Star Trek Interviews (3) - Profile of/Interview with
                              DeForest Kelley/Dr. Leonard McCoy

                Taken from the Public Domain

1. Profile - DeForest Kelley/Dr. Leonard McCoy

DeForest Kelley is back in the saddle again, literally, in Star
Trek V, but this time, he and other members of the Enterprise crew
are riding some rather alien horses across The Final Frontier.

"This is a fresh, clean start, with every bit of the humour of
Star Trek IV and perhaps more.  It has a little bit of everything
going for it.  There's drama, there's a lot of comedy and
adventure, and I think it's a real fun film.  We're quite pleased
with the results.  It will be a very interesting film for the
fans."

At the heart of Star Trek V is the relationship between Kirk,
Spock and McCoy.

"I think the public will have a greater insight into these three
characters and their relationship to each other after seeing this
picture," states Kelley.  "In this film, they get down to some
human basics, which I really don't think has been shown on screen
before.  It has always been the three of them going about their
jobs in a very workmanlike manner in a very bizarre world."

Shooting the scenes involving Shatner, Nimoy and himself was also
as much fun as it has ever been.  "We are three different
personalities who joyously happen to meld together.  We understand
each other completely and, among the three of us, have a great
deal of fun."

On this Voyage, both film and starship are commanded by co-star
William Shatner.  Kelley has high praise for his old friend's
feature directorial debut.  According to Kelley, both Shatner and
previous Star Trek director and co-star Leonard Nimoy performed
magnificently.

But, although he's in favour of the Star Trek series' use of
co-stars as directors, Kelley confesses he doesn't have much
desire to take over those chores on a future Star Trek.

"It's very difficult to concentrate on the performance as well as
to be sure the lighting is correct, the set is perfect, all the
things that have to be in place, it's an enormous job," Kelley
explains.  "And to undertake a film of that size, that's reaching
into the $30 million budget situation, I could never do it, and
would never want to."

At the same time, Kelley emphasizes that it is much easier to
involve a director who is already familiar with the world of Star
Trek.

"Many people don't realize that Star Trek is one of the most
difficult kinds of film to direct," says Kelley.  "People who are
used to it, such as all of us, who've been around it for years,
naturally we're accustomed to it.  But boy, for an outside

director to come in and attempt to direct a Star Trek, it is a
most difficult chore."

The story of The Final Frontier does indeed take them to that
location, to alien planets where no man has gone before.  One
sequence involves Kirk, Spock and "Bones" McCoy on horselike
creatures, galloping across an earthly desert, a brief scene that
Kelley had looked forward to shooting.  In his pre-Star Trek days,
Kelley made a name for himself as both heavy and hero in Western
films and TV shows including Gunsmoke, Bonanza and Rawhide.

Unfortunately, his saddle time on Star Trek V was less than he
would have liked.  A month before those scenes, among the first in
the shooting schedule, were to be lensed, Kelley had just been
discharged from the hospital, where he was treated for a collapsed
colon.  Because of his recent illness, a double was used in many
of the horseback shots, but he notes, "They were long shots
anyhow, with the exception of Bill and Leonard who have some
dialogue: I never did."

Despite the addition of many guest stars to the Star Trek series,
the core group of seven actors has been performing together for
more than 20 years.

"It's very difficult for anything to survive as long as Star Trek
has, without a kind of chemistry among the people," Kelley says.
"That's what is important in a series: You must care for the
people.  If you don't care, why look at it?  With our Star Trek,
it was one of those things of a group of people falling together
miraculously with a certain chemistry that seems to work
wonderfully together on the screen.

"Very few actors have experienced what we have experienced from
Star Trek, our group.  You call them 'The classic group,' I call
them 'The old guys,' " he laughs.  "I'm certain there are many
people in this town who would love to be a part of a show that's
such a phenomenal success all over the world and continues to be
so.  There has never been anything like it.  And it will be a long
time, I think, before anything comes on the horizon again with the
impact of Star Trek."

                         * * * * * * * *

2. Interview - DeForest Kelley/Dr. Leonard McCoy

     Q:  What did you think of the script for Star Trek V?

     A:  I think that V is interesting in that it's entirely
different from any of the others, which is refreshing.  Four was a
wonderful motion picture, and you think, what are you going to do
after IV?  My feeling about [films] is that you can never tell
about them until they're strung together and scored and you look
at it.  Very seldom do you ever hear anyone come back from the
dailies and say that the dailies look terrible.  You don't know
until you see the final product.  But in examining the script I
thought that it had an awful lot of things going for it, and if it
comes together the way we all hope it will, I think it's going to
have a little bit of something for all the Star Trek fans, and
hopefully that thirty-five percent of the audience that we picked

up in IV will enjoy it.  We have a great deal of the humor of IV
once again, there's conflict, adventure, and some powerful drama.

     Q:  We learn things about McCoy that we've never learned
before.  Did you agree with those things in the script?

