Jason KingSalty Popcorn's Interview with JJ Abrams: The Director of Star Trek
May 6th 2009 20:15
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This was a round table interview held on the very top of the Intercontinental hotel in Sydney. As J.J Abrams requested a slightly informal setting to quiet his own nerves, we were led out onto a cornered off balcony area adjacent to the special VIP area of the hotel, in which several chairs were set up waiting to go. JJ is someone who is extremely passionate about his job and rightly so - he has made some of the hugest films and TV shows of the last few years. One of his earliest projects was writing Regarding Henry and Armageddon. He is then responsible for such TV shows as Felicity, Lost and my fave.....Alias. He then got world wide attention for directing Mission Impossible 3 where his love of Australia and hence his reason for having the world premiere located here. As a producer his resume is huge but one big film you may all remember is Cloverfield. He will be producing the next Trek film and as such has not confirmed whether he will direct or not. Speaking with JJ is one of the best experiences myself and Dave have had with someone in film. He is relaxed, after his nerves at being surrounded by 8 people has settled, and it felt more like an informal chat at a cafe. He holds no pretension ans spoke honestly. He looks like a stereotypical Hollywood director with tortoise shell glasses and conservative clothing.
Very soon J.J Abrams arrived to join us; introduced himself to everyone personally with a handshake. Seated around J.J for this roundtable are:
MICHAEL from: AusTrek.
MATT from: MattÃÂs movie news.
MARLENE from: Women Talk Sci Fi.
GERRI from: Women Talk Sci Fi.
JASON from: Salty Popcorn.
DAVE from: Salty Popcorn.
And
DAVID: from ???? (Sorry - we did not get your company info)
And
THAT GUY WHO DIDNÃÂT GET TO ASK A QUESTION - the interview was over before the last guy got to ask a question - however he got a photo with JJ and an autographed poster as consolation.
That was the order that we were all seated around Abrams, and that dictated the order of the questioning. Once all pleasantries were exchanged Michael began the roundtable interview with:
MICHAEL: Hi IÃÂm Michael from Aus trekÃÂ which is a Star Trek fan clubÃÂ
JJ ABRAMS: Oh cool.
MICHAEL: ItÃÂs the second highest in the world.
JJ ABRAMS: Oh dear lord.
MICHAEL: for about 33 years now.
JJ ABRAMS: Wow.
MICHAEL: IÃÂm the president so IÃÂm in charge of everything; the question I supposeÃÂ The big one; is what did you draw upon to create the style of cinematography and so forth for the film? How much did you draw upon the original series and the other spin offs of Star Trek?
JJ. ABRAMS: UmÃÂ IÃÂll be honest with you, you know, despite your position in the club, I was not a huge fan of Trek to begin with and my uh, because of that I didnÃÂt have that sense of uh, terror or reverence that I need to necessarily adhere to what had come before, having said that; I also knew that we needed to, as much as we could, work to make the people who arenÃÂt fans of Trek happy. That was a hugely important group for us, but because thatÃÂs not where I was coming from, it would be false to go into this acting like I was a huge Star Trek fan, you know, because I had to do it honestly. We luckily had one of our writers who was a massive, massive Trekkie so he was making sure we were doing whatever we could to; in the context of our story, you know, reward people who have been fans for years. Visually speaking there were certain things that did impact me enormously, since I was a kid.
I remember going to see the first Star Trek film with my father, who was a TV/ movie producer and he had an office at Paramount (Movie Studios). He took me to the screening of Robert WiseÃÂs film on the lot and I will never forget that, and I actually might even still have the cards that they gave out with the you know, credits on it, uh, but I remember that great sequence when, you know, Kirk is for the first time being taken onto the Enterprise, and it was the first time that the enterprise felt real to me; when I saw that and that had a huge impact. And that sequence is five minutes long in the movie; itÃÂs a very long sequence but you get to look at that ship, and it is gorgeous and it was shot beautifully so you know in the scene of our film when Kirk is going over to the enterprise I wanted to have a slight hint of you know, that feeling, I wanted to sort of nod to that.
Having said that I also knew in this movie that we needed to have; as much as possible of itÃÂs own look, itÃÂs own feel, itÃÂs own signature.
I tried not to directly lift things from pre existing movies or shows but you know, you can only have a ship fly by so many ways; but there were certain things that we did that uh, like for example when Pike first sits down on the captainÃÂs chair I wanted that sort of, that light across his eyes as they were hitting, like they did on Shatner. So there were things that I did that were definitely nods to the original series.
MATT: Taking on a Star Trek film is a big, big deal; how exactly do you approach taking on a chapter in a franchise thatÃÂs so big?
JJ. ABRAMS: Well, again, I approached it from the point of view of, you know, what is a good story? What is a compelling movie? Not necessarily what is compelling structure of a movie? But the priority for me is the, again, to the best of my abilities how do I tell a story that will work for me? I wasnÃÂt a given you know, Star trek fanÃÂ I feel like It needed to be approached fromÃÂ really from the ground up, and having said that IÃÂve become this massive Star Trek fan! Because IÃÂve gotten to know these characters and I appreciate this amazing dynamic, these great sort ofÃÂ on the one hand they are archetypes and on the other hand they are all really wonderfully nuanced; but itÃÂs their dynamic together. But to me the idea of these two characters (Kirk and Spock) who in many ways; at the beginning; are worthless, but in the end they come together and there is this family, theyÃÂve all put there lives in each others hands and the story could not have been told without all of them.
