Star Trek Interviews (4) - Profile of/Interview with James Doohan/Chief Engineer Scott Taken from the Public Domain 1. Profile - James Doohan/Chief Engineer Scott James Doohan is fond of saying that the character of Scotty is "99 percent James Doohan and one-percent accent." But whatever his make-up, Montgomery Scott is already aboard to beam up the crew of the Enterprise for yet another adventure in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. "You have to see the movie to understand that it does not mean that it's the last movie. You have have to see the movie before you can go on with that, and it's too darned long for me to explain!" Doohan laughs. Despite his expertise as a Starship's engineer, Doohan confesses that he isn't even sure of his character's rank this time around. "In Star Trek III, I was named a captain of engineering, and that still remains," he says. "I haven't even looked at the rings on my sleeve to check 'em out, so I may be wrong." "But you know , I have fans telling me, 'Well, you were only a commander in Star Trek IV,' or something like that, And I say, 'Well, don't talk to me. Talk to the wardrobe department!'" he chuckles. "I think the wardrobe department forgets how many rings are put on, what badges are put on, and everything else, but the fans love to be able to say those sort of things. And I love to be able to answer them with 'Picky, picky, picky!'" The Canadian-born veteran of more than 100 Hollywood films and TV shows, and a veteran of some 43 years in film, television, stage and radio prefers to focus his attention on his performances. According to Doohan, writer/producer Harve Bennett is very good about letting the cast contribute lines or ideas to the films. However, the actor says, "You have to understand that very little that isn't good gets by Harve, and when we read the script the first time, it's pretty well the way it's going to be done. The only thing that I said to him at this film's start was to please tell the writer not to put the Scottish terms in there, that I will do that. He said, 'Oh yeah, you do exactly what you want to do.' That's the attitude." And, when there's a question involving their individual characters, Bennett usually defers to the actors' intimate knowledge of their roles. "There would be no objection to us changing our lines around, unless it had something to do with the plot. Then, we're wrong. I mean, if the plot is the accepted plot, then our characters have to say something different." Doohan notes. In addition to the serious aspects of Star Trek V, there are also as many humorous incidents, and Doohan has what may be the funniest moment in The Final Frontier. "It's the scene in the bowels of the ship," explains Doohan. "I'm with Kirk, Spock and McCoy and they ask me where to go, you know, and I tell them, 'Go down this way, and down that way, turn left and turn right' and Kirk says as they're leaving, 'Oh, you're amazing.' As I turn away from them, to walk in another direction, I say, 'There's nothing amazing about it. I know this ship like I know the back of my hand.' Clap! I hit a beam and I'm knocked out! When I looked at it, I laughed myself! I had forgotten that I had such a swagger to that little two-second scene. I looked at Bill and I said, 'God, look at that son-of-a-gun.'" Aside from contributing to the storyline, co-star William Shatner makes his directorial debut in this latest entry in the Star Trek series. Doohan found that his colleague helped make it an enjoyable set. "Bill treated everybody beautifully. He was after a very fast pace, and that's fine. Whatever the director wants, then the actors just have to give him." Doohan says. "Bill was very pleasant to work with, and I must say I'm very happy with that. I wouldn't mind if he directed number VI!" Fans will be happy to hear that Doohan's contract for Star Trek V, along with most of the other regular cast, includes an option for Star Trek VI. He is optimistic about the future. "We grabbed ahold of an extra million people in The Voyage Home, and who knows, maybe The Final Frontier will do exactly the same thing," James Doohan says. "And as long as that keeps going on, I think we're going to keep on doing them!" (2) Interview - James Doohan/Chief Engineer Scott Q: Would you like to comment on the message "Star Trek brings to its audience? A: "Star Trek" is a morality play and a lot of people pick that up and I think that's probably one of the reasons why "Star Trek" is as popular as it is. But I don't think it's the complete reason at all. As a matter of fact, I don't think anybody has really come up with the real reason why "Star Trek" has been as popular as it is. The only reason that I use is "Hey, it's got some kind