     A:  I was concerned... I had to give the whole thing a lot of
consideration.  My discussions with David Loughery and Harve
Bennett - we came to some conclusions concerning McCoy's character
in this picture.  Some things that had been done we tried to shape
in a way so that those who know and love McCoy would have a better
understanding.  It was a matter of straightening certain situations
out with him.  I think it's likely to become a very controversial
role, and one that is going to be very agreeable to some people and
very disagreeable to others.  You can't please everyone.

     Q:  Is McCoy different at the the end of this movie?

     A:  I don't think so... I think that the public will have a
greater insight into these three characters and their relationship
to each other and how they generally feel about each other, which
I don't really think has been shown on screen before.  It's always
been the three of them going about their work in a very
workmanlike manner... in this film they're going to get down to
some more human basics.

     Q:  Will McCoy and Spock get along better?

     A:  I think so.  I think that relationship will always be one
of great irritability with McCoy at times.  You sometimes get the
feeling that in his smooth way, Spock is really trying to annoy
McCoy.  We each think we've got the other's number, so to speak.
I don't think we'll ever truly get away from that, but I think
that McCoy is looking at him with more of a feeling of "I've got
your number too.  You're not bothering me so much."

     Q:  Can you summarize how do you feel about this movie?

     A:  I think it has all the earmarks of a real entertaining
movie.  I really do.  I have the highest hopes for it.  Bill has
worked awfully hard on it, and he's done a tremendous job.  I
don't know how he did it.  It would kill me.

     Q:  Do you have any desire to direct?

     A:  None whatsoever.

     Q:  Did you ever?

     A:  No.  I did a little bit during the series.  I think we
were all looking at it as a way to make some kind of move.  But
that never materialized; didn't materialize for Bill or Leonard.
At that time neither one of them were ready to direct.  I did have
thoughts about it during that period, but it went right out the
window.  Then when I saw all the problems involved with Leonard
directing, the long hours, the frustration, I just thought "I
don't need that." [He laughs] There are a lot of things I don't
need.


     Q:  Are you happy with the way it all turned out?

     A:  Oh sure.

     Q:  Do you ever get sick of playing McCoy?

     A:  Oh, sometimes, and then again I look at it and I think -
I'm sure Bill does, too, and Leonard - "Gee, what a pain in the
ass," you know.  And than I look at it in another way and think how
privileged we are to be part of this show and to be what and who we
are together, and what comes with it, and the fact that Star Trek,
unlike anything else, has a lot of class.  A lot of class.  It is
so highly regarded in so many areas, all over the world, and you
think, "What do you want out of this business?  Do you want
adulation?"  Christ, how much can you have?  You know, it gets to
the point where you don't need any.  What do you need?  What do you
want?  Sure, we all would like to find something to just turn us
over in the right kind of role.  But I'm even more or less getting
away from that.  I'm looking at it and thinking, "Christ, we have
great opportunities to do a lot of things on this show."

     Q:  Do you see it going in a new direction?

     A:  I think it would utilize us in an intelligent way, and
remain cognizant always of the fact that we are getting older, but
utilizing that age.

     Q:  But haven't they done that?

     A:  They have.  You know, it started with my giving Bill a
pair of glasses, and something, you know, is always being referred
to.  When McCoy on the ladder says to Jim, "I'll never make this,"
whatever it is.  So those little things are put in there, because
if we don't do that, the critics are going to pounce on us.  When
they can't find something to pick on in the story, they are going
to start talking about pot bellies, wrinkles, and that sort of
thing.  We have to kind of fend for ourselves in these things, you
know.  I think it's working out wonderfully, really, for all of us.
I mean, what more could anybody expect out of a show like that?

     Q:  And your own career?  Because I remember one day you were
talking to me on the observation room set about you - after Star
Trek.  You weren't working as much, but you thought it was your
fault because you hadn't pursued it.

     A:  Yes.  Bill and I and Leonard, as close as we are, we have
a feeling.  I know three of us have a feeling we're related when
we see each other.  We don't see each other a great deal on a
social basis.  But you don't need that.  When you do see each
other, that feeling, that deep feeling, is there.  But unlike Bill
and Leonard, I've never had that kind of drive in my career.  I
know this is a hackneyed statement, but I am, I guess, a lazy
actor.  I have not pursued my career to the extent I could have.

     Q:  Is there a reason for that?

     A:  I don't know exactly what it is.  I started my career on
this lot, under contract as a young player.  In the glory days.
And I've done a lot of things in my life.  I've done a lot of bad
things, and I've done a lot of good things.  If I had not done
what I had done in the past, and just gone into Star Trek - if I
had done several TV shows, and then gotten Star Trek - I would be
frustrated.  But I have touched a little bit of fame before this,
and I've left it, and picked it up again.  I don't know, I guess
inside of me I keep saying, "What do you really want?"

     Q:  Have you come up with any answers?

     A:  Peace.  [He laughs]

     Q:  I think you've got that.  I think going down in history
as Dr.  McCoy isn't such a bad thing.

     A:  Well, I don't know.  None of us is six feet under yet.
You never know what's going to happen to any of us.  [He laughs
again]