ItÃÂs such a fantastic group and to me the approach was why do I care about the characters? What makes the story compelling will always be the people so what situations are they going be in? Literally looking at the structure of the story, are the story beats fast paced? Is there action? Is there emotion? Is there a lot going on? Clearly there is some stuff that gets a little bit oblique but that is part of the fun of Star Trek, that you can actually stop and say that this movie has a lot of weird things too where there is a lot of action and a lot of discussion, action/ discussion then action/ discussion, so there is not trying to have that sense of being driven in a car where someone is like riding the accelerator and then the brake you know what I am saying?
And it was that those challenges were not about structure, they were story-telling challenges, so the idea was how do we tell a good story? And then to take the spirit of what Roddenberry (Creator of Star Trek) created nearly half a century ago and say how do those ideas and the tenants of what makes the structure the structure, how are those relevant and vital and real for today and my goal was to try and make this thing believable, despite it being Star Trek, despite its province, despite its science fiction and fantasyÃÂ how do you believe it? And that was really all about casting actors who had been you know, terrific and you are very lucky in having the look of the film and the visual effects, that will hopefully exceed what has been done before and luckily with the resources that we had; I think ILM (Industrial Light and Magic- visual effects company) outdid themselves.
MARLENE: We are from Women talk Sci FiÃÂ
JJ. ABRAMS: Okay.
MARLENE: ÃÂ And we like the way that you have brought women up in your shows, like Alias. Is that a culture thing that you actually try to do?
JJ. ABRAMS: I think that theàI love great characters wherever they come from and IÃÂve always tried to write characters that just regardless of what their sex or race or background are compelling and interesting, and you know IÃÂve succeeded not as often as IÃÂd like and you know, we try and you just keep doing what you can do and um, Sydney Bristow (Lead character in ALIAS played by Jennifer Garner) was not necessarily written as a strong female, she was just written as a strong character that happens to be a woman um, you know, something like Star Trek we inherited this group of mostly males and we have Uhura in it, and I feel like theàin the category of ÃÂyou canÃÂt do everything all the timeàI would have loved if there had been even more for her to do or even other strong female charactersàbut you know the truth is that A, I think that she is wonderfully strong, she is incredibly compelling, I think that Zoë did an amazing job in the role and obviously her role in the movie is a critically important one, so I love all characters I donÃÂt care what their species is, I donÃÂt care what their sex happens to be, I want a character that does something to me you know, laugh or feel or cry, itÃÂs the diversity that is strong, not a superhero but a hero. I love that character.
GERRI: Congratulations on the movie.
JJ. ABRAMS: Thank you.
GERRI: It was fantastic. WeÃÂve only, just by talking to a lot of people this morning, everyone loved it, we have not heard anyone say anything negative about it, itÃÂs all been positive.
JJ. ABRAMS: If you hear anything negative can you give me a name?
Everyone laughs.
GERRI: Just give me an email address. My sort of thing is being the big Trekkie, having all that, you have done a fantastic job with the movie as I said, and you havenÃÂt destroyed if you like, or be worried if any of the old Trekkies are going to say ÃÂoh here comes the film that destroys everything that they loveÃÂ. They are changing the Enterprise or trying to rewrite RoddenberryÃÂs ideas.
JJ. ABRAMS: right.
GERRI: You havenÃÂt done that because uh people are actually are aware from the beginning that this is an alternateÃÂ
JJ. ABRAMS: Right.
GERRI: ÃÂ an alternate universe.
JJ. ABRAMS: yes, that is right.
GERRI: ÃÂ and RoddenberryÃÂs Star Trek has happenedÃÂ
JJ. ABRAMS: ThatÃÂs right.
GERRI: Spock is there; his character comes backÃÂ
JJ. ABRAMS: ThatÃÂs right.
GERRI: ÃÂ heÃÂs coming back, and heÃÂs actually now taking it in a new direction and now you can do whatever you likeÃÂ
JJ. ABRAMS: ThatÃÂs right.
GERRI: ÃÂ and thatÃÂs just a fantastic take onÃÂ
JJ. ABRAMS: Oh thank you, yeah that was a critical thing that we had, when you know, we were all figuring out how we were going to do it; we knew we didnÃÂt want to do something that was going to somehow either; negate or judge or preclude what exists, because that is you know, I wrote a script for a Superman years ago, that ended up being reviewed online and it was, you know a work in progress, it was not a completed script and I was just decimated, the reactionÃÂ it was a very interesting thing because it was one of those things thatÃÂ it happened in a way that on the one hand I was like horrified and on the other hand it was very educational; and I realize when people hold something near and dear to their heart there are certain things you donÃÂt mess with.
Now IÃÂm not saying you canÃÂt mess with some things, but itÃÂs the line that you can kind of feel, or if you sort of let yourself, if I were to do a story about Santa Clause, oh you know Santa Clause is from you know Arizona, people would be going ÃÂWHAT!?ÃÂ ÃÂ Like hell he is! ItÃÂs the North Pole!
