The Crew of Star Trek speaks

Everyone on the Enterprise crew gets a moment in the new Star Trek. There may not be time to handle everyone in as much depth as Kirk and Spock, but you definitely get a sense of how Bones started worrying, how Sulu can fight and how Captain Pike was a mentor to everyone. So too, their interviews get all lumped together but we love them equally.

Crave Online: Have any of you had a chance to meet the original actors?

John Cho: I wrote George a letter, after I got the role, and asked if we could sit down and have a meal, and he was very, very sweet. I was a little nervous and I told him so, just because he casts a pretty large shadow, and he said, “Hey, John, relax, they’re going to be calling me ‘the old guy who played John Cho’ in a few years, so go forward and be cool.” It put me in the right frame of mind.

Anton Yelchin: Walter came on set, thankfully, because I was just really worried about meeting him during the actual shooting of the scenes. He came on set once I was done with the majority of them, and he was just very kind and wonderful and, actually, complimentary. It meant a lot to me to meet him and hear what he had to say and what he thought. I was really kind of honored by his presence there.

Crave Online: What were your Star Trek experiences in the past? Did you ever imagine you’d play these characters?

Anton Yelchin: I thought I was born to be this character. No. I actually wasn’t a fan. I’m a fan now. I watched a lot of the original series, and there’s just something so great about it that you can’t help but really love it.

Karl Urban: Yes, I would define myself as a long time fan of the original series. I watched it as a boy, religiously, every Saturday morning. About two years before I found out that they were making this new Star Trek, I bought the entire DVD box set and watched it with my son. So, you know, sort of about the time that they started casting, I didn’t necessarily need to go back and study up. I felt that I knew the characters and the archetypes and the relationships really, really well. And, so, for me, I feel a little bit like one of the lunatics that gets to drive the bus in the asylum. So, it was a wonderful experience.

John Cho: Although I wasn’t a Trekkie, my primary connection to the show was just being excited about George Takei being on television, and just yelling across the house, “There’s an Asian guy on TV! There’s an Asian guy on TV! Come quick! Come quick! He may disappear! He may disappear! Hurry up! Come now!” But, yeah, it was just a dream come true for me. What I did in this movie, flying a spaceship and having a sword fight, is exactly what my young brother and I would do for hours and hours as children, so it’s weird to get paid to do that. We received no payment, oddly enough, as children, to do that.