Star Trek’s Leonard Nimoy Talks About Fringe

Leonard Nimoy as Fringe's Dr. William Bell. Photo by Craig Blankenhorn and copyright of Fox

In part two of Fringe‘s second season finale, Over There, Part 2 (airing Thursday, May 20th @ 9:00 p.m. EST/PST on Fox), sacrifices will be made and both universes may never be the same again after Walter (John Noble) and Olivia (Anna Torv) visit the “other side.” Leonard Nimoy reprises his recurring role as Dr. William Bell in this episode. The actor, who has announced his retirement from both acting and directing, recently spoke with myself along with other journalists about his work on the episode as well as other topics. The following is an edited version of that Q & A. Enjoy! 

I’m wondering what it is that brought you to appear on Fringe. Are you watching this show? Did somebody approach you about being on there? Was there a specific role set up for you? 

LEONARD NIMOY - I had a wonderful time working on the new Star Trek movie with J.J. Abrams, who directed it.  When it was done, he asked me to look into the possibility of playing William Bell on Fringe. I was frankly not terribly aware of what it was all about. I began looking at some episodes that William Bell, the character, had been talked about rather frequently, but had never been seen. I felt that I owed J.J. a favor. He did a great job on the Star Trek movie and treated me extremely well. I’m very happy I did it. The work on Fringe has turned out to be exciting and interesting. It’s a terribly well produced series. The character was a wide open canvas for me to work with. I had a great time doing it. This week’s episode is particularly special for the William Bell character. 

Your character has been a mysterious one; we’re never quite clear of his motives. How much did they tell you beforehand about what he was up to, and if you weren’t quite clear, how did you approach playing him? Is he evil? Is he good? 

LEONARD NIMOY - The ambiguity is the draw of the character. I think all of those questions will be answered this week in the final episode. We are still not quite clear, as of last week, about what his intentions are. He keeps telling Olivia [Anna Torv] that she should trust him, and maybe she has to. I don’t know if she has any choice really, but there will be very strong involvement with Olivia as well as Peter [Joshua Jackson] and particularly Walter [John Noble], which will, I think, answer the questions that you’re asking. Those are the questions that everybody’s asking.  So, what’s it all about with William Bell? We’ll find out this Thursday. 

You’ve talked recently about how you’re retiring from acting.  After William Bell on Fringe, did you feel like you’d played every character you wanted to play, or is it just a time and place that you just don’t feel like acting is going to open any more opportunities for you? Some thoughts on why this show is going to be your last? 

LEONARD NIMOY - It’s really coincidental. It wasn’t anything about the Fringe job or the character of William Bell that made me decide I didn’t want to do this anymore. It’s a coincidence. I’ve been at this for 60 years. My first professional work in film was in 1950.  So 60 years, I think, is long enough. I had decided several years ago not to do anymore acting or directing.  In the meantime, I was called back to work to do the Star Trek movie, which was very attractive. I thought it was going to be a wonderful film. I read the script and it did a great job of handling the Spock character and introducing a wonderful new actor to play him. Then, J.J. Abrams, who is the executive producer of Fringe,asked me to do the William Bell character. I thought I owed him that, and I’m very glad that I did it because it was an exciting project. It’s just coincidental that I decided some time ago that I really didn’t want to do this [acting]anymore. I just did this last job as a favor to J.J. I think we’ll see an exciting episode this week; it’s a very good note to go out on. 

Even though you’ve had a lot of exotic material over the years that you’ve done, it seems like Fringe takes us to another level here because we’re into things like alternate existences and people being in two different places at the same time, etc.  Are there times where it takes you a while to wrap your head around some of the Fringe material, or that make you stop and think, “Whoa!  This is stronger than anything in Star Trek”? 

