able to say to his
father, with a twinkle in his eye, "Tell mother I feel fine."
It's an inside joke that even the father doesn't get, so Spock has
lost his fear of his father.  He's grown up.  He's a totally
grown-up individual person.  He's able to stand toe-to-toe with
his father and when his father says, "Your associates are decent
people, you've chosen well," and Spock says, "Well, these are my
friends."  It's like "You don't get it, dad," in a nice way...
carrying that into Star Trek V, I think that Spock has a kind of
sadness that Sybok doesn't understand all of this, doesn't get it,
thinks that he can still step into Spock's life and automatically
pick up as the older brother, but it just doesn't work that way.

     Q:  Do you come to work for this picture with a different
feeling than the last two, where you were also directing?

     A:  Absolutely.  I don't think that I could sit here and
have this conversation with you if I were directing this movie.
When I direct, I'm very heavily involved all day long and thinking
constantly about the work.  When I'm acting, not quite so.  But
when I'm doing both it's just impossible.  Particularly for me
because the Spock character requires two hours of make-up.
Average straight make-up might require a half hour.  So I have to
figure I'm putting in an hour and a half a day more than any other
person and it's very draining, very demanding.  I'm very glad that
I did it, but I'm glad that it's Bill doing this one.

     Q:  Do you have any thoughts of becoming a triple threat,
like Mel Brooks, say (writer-director-actor)?

     A:  Not really.  I had wanted to direct for a long time.
This seemed to be an opportunity to do that, and particularly to
start out with material I know about and understand.  There's also
a help in acting in the film as a character that I knew,
particularly in Star Trek III, where I had not very much on-camera
time.  So there were only a few days that I had to work as an
actor out of a fifty-day schedule.  In Star Trek IV, it seemed to
me I was on camera about half the shooting schedule, so I had some
days off, but again, playing a character that you've played before
and lived with for twenty years is a lot easier than starting out
to make a film where you're playing an entirely new character and
directing a movie.  That's awful tough.  People do it.  Woody
Allen has done it brilliantly.  [So has] Clint Eastwood.  I admire
them.  It's hard work.

     Q:  Why did you become an actor?

     A:  I got bitten by the bug real bad.  At first, I was just
drifting into it but then the bug hit me.  I started acting in
children's plays when I was eight, but that was just accidental.
I was in a local settlement house where there was a theatre and
there were plays.

When I went home they put me in plays.  And I was okay at it.  I
could remember my lines and I got past the stage fright that
everybody starts out with.  I was dependable and could sing, carry
a tune, so I was in children's musicals.  But when I was a
teenager I started getting into adult drama and I was quite taken
with it.  I became obsessed with the idea of being a part of
theatre life.

     Q:  What was your first exciting role?

     A:  It was a play written by Clifford Odets, Golden Boy.
That was William Holden's first big star role, the movie of it.
Also a play by Odets called Awake and Sing, a story about a family
during the depression in the thirties.  It hit very close to home
for me.  It was the first time I was ever involved with material
that really had something to do with me and my life.

     Q:  Do you find people assume that you are like the character
of Spock?

     A:  People wonder.  People can't help but wonder what a
person's really like when he's playing [someone with] such a
strange emotional life.  They must wonder, "What is this person
really like?  How much of him is Spock, and how much is me?"

     Q:  Do you call upon certain aspects of your own character to
play Spock?

     A:  I think that's what an actor does.

     Q:  Have you found Spock has limited you in the past?

     A:  I don't think so... there are bound to be people in our
industry who see you in that.  The same thing is true of a
cinematographer or editors... [you] look for someone who's done
that kind of film you're doing... it can be helpful because people
can understand what you do and they can find it useful... it works
both ways.


     Q:  Do you think that directing offers you an opportunity to
stretch your artistic abilities more than acting does?

     A:  Yes... you're covering all the territory.  You're working
visually.  You're working with the camera, you're working with the
set design, you're working with casting, you're working with the
writing of the script.  You have a lot more input in the overall
project than an actor does.  An actor is only introduced at a
specific point during the process, just like a wardrobe person
makes a contribution, the editor makes a contribution, the
cameraman makes a contribution, the writer makes a contribution.
The director is working in all those territories.

     Q:  Would you direct another Star Trek?

     A:  I don't think so.  I've done two.  That's enough.

     Q:  Do you want to direct or act in the future?

     A:  I want to do both.

     Q:  What kind of roles do you want, a scientist, or a bad
guy, or...?

     A:  I want to play a seventeen-year-old kid [he laughs].