of magic." You know, what else are you going to say because nobody even mentions a lot of the different things we had, like terrific scripts. I remember sitting around a table way back, five or six of us, and somebody was reading this script, and somebody was reading the script that followed it, and somebody was reading another script. People would say, "wait until you read this one." Someone else would say, "Wait until you read this one." That was fabulous: actors don't normally get scripts like that, and we did on "Star Trek." Q: Do you have a favorite theme in Star Trek V? A: Well, I'm an engineer and all I care about is engineering really. Yet to get down to the brass tacks of engineering is really quite boring - for everybody, as far as I'm concerned. It's only when it breaks off into something else there for a second that I get to live a life other than the life of an engineer. That's when it's kind of fun. Q: Do you like Scotty? A: Oh yeah. Hell, I better. I'm so typecast now that I hardly do anything without a Scottish accent. Q: It that very frustrating to you? A: Yeah, it's very frustrating and in fact, to me the height of the frustration came about fifteen years ago when I first realized that I was typecast. Then it was hard. Q: When did you first realize this? A: I was doing a movie in Spain in 1971, and I came back after six months over there and went to read for another part. I walked into the offices and the secretaries said, "Hello, Scotty," you know, and then the producer said... "Well, Mr Scott." After the tenth time of not getting these jobs it was kind of like "Hey, this is tough, you know?" I would go up to people like John Conway... who had hired me thousands of times before because I was useful, and he would say, "Jimmy, you're known as Scotty."... I started in live television in New York... and I never played the same character twice... I did my hair the way the character was supposed to do it, and I did whatever the voice of the character had to do, because I'm not only good with accents, but I can change the tone of my voice in countless ways. So it really got bad... in 1972 and 1973, if it wasn't for personal appearances, which I started to do a hell of a lot, I would have been flat broke. Q: That's very ironic, isn't it? A: It was terrible, really. Then I got a play in San Francisco which I starred in with Rudy Solaris, and that ran for a year. So I met my wife and it was something to start with. Of course back in 1976 I did appearances at forty colleges, and in 1977 I did forty-two. And they just kept on going. Now my fee is so high the colleges can't afford me. So that's fine. Q: Do you feel like you've paid too high a price? A: Well, I'll tell you, it's become a different life. You know, I envisioned myself... [getting] large enough parts that I could of been like Jack Nicholson, you know, kind of like a character actor... the only time I ever did leading roles was when I went back to Canada and the only reason why I went back there is I happened to stop at New York on my way home for Christmas, stopped in to the CVC offices. I spent about two hours there and came out with six months work... It was beautiful because it's more than an actor wants than to be working and working and working. It wasn't until the second year of "Star Trek" down here that I was making the kind of money that I was making in Toronto. Q: Do you feel that "Star Trek" may have helped you in a strange kind of way? A: Yes... as far as my career was concerned, it certainly has hurt me. But then again it has opened up something else. Q: I know you're interested in science. What kind of things have you done recently to satisfy your curiosity about it? A: Twice I've been to Lewis Research, the NASA Research base in Cleveland. I've seen two second blasts of rocket engines, and that's all they need to find out exactly what's going on. You sit and watch that on film. I've also seen on the zero g gravity experiments that go on, where they have a 500-foot chamber of concrete submerged into the ground and when they draw all the air out of that for the gravity experiments. They have to give the power company three weeks notice. The experiments are done at three in the morning. It's quite exciting. The first thing that they'll do is shoot up something which will stop just barely and then hang there for just a second at zero g and then it will plop down and the brakes to stop that pellet from going down - because it's travelling then at a tremendous rate of speed at 500 feet - is 20 feet of Styrofoam pellets. Those are the brakes. I also saw experiments with the new electric cars that will be coming out shortly. You know, [I] read in the paper recently that unless things change