LEONARD NIMOY - The best answer I can give you is that the Fringe television series is extremely well produced. The production is far more sophisticated than anything I was ever involved with [before] in television. That previous work was much more simplistic, production-wise, and these [Fringe] scripts are extremely complicated, very nuanced and intelligent. I’m intrigued with how well they do these shows, not only in the concept, but in the execution, particularly this week’s episode. I had a chance to be involved in some major production scenes, the likes of which I had never experienced in television. You’re right. The stories are unusually complex, but fascinating for an audience. I’ve become a great fan of the show. 

I just wanted to follow-up a little more on the announcement of your retirement; there were some online reports that you might actually be in the next Star Trek film. Doesn’t sound like that’s going to happen, but any word on maybe whether or not your good friend, William Shatner, might be? 

LEONARD NIMOY - I have no idea about the next film regarding Bill Shatner, but I think I can be definitive about the fact that I will not be in it. I have said that I think it’s time for me to get off the stage and make some room for Zachary Quinto, who’s the new Spock and a wonderful actor who looks a lot like me. I’m very flattered that the character will be continued by an actor of that caliber. He’s very well-trained and very talented. I have no expectations whatsoever even being asked to be in the next Star Trek film. I cannot speak for J.J. Abrams or Bill Shatner. If they have a common interest, I hope it works out. 

Obviously, you can’t reveal too much about the Fringe season finale, but can you give us maybe a few more hints?  Also, can you tell us do you expect to be on next season at all? 

LEONARD NIMOY - No, I don’t expect to be on next season. I have announced my retirement. I will not be doing anymore television or movie acting or directing. I can tell you that I feel very fulfilled with the work that was given to me to do in this final episode, coming up next week. I admire all of the people on this show: Anna Torv, Josh Jackson, John Noble and all the rest. I had some wonderful scenes to play with John Noble who I think is a wonderful actor. I’m excited and looking forward to seeing it [the episode] edited. I have not seen the edited version, but the work that we did on the soundstage and on the streets of Vancouver felt really creative and productive. I’m happy that I did it. 

Tell me a little bit about what you’re doing after acting.  I understand you do a lot of photography these days and have other interests.  Is it hard to say goodbye?  What’s next? 

LEONARD NIMOY - No, it’s not hard to say goodbye. I’ve had 60 years of working in films and television; I’m very grateful for all the great opportunities that I’ve had and all the people who I’ve met and worked with, including the Fringe company. I said on my final day of shooting that they were as good as any company I’ve ever worked with in my 60 years of experience. What I’m working on now is making the prints for an exhibition of my photography, which will open on July 31st as the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. I’m excited about it because it’s my first solo exhibition in a major museum. It’s a show called “Secret Selves,” which is about lost, hidden or secret identities and I’m excited about it. If one cares to see what some of the images look like, you can go to my website, which is leonardnimoyphotography.com and go to “Secret Selves.” 

I was wondering what you could tell me about this week’s episode in terms of your scenes with John Noble.  I assume there will be some Walter-William showdowns I can look forward to? 

LEONARD NIMOY - Yes, there will be some very strong scenes between Walter and William. I’d say that’s at the heart of the episode. It was a great pleasure for me to do those scenes. I admire John; I call him, “Noble John.” His name is John Noble, of course, but I call him, “Noble John.”  He’s a wonderful actor. I’m also am an admirer of the rest of the Fringe cast. I got to do some interesting work with Anna Torv, who I think is a wonderful actress, too.  Yes, there’s a very strong relationship resolution between Walter and William this Thursday night. 

What do you think is the most interesting aspect of William Bell’s character? 

LEONARD NIMOY - I think it’s the fact that he’s disarmingly unpredictable. He keeps saying, “Trust me,” but then you’re not quite sure if you should. That is probably the most interesting thing about him. He’s obviously a man of great intelligence and a powerful figure, but most intriguing is what his intentions are. What is his agenda? What is he really after? What’s he trying to accomplish? We’ll find out more about that on Thursday. 

Could you perhaps tell us what has made a career in this industry rewarding for you after all these years? 

