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STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS Interview With Simon Pegg And John Cho

Interview With Simon Pegg And John Cho For STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS
By: Nicolas Souza


I want to welcome Nicolas Souza to the family. Nic had the pleasure of sitting down with Simon Pegg and John Cho last week in San Francisco to talk about their upcoming film STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS.


In the interview they talk about their characters in the film,  love for Star Wars, coming back to their characters after doing so many other projects, working with Cumberbatch and so much more.


Interviewer: John, in the movie you sit in the chair, would you like to see that more with your character?

John: That would be amazing, don’t you think? I would dig it, I dug the chair, I’d like another.

I: Where would you like to see your character go?

Simon: I’d like to spend more time in engineering, I only just arrived and then I got thrown out. No, just more of the same. Perhaps some naked time with Uhuru, I don’t know whatever comes up.

I: I think she’s taken right now.

Simon: That can all change. I remember a different universe when things were different.

John: It was the 60’s, man. [Laughs] It’s all good.

I: J.J. Abrams is a huge fan of the Star Trek franchise. How does the fact that he is such a fan of both the Star Trek films and the original TV series translate into the fact that he is making the new franchise, this film especially?

Simon: I don’t think he was, he was more of a Star Wars fan growing up. I think he came to Star Trek as somewhat of an outsider.

I: Not my question, I’m not taking the blame for that one.

Simon: So, he had the benefit of not being slavish, not feeling like he had to be slavish to the source material, but becoming a fan as he made it. Now, of course he’s a huge fan, but its more Damon and Alex and Bob that were the aficionados, the writers. So, it will be interesting to see how he approaches Star Wars because he is such a fan of Star Wars, so he is encumbered slightly in a sense.

John: Is he doing Star Wars?

Simon: Star what? [Laughs]

I: What does filming in environments like the Lawrence Fusion Lab give to you in terms of building this reality?

Simon: That was awesome wasn’t it?

John: Yeah, it was. J.J. is keen on having as much stuff around you physically as much as is possible and using CG as little as possible. It makes it easier for an actor certainly, to look up and see things instead of a green felt cloth.

Simon: Yeah, and I think NIF (National Ignition Facility) here in Northern California was just extraordinary to be a part of. Also, aesthetically speaking, it formed a brilliant bridge between the all clean lines and the fantastically futuristic bridge, to the industrial metal of the engine room, which is what J.J. wanted it to look like the guts of the Titanic. In the middle of this you have the warp core, which, kind of looks like a perfect mishmash of the two; you’ve got all this steel, and yet it’s very modern looking.

John: That’s what I feel like he brought from his fandom of the Star Wars universe. His iteration of Star Trek is aesthetically kind of marries the two. The television show was all clean lines, and Star Wars is very analog and dirty, and he sort of married the two.

Simon: And also, all the scientists there, at NIF, were in the film. All those guys, in the red shirts in the warp core, they’re all just guys from NIF that wanted to be in Star Trek. Bruno, who is the project leader there, who is the guy that will discover fusion and go down as the next Edison, will win a Nobel Prize at some point, he said six months to 5 years. He’s there and he’s in the background with a red shirt and a big spanner.

John: With a what?

Simon: With a big spanner.

[Silence]

Simon: Oh, it’s a wrench, sorry a wrench. You guys call it a wrench. [Laughs]

I: Along the same lines, I know the sets got a lot bigger and more detailed this time around. So, how would you say your familiarity is with the ship now, hypothetically, would you be able to find your way around?

Simon: Oh yeah, easy. I’ve got a small laminated map.

John: Like the quarterback wrist bands.

Simon: Oh man, I thought this was engineering! No, the set we have now is the biggest ever rendering of the starship Enterprise, in the history of the Star Trek story. We had a bridge that was connected to a corridor that went through to the Med Bay, Engineering, and the Transporter Room. So, we could do long talking and walking scenes and have a sense of the ship’s size. Also, some of the sets like, the hangar of the Vengeance was a gigantic set, down on the west side of LA, and the Red Forest, and other environments, Qo’noS, which was at Sony, were just huge.

I: Speaking of the hangar of the Vengeance, how many times did you have to run down that hangar?

Simon: Three. I ran the length of it three times.

John: And then he died.

Simon: I puked. I had a large lunch and I walked onto set, and I was like, OK, what are we doing? Thinking it was going to be dialog and J.J. said you have to run from there to there. I did it once, and I ran as fast as I’ve ever run since I was a kid. You know the quad bike that was filming? It couldn’t keep up with me.

John: Really?

Simon: I just completely went for it. I felt so free; it was like being a child again. I got to the end and all the crew are applauding, and I felt so good about myself. Then J.J. said, that was great, can you do it again? And I’m like yeah, no worries, give me a minute. I did it, I felt slightly funny after that like something wasn’t right. Then J.J. said, just once more and we’ve got it. And I did it, and I was convinced by the time I slowed down that something was going to happen. So, I walked off set very quietly, just waved to everybody and threw up, everything that I’d eaten since I was probably nine. I saw things that I’m sure I ate in the 70’s. It was quite dramatic, but I felt good immediately after that. It was just, what happened, I was digesting food and all the blood that was doing that had to go to my limbs and left my stomach alone; and my stomach was like, where’s everybody gone? OK, get out. But yeah, it was hard.