People would get very upset, so I think there are certain things in Star Trek that you would have to be insane to mess with, because I think what Roddenberry wrote, and we were very luckyÃÂ and we would really study up, we watched shows and we wanted to make sure, with this film, that we were well versed in it, never more than Bob Orci (Robert Orci- co writer of the film) who is horrifyingly versed in Trek.
But we wanted to make sure that we knew it enough and I feel likeÃÂ the fascinating thing about Roddenberry in my mind is that he was able to do what he did, which isÃÂ yes he wrote the show and he created the show, butÃÂ even looking at things; I got my hands on as much stuff as I could and I even got my hands on notes that he wrote to the producers of the third Star Trek film, and at that point I think he was almost relegated to the sidelines and yet he was still voicing his opinion and writing about like the vision of the future, how such things as war had been rendered obsolete, his view was not just a surface view, he really had a deep sense of what society would be like and how it functions and I was just stunned by that It was like wonderful to see how thought out he was, and how his notes wereÃÂ these red flags would go up for him about things that you might not even think about, because he knew it, he felt it.
So I was reallyÃÂ IÃÂm incredibly humbled by his power and vision and again feel lucky to be able to visit this world he created.
GERRI: okay then, do you think that is the reason that Star Trek fansÃÂ
JJ. ABRAMS: Well I think that the show and the films have thisÃÂ there is greatness in those; and I think that there are is a deep affinity for everything and it seems like, and I know this sounds silly, but the idea of traveling beyond our world, is wonderful and filled with wonder and I think that for the most part Trekkies are optimistic, I think that there is not this kind of silly ÃÂcoolÃÂ bullshit cynicism, that there is a hope that is inherent in Trek fans and they appreciateÃÂ ItÃÂs like I feel like in a weird way, despite so many great, but you know dark films, it feels like sort of the age of cynicism is sort of waning a little bit; and that people are hungry for a more vulnerable purity of entertainment, of just truthÃÂ and I think that there is, and I know this might sound Pollyann-ish , but I feel like Trek connects with that sense of optimism and hope; if it could at the very least itÃÂs because Roddenberry was positive in a bad time under the nail, we are not only alive but we are collaborating and that alone is aÃÂ people think it is silly but if that is not what we are going for then what the hell are we doing?
GERRI: visions and dreams.
JJ. ABRAMS: well yeah, but ones that have an outlook, that are exciting and you know, anytime you put your hopes out there you are so much more vulnerable then when you kind of keep it to yourself and Star Trek is inherently hopeful, which for some people is inherently un cool, but that in itself is becoming un cool.
JASON: - At last I could get a word in - Gerri had a tendancy to hit on all the actors and/or directors and it was quite difficult to actually speak
Besides this she was a lovely lady. LOL. You were saying earlier that you werenÃÂt really a Star Trek fan, what was your inspiration for actually accepting to helm this project?
JJ. ABRAMS: Well we had been working on the script for about a year and I found myself really intrigued by this and very excited about what it could be; and literally planning on figuring out who the director would be to come on and do it.
And how cool I got, you know wouldnÃÂt it be great if I use my little production company, we would be producing a movie that would be cool and whoever else we could work with, but whatever, I had this sense of where we would go, and then I read the script and I was like; like hell I am going to give this to someone else!
Everyone laughs.
JJ. ABRAMS: I was so excited by this that I thought I would be an idiotÃÂ I just knew I would be very jealous of whoever it was who got to say action or cut on the movie and if I didnÃÂt do it myself, at least try; then I would regret it always.
Because I knew whoever we brought on, as good as it would be, there would be things that wouldnÃÂt be the way I felt they should be; not that I would be right; but it would be frustrating, so I would always feel like damn it! If I just manned up a little bit and took the reigns I could have at least tried toÃÂ anyway it was one of those things that I am glad I did it because I feel like I have learnt so much from it, and the experience with working with these amazing actors and this crew was just unrealÃÂ hugely educational.
DAVE: You are working with all these amazing actors how do you actually go about directing them once you are on the set?
JJ. ABRAMS: Well a lot of them likeÃÂ itÃÂs funny I did Felicity it was the first thing that I directed, not the pilot but I did an episode of it, two episodes. It was great because they were these kids there was a twenty something; I was in my late twenties, they were early twenties and it wasÃÂ they werenÃÂt intimidating at all, because I knew them and I had worked with them for months and it was like you know, oh Carrie and Scott you know, then when I wrote Alias and I did Alias, and I knew Jennifer Garner from Felicity, but we cast Victor Garber and Ron Rifkin and on the first day of working with them I was really intimidated, because these were like adults.
Everyone laughs.
JJ. ABRAMS: And I was like ÃÂwho the hell am I to tell an adult how to act you know? But I got through that; and then when I did the Lost pilot with Damon and we were doing that, it wasnÃÂt much about the actors it was more the scale of that thing, but anyway from that I got Mission Impossible (3) and working with Tom (Cruise) it was thing of: suddenly it was ridiculous I was like literally directing Tom Cruise which I didnÃÂt knowÃÂ it was preposterous. Phillip Seymour Hoffman; I am giving him notes. Lawrence Fishburne IÃÂm telling him how to do a scene. It wasÃÂ it didnÃÂt make any sense! I was still the same as this idiot who did Felicity and there I am telling these real actors you know one of them who was the most famous person in the world how I would like a line readÃÂ it made no sense!
