by Sheila Roberts
At the LA Junket for J.J. Abrams Star Trek we sat down to talk with Chris Pine about his new role as Captain Kirk. Chris Pine plays young Captain Kirk and takes us through his upbringing all the way to the captain's chair in epic fashion.
Set in the 23rd century, the adventure begins with the incredible story of a young crew’s maiden voyage onboard the most advanced starship ever created: the U.S.S. Enterprise. In the midst of an incredible journey full of optimism, intrigue, comedy and cosmic peril, the new recruits must find a way to stop an evil being whose mission of vengeance threatens all of mankind.
Q: The scene with the green girl brings down the house, and you’re probably only the second actor in history to have a love scene with a green girl, what was that like and did the make up come off? Were there accidents?
Chris: Were there accidents? I think it brought the house down. I don’t think I had anything to do with it, it wasn’t my acting ability. I think it’s because you’re speaking of the fact that the green girls have a certain place in the Star Trek canon. I remember that day being very long and, yes, that poor girl, Rachel Nichols, I think she was in the make-up chair for two hours getting painted, so there was a lot of green paint on my nose after many a take, but it wasn’t as fun as it looked. It was a long day and, yes, the make-up proved to kind of kill any buzz that I might have gotten otherwise.
Q: J.J. said you had the liberty to recreate the character, but seeing the movies you took notes when you saw them. What kind of qualities did you think that you had to capture about William Shatner’s character?
Chris: There are certain things that are just very inherent to the character, so I would say that I used the script that Alex Kurtzman and Bob Orci wrote as kind of my bible, and that gave me my back story in the sense of who this guy was, why he was who he was. And, going back and watching the series, what I was able to take away from it, or what appealed to me about Mr. Shatner’s performance, and things that I felt that I could use without hitting people over the head with a bad impersonation, I felt were little physical characteristics.
What really appealed to me was the way that he moved about the deck of the ship. He’s got a very theatrical quality, just his physicality, that I felt was – it just made me smile every time I watched it. And then there were things about how he sits in the chair that are very small. I felt less is more, in my case at least, in that it really was conversation at the end of the day between me and J.J. about – and it would be on any given day -- it would be, “So what do you think about this? Do you think it would work now?” And it would just be very small things, but it wasn’t anything conscious of like characteristics I must take from Mr. Shatner. It was way more of a, I don’t know, of an ever changing thing I guess.
Q: Have you talked with him?
Chris: Yeah, I saw him last night for the first time in the flesh and shook hands and, you know, he was very busy last night. It was a charity event for him, and he raises money for all these wonderful children’s charities, so I was there more to support him in the great work that he does, but it was great to finally meet him and I hope to have more of a chance to sit down with him for a longer period and actually talk to him about his experiences.
Q: We’ve heard that a sequel is already being thought of – are you talking about it already?
Chris: Again, I think it’s presumptuous to start talking about future installments before the movie has come out, and we’re very excited about this one. I think people will enjoy this whether they’re fans or non-fans. I know that Bob and Alex are, and Damon actually, Damon Lindelof, the producer from Lost and a friend of J.J.’s for a long time, is now attached I guess to write a second one if there is in fact going to be a second one. But I know from my part that I loved making this, and I loved the team behind it, my fellow crew mates, so if I were to be asked, I know that I would sign up.
Q: Chris, can you comment on the physical challenges for your role?
Chris: Well, one of the major difficulties was I would say it’s a very scary thing doing a fight scene with Eric Bana when he’s running at you at full speed and promised you beforehand that nothing bad will happen, but the fight of flight kicks in quite quickly. I was not prepared for it at all. It’s one thing to read the script and skim through the pages and say, “Oh, I’ll get back to that later. Oh, that’s a fight sequence stunt, let’s get back to the scenes,” failing to realize that those four or five pages take about a month and a half to actually shoot. But we had a great stunt team behind us. I guess the only anecdote worth mentioning is that on my first day of shooting was the bar scene in the beginning of the movie and I ended up breaking a stunt guy’s nose on the second take, and word of caution to any young actor out there, do not hurt stuntmen because they will pay you back in kind. And the next take after that, that big stunt guy kicked me in the stomach. He said it wasn’t on purpose, but I don’t know. But it was a lot of fun, way harder than I ever expected it would be.
Q: Do you feel the pressure waiting for the reaction of the Trekkers to see you in that role?
Chris: I have no control over what people think, and if I were to spend energy on that, I would be a lifeless, deadened human being, so I hope that they like it, but I just simply have no control when it’s in the can. We’ve done a good job, I think. I’m proud of it. I hope that they’ll accept these changes to their canon that they hold so dear, which are definitely changes, but I don’t think do anything other than tell a great story differently.
Q: Once you put on that gold shirt, was there a real feeling that the role had become yours?
Chris: That was a fun day when we shot that scene, because it was towards the end of the process and everybody had – we were finally friends in the story and everybody was together, but in terms of feeling that the part was mine, in my mind Captain Kirk will always be William Shatner and William Shatner will always be Captain Kirk.
I think it’s just an inextricable connection and the relationship between those two men, and I just feel like I’ve taken – this was a great role and as an actor you search for great roles, and this one just happened to be named James Kirk, and so for the time being in this movie I’m playing James Kirk. But after the movie’s done, or after the next two, I look at it from part to part and from story to story, so as for the part being mine, I think I, as many other people, will always forever connect Mr. Shatner to that role.
JJ Abrams Star Trek is in theaters this Friday. You can read my early Review of Star Trek
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