Head to Head on the bridge of the Enterprise with the newest Captain Kirk! We had a chance to catch up with Chris Pine at a recent junket in LA and talk to him briefly about his work on the upcoming Star Trek Movie. He was able to give us insights on the look of the movie, his portrayal of Captain Kirk and most importantly.. if he managed to score any green or purple babes. Here is what he told us;
What did you bring to Star Trek because J.J. Abrams has been marveling about the character relationship in that movie?
Chris Pine: I think what’s new about this particular version of Star Trek and what J.J. and Bob (Roberto Orci) and Alex (Kurtzman) were able to bring to it that’s new and really exciting is an incredible amount of humanity to the roles for a project that could be so…you know there’s a lot of spectacle to it, there’s explosions and graphics and computer graphics and yet it’s really character driven and you really get to see why Kirk is Kirk, why Spock is Spock, how this crew got together.
I think they did an incredible job of casting and to really make something like Trek work it takes an incredible…you know, a good ensemble that works well together. You have to believe that these people would fight and die for one another and that’s what made the original series so good and I think they did that. When people see what Zack (Zachary Quinto) did with the role, what Karl (Karl Urban) did with his role, what Zoe did with Uhura. She really expanded that role a lot and I think people will be really surprised.
Did you try in any way to emulate William Shatner?
Chris Pine: I think what J.J. set forth in the beginning of the whole thing was to pay tribute to what was done before and to respect what these men had already given us in terms of creating their characters and then to bring our own unique take on it and I think that opened up just a myriad possibilities. I never felt particularly…I don’t know about Zack but I’m sure he would say the same thing…I never felt encumbered.
I only felt thank god we were given such a great foundation for these characters because I don’t really have to do that much different from what they’ve given us and then J.J. being the kind of wonderful, positive creative force that he is kind of let us do whatever we wanted. What Mr. Shatner did was very specific and very unique to him and all I did was try to do justice to what he did and what was done before, but to try to do [emulate] Shatner would not have been smart.
Was the Enterprise set incredible?
Chris Pine: The set was incredible. Frankly, the production design will blow people away. I think it pays tribute to that 60s look but it’s very of the now and the gadgets are incredibly cool. The production design is too. Really what’s incredible when you’re doing a movie like that is you know that everybody involved with this is the very best at what they do.
It must have been amazing to walk on that bridge.
Chris Pine: It’s spine tingling for sure.
Did you get any green girls?
Chris Pine: [laughs] Oh man, you’ll have to wait and see.
Thanks to Chris for taking the time for us. From director J.J. Abrams (“Mission: Impossible III,” “Lost” and “Alias”) and screenwriters Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman (“TRANSFORMERS,” “MI: III”) comes a new vision of the greatest space adventure of all time, “Star Trek,” featuring a young, new crew venturing boldly where no man has gone before.