Doing Star Trek felt like, with one huge exception, a return a little bit to what had been on Felicity; which was this great group of young actors who were not intimidating to me but were exciting to me because I knew they had this amazing potential and this great energy. The exception of course being Leonard so the first day IÃÂm shooting this scene and despite my manner that I am a huge fan, IÃÂm not so dim that I donÃÂt realize that when there is a legend around and the first scene we were doing he was out there, and he does his line reading and it was great; but I had you know, notes. I had a thought. So IÃÂm walking towards him from him from off the set and I realize: ÃÂwhat the hell am I doing!? How am I going to tell Leonard Nimoy how I think Spock should deliver a line! Like who am I?ÃÂ So I get to him and heÃÂs like ÃÂyeah so what do you think?ÃÂ and he is not just, he is dressed up, he has got the ears. He is Spock.
And I said to him you know, here is the thing; I want to talk to you, but I donÃÂt know how to talk to you about this, because you are Spock, so I donÃÂt care what you autobiography says.
Everyone laughs. Leonard NimoyÃÂs first autobiography is titled ÃÂI am not SpockÃÂ.
JJ. ABRAMS: And he literally grabbed my shirt and he is like: ÃÂno no no tell me tell me tell meÃÂ and I realize he is an actor. He is a guy who loves collaboration, wants to know every thought, has an opinion; which is why he is good. But it was this thing of desensitizing myself of the aura of him and just focusing on the actuality of this gentleman who is not only an amazing actor but the definition of grace and kindness and thoughtfulness. He was amazing.
LAST GUY?!?: I thought the look of the film was really compelling; the way you had the lights everywhere, how everything was shiny, there were these halos of light on the bridge it was sleek and shiny then below deck you got all these tubes. How did you come about working out how you wanted the ship to lookÃÂ because the ship is such an important characterÃÂ
JJ. ABRAMS: Well thank you, the ship is a hugely important character; the answer was a couple of things; one is my desperate goal was to make it feel real, just to say that I wanted to believe, again despite everything, that this ship functioned and that it was actuallyÃÂ everything you know, did something and that the decks looked like they might, you know, often times when you see this kind of thing; in a Star Trek movie or not; it feels like a set and worse; it feels like a green screen set, and I did want to avoid at all costs unreality, that there is almost this unconscious thing that we know, or even if we donÃÂt know why or how; and so we found as many locations as we could; factories and power plantsÃÂ
ÃÂ So that when we were shooting these places it wasnÃÂt something that was limited by what we could afford to build or look phony by virtue of it being digital regardless of how well ILM does their work; there is more ofÃÂ well my concern was if we donÃÂt actually have a location, if we donÃÂt actually light with actual people and have actual stuffÃÂ itÃÂs that thing like if you are recording music you never want to record something terrible and say we will fix it in the mix. A green screen shoot is all about fixing it in the mix; so I wanted to get it as much practical because I knew we would have over one thousand visual effects shots; I knew we needed to make this thing a real as we could as much as we could. The look of the bridge, we couldnÃÂt obviously rebuild what had been built for the show, and I wanted to do something that honored the paradigm of the set, the idea of the circular set; the view screen; the captains chairÃÂ I knew we needed to have the characters where I knew they would go, so we were given a kind of template but the aesthetic was kind of up to us, Scott Chambers our production designer, who is genius; and who IÃÂve worked with since Felicity, he is a guy who you know, can do so much, and working with him and you know some of the other designers, we came up with a number of different looks.
And one of those looks was that look that you see on the Kelvin (Another ship) we almost have a submarine feel where it is almost olderÃÂ and I wanted the Enterprise to feel like that next generation of ship and the context of today it is very much different to before, the idea is that it feels, you know, people joke it is like the Apple store; you know very bright and white and shiny; but that look of the lens flares; I just love the idea that it was this; uh, it added another layer to the shots and so we would literally have the director of photography literally off camera holding a halogen flashlight at the camera, and it was just an art form. ItÃÂs not likeÃÂ it was hysterical; we had these like lens flare tests that we did, but it just had to be at the right sort of angle so you were hitting just the end of the lens where the flare was coming from, but you knew that just off camera something extraordinary was happening. And that was the idea to keep the energy alive of the shot, which I know we overuse in some shots, but I couldnÃÂt help it.
The Paramount lady then exclaimed that the interview time was up. J.J then thanked everyone personally with a handshake, and then everyone was shuffled out.
Big thanks to Dave for transcribing this interview.
To see our interview with Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto from Star Trek click HERE
To read our review on Star Trek click HERE
Very soon J.J Abrams arrived to join us; introduced himself to everyone personally with a handshake. Seated around J.J for this roundtable are:
MICHAEL from: AusTrek.
MATT from: MattÃÂs movie news.
MARLENE from: Women Talk Sci Fi.
GERRI from: Women Talk Sci Fi.
JASON from: Salty Popcorn.
DAVE from: Salty Popcorn.
And
DAVID: from ???? (Sorry - we did not get your company info)
And
THAT GUY WHO DIDNÃÂT GET TO ASK A QUESTION - the interview was over before the last guy got to ask a question - however he got a photo with JJ and an autographed poster as consolation.
