Back in August, the TV Addict was lucky enough to sit down with a couple of HEROES you may be familiar with. The following is part 2 of my conversation with Zachary Quinto, Noah Gray Cabey and Executive Producer Jeph Loeb
The TV Addict: Sitting across from you [to Zachary Quinto] I can’t help but notice some mannerisms that one might consider Vulcan. The way you’re sitting, your speech patterns. What can you tell fans about playing Spock and about taking over such an iconic character from Leonard Nimoy.
Zachary Quinto: I actually have yet to read the script [Editor’s note: This interview took place in August]. I’m actually going to sit with JJ Abrams either Tuesday or Wednesday and read it when I get back. That said, I certainly have a sense of where the story is going. I talked to Bob [Robert Orci] and Alex [Kurtzman] who wrote it, and they told me quite a lot. But their feeling is that they really want to make sure that they could do the work they needed to do without worrying about anybody’s real opinion. Because obviously once they start including all of us actors, there’s going to be a lot of other voices chiming in on it.
Aside from that, I’ve been immersing myself in other kinds of research and other conversations, and certainly reading a great deal about the mythology and the sort of ethical code of the Vulcan, and there’s so much material that’s really sort of an actor’s dream.
Does it ever concern you that you may be typecast in your roles as “Sylar” and “Micah” for the rest of your career?
Zachary Quinto: No, I don’t think like that. If anything, being on HEROES gives me a platform to go in so many different directions with my career. If you asked me when I was starting out, or in college, I never would have guessed that Sci-fi would have been the ticket to the kind of exposure I’ve experienced in the past year. But I’m really glad that it has been, because there’s a lot to learn and I think the underlying themes in science fiction tend to be optimistic and hopeful. I really think that for me this is just the beginning. And I know that’s true for Noah as well.
Noah Gray Cabey: HEROES isn’t just Sci-fi. It’s also a drama. So I feel like this is a huge opportunity as an actor.
Zachary Quinto: And also, the genre’s become so mainstream. It’s not what it was when they were doing the original STAR TREk.
Jeph Loeb: I don’t think your limitations are limited by who you are. When you look at Sean Connery’s career, it’s much different than Pierce Brosnan’s career. So his ability to transcend Bond and become who he was, that had to do with him, not with whether or not he was type cast. So I don’t worry about that our cast. I think our cast will go on. If any of them left the show tomorrow, I think that they would be on another show if that’s what they wanted, or they could have movies. I know what happens during hiatus, they all got movie offers.
Zachary Quinto: Look at Santiago [Cabrera]. He left the show and now he’s doing this fantastic film with Benicio Del Toro.
The TV Addict: I felt so bad for Santiago, getting killed off a hit show.
Zachary Quinto: You feel bad! I’m the one working with him all the time. I’m the one who was walking around and killing all these great actors.
HEROES fans, don’t forget to tune into a brand new episode tonight in NBC at 9PM [GLOBAL in Canada] 