drastically in five or six years we have to go to electric cars. Q: Why are you doing this scientific research? A: Because I love to do it. I have been interested ever since. You know when they talk about Scotty reading technical journals? James Doohan has been doing that longer than Scotty's been alive. I was always very good in science at school... my father was a scientist and was the first man to invent high octane gasoline way back in 1924. He had three processes within two weeks time... I've been out to Ridgecrest - China Lake - about five times to go to the labs at China Lake. It's the Naval Weapons Center. Of course I wasn't able to see the Department of Defense stuff, but there's many other things that they're doing out there. One man, a scientist, asked for a bit, like a drill bit, to bore a hole through a human hair and they got it for him. Q: Do you use any of the feelings you have visiting a place like that in playing Scotty? A: I'm sure that I transfer some of it to Scotty, but you see, that's they way I am anyway. I guess I do it automatically. When people ask me, how much is Scotty and how much is you, I tell them he's really 99 percent James Doohan and 1 percent accent. Q: Is Scotty any different in this movie that the last one? A: No, I don't think so. All they have to do is give Scotty different things to do. That brings out different things. I don't really prepare at all. When I say that he's 99 percent James Doohan, [Scotty handles things] however James Doohan would handle them, because this is the closest that I ever come to playing myself. Q: Any challenges in this movie? A: No, not really. I'm working. I've been an actor for forty-three years. At the end of twenty years, you're supposed to be a complete actor. When I was about eighteen or nineteen, I started to feel that, because I'd been told that by my acting teacher. I said, "How long will it take?" And he said, "Well, depends on the type of work you get. It's about twenty years." And you know what? I started to feel that, a sort odd sense comes over you where you think, "Hey, I don't care what they ask me to do, I can do it." That's the thrilling part of it. And a powerful feeling, knowing full well that at this moment in the scene, even though you still have to rehearse it, they're either going to be laughing about you making just one face or sound, or they're going to be crying. Or all the feelings in between. That's why when people ask me if I want to be a director, I say, "No way!" I'm satisfied being an actor. The rest of the time I'm terribly interested in seeing the country. My wife doesn't understand why I want another motor home. Within twenty months, I drove 52,000 miles in one. I take trips to places like Phoenix and Portland and Sacramento, etc., and sometimes I'll bring the whole family. I have six children all together. Four boys, two girls. Two boys are living with me in the San Fernando Valley. Q: How do you feel about the script for Star Trek V? A: I didn't care for it too much at first, but when we first read through it at Bill's place, I liked it a lot better. I think it's going to turn out very well. To me the best one we've done was II: The Wrath of Khan. Four was fabulous... but I prefer a good drama. Q: Tell me about your gas company commercials. A: I did two different versions, both shot at Raleigh... In January I have to do a bunch of radio commercials for them. The television one has now been established with my voice and face, and it will carry over. Who knows, I may do a bunch of newspaper and magazine ads too. Q: Didn't you recently do a TV show in Canada? A: "Danger Bay," it's a Disney Channel half-hour show. And I did six episodes of the new "Liars Club," which is just a game show in Vancouver. That's a great show, created by a friend of mine, Bill Armstrong. He used to be a writer/producer for the "Hollywood Squares." Q: What other things would you like to do? You'd make a great King Lear. A: Oh, God... Q: Would you like to do that? A: Yeah. As a matter of fact, I played Kent in King Lear with Maber Moore doing King Lear... Maber is a famous Canadian actor. He was just superb. Q: Do you agree with the way they shaped Scotty's character in V? A: The only objection I have to my character, and that's probably true of all actors, is that there's not enough to do... I think it's quite possible that he should be used not only as an engineer but as a human being. Q: Would you like to see that happen if they do another one? A: I think so. Of course, all the actors feel that way, but nevertheless that's the way I feel about it, you know. And that depends... Bill, Leonard, and Dee are the top stars, you know, what the heck. Right now, Star Trek has just become my way of life.