That was the order that we were all seated around Abrams, and that dictated the order of the questioning. Once all pleasantries were exchanged Michael began the roundtable interview with:
MICHAEL: Hi IÃÂm Michael from Aus trekÃÂ which is a Star Trek fan clubÃÂ
JJ ABRAMS: Oh cool.
MICHAEL: ItÃÂs the second highest in the world.
JJ ABRAMS: Oh dear lord.
MICHAEL: for about 33 years now.
JJ ABRAMS: Wow.
MICHAEL: IÃÂm the president so IÃÂm in charge of everything; the question I supposeÃÂ The big one; is what did you draw upon to create the style of cinematography and so forth for the film? How much did you draw upon the original series and the other spin offs of Star Trek?
JJ. ABRAMS: UmÃÂ IÃÂll be honest with you, you know, despite your position in the club, I was not a huge fan of Trek to begin with and my uh, because of that I didnÃÂt have that sense of uh, terror or reverence that I need to necessarily adhere to what had come before, having said that; I also knew that we needed to, as much as we could, work to make the people who arenÃÂt fans of Trek happy. That was a hugely important group for us, but because thatÃÂs not where I was coming from, it would be false to go into this acting like I was a huge Star Trek fan, you know, because I had to do it honestly. We luckily had one of our writers who was a massive, massive Trekkie so he was making sure we were doing whatever we could to; in the context of our story, you know, reward people who have been fans for years. Visually speaking there were certain things that did impact me enormously, since I was a kid.
I remember going to see the first Star Trek film with my father, who was a TV/ movie producer and he had an office at Paramount (Movie Studios). He took me to the screening of Robert WiseÃÂs film on the lot and I will never forget that, and I actually might even still have the cards that they gave out with the you know, credits on it, uh, but I remember that great sequence when, you know, Kirk is for the first time being taken onto the Enterprise, and it was the first time that the enterprise felt real to me; when I saw that and that had a huge impact. And that sequence is five minutes long in the movie; itÃÂs a very long sequence but you get to look at that ship, and it is gorgeous and it was shot beautifully so you know in the scene of our film when Kirk is going over to the enterprise I wanted to have a slight hint of you know, that feeling, I wanted to sort of nod to that.
Having said that I also knew in this movie that we needed to have; as much as possible of itÃÂs own look, itÃÂs own feel, itÃÂs own signature.
I tried not to directly lift things from pre existing movies or shows but you know, you can only have a ship fly by so many ways; but there were certain things that we did that uh, like for example when Pike first sits down on the captainÃÂs chair I wanted that sort of, that light across his eyes as they were hitting, like they did on Shatner. So there were things that I did that were definitely nods to the original series.
MATT: Taking on a Star Trek film is a big, big deal; how exactly do you approach taking on a chapter in a franchise thatÃÂs so big?
JJ. ABRAMS: Well, again, I approached it from the point of view of, you know, what is a good story? What is a compelling movie? Not necessarily what is compelling structure of a movie? But the priority for me is the, again, to the best of my abilities how do I tell a story that will work for me? I wasnÃÂt a given you know, Star trek fanÃÂ I feel like It needed to be approached fromÃÂ really from the ground up, and having said that IÃÂve become this massive Star Trek fan! Because IÃÂve gotten to know these characters and I appreciate this amazing dynamic, these great sort ofÃÂ on the one hand they are archetypes and on the other hand they are all really wonderfully nuanced; but itÃÂs their dynamic together. But to me the idea of these two characters (Kirk and Spock) who in many ways; at the beginning; are worthless, but in the end they come together and there is this family, theyÃÂve all put there lives in each others hands and the story could not have been told without all of them.
ItÃÂs such a fantastic group and to me the approach was why do I care about the characters? What makes the story compelling will always be the people so what situations are they going be in? Literally looking at the structure of the story, are the story beats fast paced? Is there action? Is there emotion? Is there a lot going on? Clearly there is some stuff that gets a little bit oblique but that is part of the fun of Star Trek, that you can actually stop and say that this movie has a lot of weird things too where there is a lot of action and a lot of discussion, action/ discussion then action/ discussion, so there is not trying to have that sense of being driven in a car where someone is like riding the accelerator and then the brake you know what I am saying?
And it was that those challenges were not about structure, they were story-telling challenges, so the idea was how do we tell a good story? And then to take the spirit of what Roddenberry (Creator of Star Trek) created nearly half a century ago and say how do those ideas and the tenants of what makes the structure the structure, how are those relevant and vital and real for today and my goal was to try and make this thing believable, despite it being Star Trek, despite its province, despite its science fiction and fantasyÃÂ how do you believe it? And that was really all about casting actors who had been you know, terrific and you are very lucky in having the look of the film and the visual effects, that will hopefully exceed what has been done before and luckily with the resources that we had; I think ILM (Industrial Light and Magic- visual effects company) outdid themselves.
MARLENE: We are from Women talk Sci FiÃÂ
JJ. ABRAMS: Okay.
MARLENE: ÃÂ And we like the way that you have brought women up in your shows, like Alias. Is that a culture thing that you actually try to do?
