‘Star Trek,’ sans Shatner, all about ensemble
5/17/2013ORLANDO, Fla. — Say this much for the new films in the long-running Star Trek franchise. They’re real “share the wealth” exercises. It’s not just about Kirk, Spock, and Bones and a couple of red shirts boldly going while everybody else sits idly by.
“A good filmmaker with a great team of writers who acknowledge that they’re trying to make something truly an ensemble piece will go to that trouble to give everybody enough to do,” says Zoe Saldana, who plays a much more layered version of Lt. Uhura than the classic Trek ever allowed. J.J. Abrams and his team, Saldana says, followed up with juicy roles and good scenes, and didn’t “just stop with casting good people.”
Her colleague, Simon (“Scotty”) Pegg, is amusingly less diplomatic: “I think that’s because Chris Pine is a little less of a camera hog than Bill Shatner.”
In Star Trek Into Darkness, Mr. Sulu tastes command for the first time, Mr. Scott has a crisis of conscience and Lt. Uhura is shaken by those she loses or might lose in a deadly confrontation. This democratization of the Enterprise is something fans and critics have picked up on. The Hollywood Reporter raved about the extra “human dimensions” and character “undercurrents” that rarely showed up in previous incarnations of Star Trek.
Abrams had a number of advantages in that regard. Self-described as nothing like a die-hard fan of Star Trek, he feels free to take liberties with characters and storylines. And unlike the TV show, he cast established actors in many key roles. Saldana, 34, already was a movie star, and Pegg, 42, is something of a brand name in modern British comedy.
“J.J. hired me because he knows that I just feel,” Saldana says. “If that was the reality and I was really on board that ship, I would be so stressed. Sad to be losing people, scared to death of losing Spock. I’d be angry if the person I was in love with was taking great risks. If he [screws] up, he’s dead. We’re done.”
Pegg, star of Shaun of the Dead and the comic relief in the Mission: Impossible movies, was brought in to be funny.
He’s fine with that. But the new film turns Scotty the engineer into an action hero, of sorts. A funny one.
“I had to get fit. Really fit. Lots of training. You have to be fit to go into space.”
The Trek folks are earnestly avoiding talking about the plot and character twists of Into Darkness.
But one surprise Saldana is happy to speak of is the return of Starfleet’s original “sworn enemy,” the Klingons. And since in this Trek they don’t speak English, well, the Enterprise’s linguist and communications officer is who they must converse with.
“For this version of Star Trek, a lot was riding on that first person to speak Klingon on the screen. Uhura. Me. I was just this happy-go-lucky actress, ‘Yeah, of course I’ll speak Klingon. My character’s a linguist! I was in Avatar! I spoke Na’vi.’ No problem!"