In addition to starring in Heroes, Zachary Quinto is also starring in the new J.J. Abrams Star Trek re-launch as Spock. We caught up with Zachary to talk about the final frontier.
Crave Online: This is obviously a big year for you with your first movie coming out and it’s a doozy. How did you choose Star Trek as your first hiatus movie project?
Zachary Quinto: Well, I hardly chose it, so to speak. This whole year for me has been such a blur of good fortune that very little of it was by design. I feel like my experience on Heroes and the world in which it’s rooted lends itself to the attention that led me to be a part of the movie. I don’t really think of it in terms of how I’ll use Heroes to get movie roles or how I use Heroes to get other jobs. I remain as grateful to be on Heroes now as I did when I first started. It’s so fulfilling creatively and professionally that I feel like you can’t get ahead of yourself, because no amount of success or exposure, or opportunity is going to really matter or be ultimately fulfilling unless you can be totally present in what you’re doing right now. That’s sort of the way that I’ve gone from one thing to another. The timing of the fact that the movie happened during the strike and there were so many sort of fortuitous elements that lined up almost in a magical way. You could never even being to conceive of that unless it was happening to you, you know. So I feel like I couldn’t be in a better spot. I couldn’t be happier to be where I am and I have faith in the fact that that alone will lead me to whatever the next experience I’m meant to have is.
Crave Online: How did you coordinate a big movie like Star Trek with your work on Heroes?
Zachary Quinto: The writer’s strike fell at a time that actually allowed me to do Star Trek without missing any episodes of the show. If the writer’s strike hadn’t of happened I would’ve had to miss episodes of the show. So I came back without having missed anything and was included from the beginning of the season.
Crave Online: What was the first day on the set of Star Trek like knowing the history of that and getting to be a part of that?
Zachary Quinto: The experience evolved for me in so many different phases and a each one of them is it’s own unique lessons and it’s own unique challenges and they’re very common sort of rewards so I’m very grateful for all of it and I’m really excited to see where it leads me from here.
Crave Online: Can you talk about working with and getting to know Leonard Nimoy?
Zachary Quinto: I think getting to know him was one of the greatest honors of this experience. Having him involved and having him available and supportive was great. I have the utmost respect for him as a person. I feel really so honored to know him.
Crave Online: Did he give you any advice when you first started the role?
Zachary Quinto: We had many conversations and he’s given me not just one nugget of advice, but it’s been the unfolding of a friendship and a support system. That’s really how I feel about it. I really felt like my relationship to the character was specific to the text that I was playing and to the world which the character is being created right now, this time. I didn’t feel beholden to Leonard other than the origins of what he created obviously, but I think the whole project was based in that philosophy. So it wasn’t a problem.
Crave Online: What is your take on the whole logic vs emotion issue?
Zachary Quinto: Well, it’s something that I can relate to. I think it’s something that a lot of human beings can relate to. It was really incredible to be able to embody a character that walks that line all the line, who really deals in holding both ends of that strata at all points.
Crave Online: How cool was it to put on the ears?
Zachary Quinto: That was a momentous occasion for sure. I shared it with my dog. He was there for me.
Crave Online: How do you feel about being a part of the first images released on Star Trek?
Zachary Quinto: I think it looks great, a really cool concept to bring them all together. I think the colors look really great and I think it’s a harkening of what’s to come. I think it’s going to be really cool.
For more Star Trek info head over to the official Star Trek movie site.
