The Internet Movie Database claims that Bruce Greenwood is best known for playing “sneering villains,” but as usual, don’t trust computers: the Quebec-born actor has a range wide enough to accommodate US Presidents (Thirteen Days, National Treasure: Book of Secrets), Egoyanesque sad-sacks (Exotica, The Sweet Hereafter), Bob Dylan’s arch-nemesis (I’m Not There) and, yes, the odd sneering villain (Double Jeopardy). In JJ Abrams’ reboot of Star Trek, he’s Captain Christopher Pike — a.k.a. the Guy Who Ran the Enterprise Before Kirk. Greenwood spoke to EYE WEEKLY this week about his interpretation of the character, the liberal bona fides of the original television series and the evils of deep-core-drilling.
Did the cast have to pass a Star Trek comp test? Were you quizzed on the difference between various alien species’ forehead ridges?
Well, we were invited to invest that heavily, but there’s a fair amount of work already in just doing the role. You can lose yourself in background stuff if you want, but…
In a way, it seems that this film is about that exact tension — between having reverence for the source material and being willing to put something new forward.
That’s a good way to put it. [The film] is a bridge between the old and the new, but you’re right in that there is a lot of tension there.
I felt like what was at stake in the story was the very continuity of the series — like, will Kirk and Spock’s relationship survive the temporal upheaval caused by the Romulan time-travel hijinks?
What’s at stake is the destiny of these characters. You see the relationship [between Kirk and Spock] develop, and there’s a very, very distinct arc.
It’s funny how much of that arc was traced in the movies and the novels, because on the original series, there wasn’t so much depth. They were just turning out new episodes every week, trying to do the effects work on a budget and so on.
Yes, but on a writing level, they were interested in carrying forward these classical themes, which pervade the entire series. And I didn’t realize that until I went back and looked at the episodes for homework. I thought it was just about pretty girls.
A lot has been written about how the would-be liberal, multicultural sensibility of the original show was undercut by exactly that kind of sexism — that each iteration of Star Trek has tried to undo the stereotypes created by the last one. Maybe in the 24th Century we’ll finally get a truly progressive Star Trek…
To defend the arguably stereotypical nature of the original series’ multiculturalism… it was the best they could do [at the time]. The best they could do and then some. The scripts were about contemporary issues that weren’t being addressed anywhere else at the time. Talking to Leonard Nimoy, he says that was the thing that drove him to want to do the series. They were kind of creating characters on the fly, but their serious intentions were clear. So I feel a lot of responsibility [with Captain Pike], to give him more depth.
The other actors in the cast are really up against it in that they’re playing these already iconic characters, but Captain Christopher Pike only appeared on one episode of Star Trek, and in flashback at that. Is there less pressure for you? Or is there a devoted wing of Christopher Pike scholars out there in Trek fandom?
Of course there is. You only have to appear in one episode of Star Trek to have a devoted following.
What were your impressions of Jeffrey Hunter as Pike in “The Menagerie”?
Jeffrey Hunter was a wonderful actor, and his performance style was so relaxed. In “The Menagerie,” he has a scene with DeForest Kelly in Pike’s cabin that was tremendously real for the time.
Your interpretation of the character is obviously different, and the role seems to have been re-imagined. This Pike is more of a Starfleet veteran.
Hunter’s Pike faced a different dilemma. He had a huge debate about whether he should remain in Starfleet. This iteration doesn’t have that problem.
His role seems to be a new father figure for Kirk, whose father is the first casualty of the reshuffled timeline.
There’s some sort of almost clairvoyant understanding on the part of this Pike that this guy [Kirk], this wayward kid, who is smart and ballsy — maybe more than he needs to be — is going to occupy an important place. As much as Pike intends to remain the captain of the Enterprise, he has some deep seeded intuition that informs him otherwise.
Were you disappointed that you didn’t get to sit in the blinky wheelchair the TV Pike sat in?
Not so much.
But there is a visual allusion to that prop from “The Menagerie.” There are a lot of jokes for the fans, which are better for being so brief…
Yes, there are a lot of “Easter eggs” for longtime fans. And, as on the original series, there are allusions in the script to contemporary issues.
Might you be talking about the fact that the villains are, essentially, deep-core drillers?
No comment.