I: There is a shot in the movie where you and Chris Pine are running down a corridor and gravity is starting to shift, that was a tilting and rotating set if I’m correct.

Simon: No, it wasn't.

I: It wasn't?

Simon: What we actually did there, because the set was too big to put on a gimble, which is what you’ve seen in films where, like in Inception, which is a corridor which moves. Because this set was too big to move, we are on a wire running on our sides, which is very hard to do. It enabled us to have that sensation, but do it on a much bigger scale, it was hard work.

I: What was it like to come back to these characters after doing so many other projects in between, it was kind of a long layoff?

John: It seemed like no time had passed.

Simon: When we got back on the bridge it was odd wasn’t it?

John: Yeah, it was weird. I’ve done sequels, and you work with the same people, on the other hand it’s unique to work with the same people in the same costumes, on the same set. We found ourselves right back where we left off.

Simon: Yeah, the odd thing was, on the first day, we actually shot a scene which isn’t in the movie, after the Naburu incident when we’re all together and Kirk is doing his Captain’s log and sort of making up what happened, because we had broken the prime directive. They didn’t leave the scene in the end, because it was already said, but I’m glad we did it, because we were all together on the bridge and with the same supporting crew as well, and it was like where did those four years go?

I: Now that you have been working in series for over four years now, do you find yourself being bigger fans of Star Trek mythology or more involved with it at all?

Simon: I kind of was anyway. I grew up watching Star Trek, and I think me and (Karl) Urban are the most knowledgeable, we’ll quote “Mirror, Mirror” or whatever. I had this idea; I think we might be the Mirror crew. I think something is going to go to shit and we’re all going to turn bad, Spock is going to grow a beard and we’re going to meet ourselves.

I: Coming back to these characters, how much did you leave from James (Doohan) and George (Takai) versions of the characters and how much did you bring in being in a new universe?

Simon: I think we have to approach it like they did, which is to look on the page, neither of us wanted to do an impression of our counter parts, because that would be playing the actor not the part. So, we kind of look at the character, and we say, OK, he’s an engineer, or a pilot, or whatever and take it from there.

John: Nobody wants to see us do imitations of them either; nobody wants to pay money to see that. It’s something you want to avoid; on the other hand you’ve got to be respectful and stay within the universe that you’re in.

I: What was it like working with Mr. Cumberbatch?

Simon: I fucking hate that guy. [Laughs]

John: He’s terrific and beautiful.

Simon: Yeah, he’s beautiful. I know Ben from before, I’ve met him before at home, and we’re both obviously from the UK. He’s a great guy, a lovely man. He turns on that villain so well, and he’s got such a beautiful voice.

John: You know, the highest compliment I can pay him I think is, if I hadn’t worked with him. I don’t think I would know his physical dimensions based on his work. With Sherlock, he seems mortal, and you know, I’d say he’s 5’8”; and then in this he seems like he’s 6’4” and 220 pounds, he just seems enormous and imposing, and that’s a testament to how good he is.

Simon: Yeah, he is amazing.

John: and again, how beautiful.

Simon: His voice made me pregnant. True story.

I: You’ve got a lot of scenes with Deep Roy in this and actually in the first film as well. He is sort of a Sci-Fi legend. What’s it like working with him?

Simon: Initially in the first film Keenser was sort of Scotty’s companion on Delta Vega, and a couple of weeks after we finished that scene J.J. and I were talking about how sad it was that he’d been left on his own on this fucking snow ball. We thought, hey that’s not right; we need to see some sort of arc for him.

John: Really?

Simon: Yeah. J.J. phoned our Michael Caplin, costume designer, and said can you make a little Star Fleet uniform? And that’s why that scene at the end happened. It was sort of an afterthought. If he’s been working with Scotty, and they’ve got shorthand with each other, if he’s Scotty’s assistant, then he should come with him and work in engineering. That’s why we see Keenser aboard the Enterprise in the second film. It’s great, he barely speaks. He’s just a little character part for Scotty to bounce ideas off. And often it’s his silent judgment which forces Scotty to do the best thing.

I: There is great comic timing with his silent reaction.

Simon: Yeah, he’s a riot, Deep. I love him. I hadn’t seen him for four years, and the first time I saw him, he was in makeup. So, it was like, hey Keenser.

John: It is weird some of the people who are in that heavy makeup, I don’t know what they look like underneath. You work all these days with them, and you wouldn’t be able to recognize them on the street.

Simon: There was a funny moment; I was really interested to see if they’d use it. There was a point when Scotty is beamed into a prison cell with a couple other characters, and there is an alien female working a console and I bang on the window to say let us out. In one of the takes I went, hey Janet! And I was really wondering if they were going to keep that in.

I: In your opinions what makes J.J. Abrams film making style unique?

John: Hmm, What do you think?

Simon: I think he’s got a boundless creativity and enthusiasm. He loves his job. He utterly loves the art of film making. He’s been a fan of it since he was a child, a small child. He puts all his energy into it, and he is a wonderful collaborator. He’s in it for the right reasons.

John: I think he is a born story teller. He approaches it with boundless enthusiasm, and his movies play like that. They’re enthusiastic, they’re joyful, and I think that’s his best trait.


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