JJ. ABRAMS: I think that theàI love great characters wherever they come from and IÃÂve always tried to write characters that just regardless of what their sex or race or background are compelling and interesting, and you know IÃÂve succeeded not as often as IÃÂd like and you know, we try and you just keep doing what you can do and um, Sydney Bristow (Lead character in ALIAS played by Jennifer Garner) was not necessarily written as a strong female, she was just written as a strong character that happens to be a woman um, you know, something like Star Trek we inherited this group of mostly males and we have Uhura in it, and I feel like theàin the category of ÃÂyou canÃÂt do everything all the timeàI would have loved if there had been even more for her to do or even other strong female charactersàbut you know the truth is that A, I think that she is wonderfully strong, she is incredibly compelling, I think that Zoë did an amazing job in the role and obviously her role in the movie is a critically important one, so I love all characters I donÃÂt care what their species is, I donÃÂt care what their sex happens to be, I want a character that does something to me you know, laugh or feel or cry, itÃÂs the diversity that is strong, not a superhero but a hero. I love that character.
GERRI: Congratulations on the movie.
JJ. ABRAMS: Thank you.
GERRI: It was fantastic. WeÃÂve only, just by talking to a lot of people this morning, everyone loved it, we have not heard anyone say anything negative about it, itÃÂs all been positive.
JJ. ABRAMS: If you hear anything negative can you give me a name?
Everyone laughs.
GERRI: Just give me an email address. My sort of thing is being the big Trekkie, having all that, you have done a fantastic job with the movie as I said, and you havenÃÂt destroyed if you like, or be worried if any of the old Trekkies are going to say ÃÂoh here comes the film that destroys everything that they loveÃÂ. They are changing the Enterprise or trying to rewrite RoddenberryÃÂs ideas.
JJ. ABRAMS: right.
GERRI: You havenÃÂt done that because uh people are actually are aware from the beginning that this is an alternateÃÂ
JJ. ABRAMS: Right.
GERRI: ÃÂ an alternate universe.
JJ. ABRAMS: yes, that is right.
GERRI: ÃÂ and RoddenberryÃÂs Star Trek has happenedÃÂ
JJ. ABRAMS: ThatÃÂs right.
GERRI: Spock is there; his character comes backÃÂ
JJ. ABRAMS: ThatÃÂs right.
GERRI: ÃÂ heÃÂs coming back, and heÃÂs actually now taking it in a new direction and now you can do whatever you likeÃÂ
JJ. ABRAMS: ThatÃÂs right.
GERRI: ÃÂ and thatÃÂs just a fantastic take onÃÂ
JJ. ABRAMS: Oh thank you, yeah that was a critical thing that we had, when you know, we were all figuring out how we were going to do it; we knew we didnÃÂt want to do something that was going to somehow either; negate or judge or preclude what exists, because that is you know, I wrote a script for a Superman years ago, that ended up being reviewed online and it was, you know a work in progress, it was not a completed script and I was just decimated, the reactionÃÂ it was a very interesting thing because it was one of those things thatÃÂ it happened in a way that on the one hand I was like horrified and on the other hand it was very educational; and I realize when people hold something near and dear to their heart there are certain things you donÃÂt mess with.
Now IÃÂm not saying you canÃÂt mess with some things, but itÃÂs the line that you can kind of feel, or if you sort of let yourself, if I were to do a story about Santa Clause, oh you know Santa Clause is from you know Arizona, people would be going ÃÂWHAT!?ÃÂ ÃÂ Like hell he is! ItÃÂs the North Pole!
People would get very upset, so I think there are certain things in Star Trek that you would have to be insane to mess with, because I think what Roddenberry wrote, and we were very luckyÃÂ and we would really study up, we watched shows and we wanted to make sure, with this film, that we were well versed in it, never more than Bob Orci (Robert Orci- co writer of the film) who is horrifyingly versed in Trek.
But we wanted to make sure that we knew it enough and I feel likeÃÂ the fascinating thing about Roddenberry in my mind is that he was able to do what he did, which isÃÂ yes he wrote the show and he created the show, butÃÂ even looking at things; I got my hands on as much stuff as I could and I even got my hands on notes that he wrote to the producers of the third Star Trek film, and at that point I think he was almost relegated to the sidelines and yet he was still voicing his opinion and writing about like the vision of the future, how such things as war had been rendered obsolete, his view was not just a surface view, he really had a deep sense of what society would be like and how it functions and I was just stunned by that It was like wonderful to see how thought out he was, and how his notes wereÃÂ these red flags would go up for him about things that you might not even think about, because he knew it, he felt it.
So I was reallyÃÂ IÃÂm incredibly humbled by his power and vision and again feel lucky to be able to visit this world he created.
GERRI: okay then, do you think that is the reason that Star Trek fansÃÂ
JJ. ABRAMS: Well I think that the show and the films have thisÃÂ there is greatness in those; and I think that there are is a deep affinity for everything and it seems like, and I know this sounds silly, but the idea of traveling beyond our world, is wonderful and filled with wonder and I think that for the most part Trekkies are optimistic, I think that there is not this kind of silly ÃÂcoolÃÂ bullshit cynicism, that there is a hope that is inherent in Trek fans and they appreciateÃÂ ItÃÂs like I feel like in a weird way, despite so many great, but you know dark films, it feels like sort of the age of cynicism is sort of waning a little bit; and that people are hungry for a more vulnerable purity of entertainment, of just truthÃÂ and I think that there is, and I know this might sound Pollyann-ish , but I feel like Trek connects with that sense of optimism and hope; if it could at the very least itÃÂs because Roddenberry was positive in a bad time under the nail, we are not only alive but we are collaborating and that alone is aÃÂ people think it is silly but if that is not what we are going for then what the hell are we doing?
GERRI: visions and dreams.
JJ. ABRAMS: well yeah, but ones that have an outlook, that are exciting and you know, anytime you put your hopes out there you are so much more vulnerable then when you kind of keep it to yourself and Star Trek is inherently hopeful, which for some people is inherently un cool, but that in itself is becoming un cool.
JASON: - At last I could get a word in - Gerri had a tendancy to hit on all the actors and/or directors and it was quite difficult to actually speak
Besides this she was a lovely lady. LOL. You were saying earlier that you werenÃÂt really a Star Trek fan, what was your inspiration for actually accepting to helm this project?JJ. ABRAMS: Well we had been working on the script for about a year and I found myself really intrigued by this and very excited about what it could be; and literally planning on figuring out who the director would be to come on and do it.
And how cool I got, you know wouldnÃÂt it be great if I use my little production company, we would be producing a movie that would be cool and whoever else we could work with, but whatever, I had this sense of where we would go, and then I read the script and I was like; like hell I am going to give this to someone else!
Everyone laughs.
JJ. ABRAMS: I was so excited by this that I thought I would be an idiotÃÂ I just knew I would be very jealous of whoever it was who got to say action or cut on the movie and if I didnÃÂt do it myself, at least try; then I would regret it always.
Because I knew whoever we brought on, as good as it would be, there would be things that wouldnÃÂt be the way I felt they should be; not that I would be right; but it would be frustrating, so I would always feel like damn it! If I just manned up a little bit and took the reigns I could have at least tried toÃÂ anyway it was one of those things that I am glad I did it because I feel like I have learnt so much from it, and the experience with working with these amazing actors and this crew was just unrealÃÂ hugely educational.
DAVE: You are working with all these amazing actors how do you actually go about directing them once you are on the set?
JJ. ABRAMS: Well a lot of them likeÃÂ itÃÂs funny I did Felicity it was the first thing that I directed, not the pilot but I did an episode of it, two episodes. It was great because they were these kids there was a twenty something; I was in my late twenties, they were early twenties and it wasÃÂ they werenÃÂt intimidating at all, because I knew them and I had worked with them for months and it was like you know, oh Carrie and Scott you know, then when I wrote Alias and I did Alias, and I knew Jennifer Garner from Felicity, but we cast Victor Garber and Ron Rifkin and on the first day of working with them I was really intimidated, because these were like adults.
Everyone laughs.
JJ. ABRAMS: And I was like ÃÂwho the hell am I to tell an adult how to act you know? But I got through that; and then when I did the Lost pilot with Damon and we were doing that, it wasnÃÂt much about the actors it was more the scale of that thing, but anyway from that I got Mission Impossible (3) and working with Tom (Cruise) it was thing of: suddenly it was ridiculous I was like literally directing Tom Cruise which I didnÃÂt knowÃÂ it was preposterous. Phillip Seymour Hoffman; I am giving him notes. Lawrence Fishburne IÃÂm telling him how to do a scene. It wasÃÂ it didnÃÂt make any sense! I was still the same as this idiot who did Felicity and there I am telling these real actors you know one of them who was the most famous person in the world how I would like a line readÃÂ it made no sense!
Doing Star Trek felt like, with one huge exception, a return a little bit to what had been on Felicity; which was this great group of young actors who were not intimidating to me but were exciting to me because I knew they had this amazing potential and this great energy. The exception of course being Leonard so the first day IÃÂm shooting this scene and despite my manner that I am a huge fan, IÃÂm not so dim that I donÃÂt realize that when there is a legend around and the first scene we were doing he was out there, and he does his line reading and it was great; but I had you know, notes. I had a thought. So IÃÂm walking towards him from him from off the set and I realize: ÃÂwhat the hell am I doing!? How am I going to tell Leonard Nimoy how I think Spock should deliver a line! Like who am I?ÃÂ So I get to him and heÃÂs like ÃÂyeah so what do you think?ÃÂ and he is not just, he is dressed up, he has got the ears. He is Spock.
And I said to him you know, here is the thing; I want to talk to you, but I donÃÂt know how to talk to you about this, because you are Spock, so I donÃÂt care what you autobiography says.
Everyone laughs. Leonard NimoyÃÂs first autobiography is titled ÃÂI am not SpockÃÂ.
JJ. ABRAMS: And he literally grabbed my shirt and he is like: ÃÂno no no tell me tell me tell meÃÂ and I realize he is an actor. He is a guy who loves collaboration, wants to know every thought, has an opinion; which is why he is good. But it was this thing of desensitizing myself of the aura of him and just focusing on the actuality of this gentleman who is not only an amazing actor but the definition of grace and kindness and thoughtfulness. He was amazing.
LAST GUY?!?: I thought the look of the film was really compelling; the way you had the lights everywhere, how everything was shiny, there were these halos of light on the bridge it was sleek and shiny then below deck you got all these tubes. How did you come about working out how you wanted the ship to lookÃÂ because the ship is such an important characterÃÂ
JJ. ABRAMS: Well thank you, the ship is a hugely important character; the answer was a couple of things; one is my desperate goal was to make it feel real, just to say that I wanted to believe, again despite everything, that this ship functioned and that it was actuallyÃÂ everything you know, did something and that the decks looked like they might, you know, often times when you see this kind of thing; in a Star Trek movie or not; it feels like a set and worse; it feels like a green screen set, and I did want to avoid at all costs unreality, that there is almost this unconscious thing that we know, or even if we donÃÂt know why or how; and so we found as many locations as we could; factories and power plantsÃÂ
ÃÂ So that when we were shooting these places it wasnÃÂt something that was limited by what we could afford to build or look phony by virtue of it being digital regardless of how well ILM does their work; there is more ofÃÂ well my concern was if we donÃÂt actually have a location, if we donÃÂt actually light with actual people and have actual stuffÃÂ itÃÂs that thing like if you are recording music you never want to record something terrible and say we will fix it in the mix. A green screen shoot is all about fixing it in the mix; so I wanted to get it as much practical because I knew we would have over one thousand visual effects shots; I knew we needed to make this thing a real as we could as much as we could. The look of the bridge, we couldnÃÂt obviously rebuild what had been built for the show, and I wanted to do something that honored the paradigm of the set, the idea of the circular set; the view screen; the captains chairÃÂ I knew we needed to have the characters where I knew they would go, so we were given a kind of template but the aesthetic was kind of up to us, Scott Chambers our production designer, who is genius; and who IÃÂve worked with since Felicity, he is a guy who you know, can do so much, and working with him and you know some of the other designers, we came up with a number of different looks.
And one of those looks was that look that you see on the Kelvin (Another ship) we almost have a submarine feel where it is almost olderÃÂ and I wanted the Enterprise to feel like that next generation of ship and the context of today it is very much different to before, the idea is that it feels, you know, people joke it is like the Apple store; you know very bright and white and shiny; but that look of the lens flares; I just love the idea that it was this; uh, it added another layer to the shots and so we would literally have the director of photography literally off camera holding a halogen flashlight at the camera, and it was just an art form. ItÃÂs not likeÃÂ it was hysterical; we had these like lens flare tests that we did, but it just had to be at the right sort of angle so you were hitting just the end of the lens where the flare was coming from, but you knew that just off camera something extraordinary was happening. And that was the idea to keep the energy alive of the shot, which I know we overuse in some shots, but I couldnÃÂt help it.
The Paramount lady then exclaimed that the interview time was up. J.J then thanked everyone personally with a handshake, and then everyone was shuffled out.
Big thanks to Dave for transcribing this interview.
To see our interview with Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto from Star Trek click HERE
To read our review on Star Trek click HERE
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does that mean he was employed to write the script by someone before he agreed to direct?
i wonder what made him want to write the script, if he wasnt a star trek fan?
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I enojoyed this post and yes, I finally did get to go and see it. I was not dissapointed.
I was wrapped, but found the advanced technology both sureal and disorientating. My 18 year old trekki daughter, said it spoiled it all for her compeltely. (she is just slow to change) .. but she said she felt that as a blockbuster it stands alone, as a trekkie film . . well she couldn*t take it... give her time, she started to see as time went buy that it was brilliant, no doubts about it.
I LOVED IT and my only criticism was that Chris should have had green contacts. Kirks eyes were green, but then I guess we were in a kind of alternatie reality anyway . .
As for Mr J J here I think he has great vision and loved this comment :
..and that*s about it. When he uttered those *live long and prosper* words and then did not (the second time) . . I had a shiver, lots of tears and a really strong feeling that it truly was the last time we will ever hear him utter them on film. the strangest feeling, really.
I loved the plot and the point of view here in this adaptation and think JJ succeeded admirably in building his characters from the ground up ~ in sub atmonic, miniscule details. Superb.
Again the technology discrepancy business rankled a bit, but as I reasoned with my 18 year old, how else will you get the younger genration to take an interest and even pick up the old Series, if you don*t use Hollywood Blockbuster Magic to build your characters through todays CGI and its possibilities . . my feeling is that the technology (or lack of it) will seem immaterial after a while anyway, and that is where characters are truly more important. As I said JJ pulled it off so well in my mind, I am going to re watch the originals again!
Kudos ont he interview, I thought your question was pertinent and well timed. (I interviewed a few celebs in my time, so a little bit of professional admiration is allowed, okay?)
Lilla ..
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Glad you liked it. I think all the difference in technology can be explained by one major thing. "Alternate Reality". It wasn't the original Kirk and crew - it was what happened to those same people when the Romulans came through and altered the timeline. Any change could be possible. Just having the Romulans in our time was enough to change all technology. Time Prime directive
I never thought of the green eyes - it's been so long since I watched any of the original series. I got more into Trek when Piccard took the helm and don't tell anyone but Janeway was always my fave. I think I just made a Trekkie hitlist for saying that
We may yet see Nimoy return to the screen. Rumors have him possibly voicing the evil robot in Transformers. And the writing has commenced on the 2nd Trek film so if they hurry up you may still see him.
Thanks for the great words.