LEONARD NIMOY - Well, I set out to be an actor when I was 17 or 18 years old. I left Boston and traveled to California to try to build a career. My very first efforts were very humble. I worked in a Saturday afternoon serial called Zombies of the Stratosphere. It was very primitive and very crude, but I was eager to do the work and happy to get it. It’s been exciting to me to work on soundstages and on locations all around the world. I’ve worked with some great, great talents. I worked with a number of Academy Award winners and a number of Emmy winners, with wonderful, talented people. The Star Trek character, Mr. Spock, has been a blessing to me because I find it a very dignified and a positive character and a great role model for a lot of people. I am one very, very grateful guy.  Ever since Star Trek went on the air 1966, I have never even had to concern myself with whether or not I’d work again. There was always work available to me. So it’s all about gratitude for me these days. Thanks for the question. 

What was it like for you on the last day of filming on the set of Fringe since this was the season finale? 

LEONARD NIMOY - It was very moving. I had the same experience on the last day of filming on the Star Trek movie about a year-and-a-half ago. This was a very moving experience. It was a night scene, a very brief scene. In fact, the last night, the last work that I did was the scene that was on last week between myself and Anna Torv. I had mixed feelings about it. I didn’t want it to end because the experience had been such a positive one, but of course, we had to get it done. When it was done, the entire company gathered around. There was a lot of love exchanged. I said to them, “I’ve been at this for 60 years. I have never worked with a better company.” I meant it. They do an amazing job on the Fringe series. It just feels really good to know that I’m saying goodbye to the work on a very positive, good note. I feel very good about the work that was done. I’m looking forward to it being on the air next Thursday. That’s a lovely question. I appreciate your thought. Thank you. 

 As you’ve said, you’ve spent 60 years in film and TV.  How has the job changed for you from Zombies of the Stratosphere to Fringe, or has it been all the same once the cameras began rolling? 

LEONARD NIMOY - The work is the work, of course. When they yell, “Action,” it’s time to deliver the goods. My position in the industry, of course, has changed drastically. When I came on the set of Fringe, I got a sense that people who said, “Uh, oh, here he comes, the old timer is coming.” When I first started out, I was in awe of the people who had great stories to tell about different locations they’d been to and different directors they’d worked with, different actors they’ve worked with and so forth. Now, I discovered I was the guy doing that, telling the stories about directors I worked with 40 years ago. It’s time to get off the stage; I think we’ve had our run. Thank you very much. 

What excited you the most about how William Bell has developed over the season? 

 LEONARD NIMOY - Well, there’s always been the question of what are his intentions. The writers have done a very good job of keeping the answer to that rather obscure. I’ve tried to make him disarming. I’ve tried to play him ambiguously so that, although he keeps saying, “Trust me,” you’re still not quite sure if you should. Even in last week’s episode, he said to Olivia, “I know that you have reason not to trust me, but I’m afraid you’re going to have to.” I think we’ll find out whether or not he’s telling her the truth in this week’s episode. It’s going to be a very exciting one and extremely well-produced. The performances by all of the actors that I got to work with are wonderful. I had a great time doing it. I’m looking forward to seeing it air on Thursday. 

As noted above, photo is by Craig Blankenhorn and copyright of Fox Television, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!

Robocop’s Peter Weller – On The Fringe

In White Tulip, a second season episode of the Fox TV series Fringe, passengers aboard a commuter train appear to have died a still death. It seems that a switch was flipped because all cell phones, mp3 players, laptops, batteries and bodies have been drained of power. As the Fringe team assembles at the bizarre crime scene, Peter (Joshua Jackson) remains suspicious that something is amiss with Walter (John Noble), who is struggling to keep the unimaginable a secret. When the investigation leads them to Alistair Peck (guest-star Peter Weller, RoboCop, Odyssey 5, 24), a very powerful man who has tremendous energy with severe consequences, an ironic set of circumstances surface.

Prior to the airing of this episode last week on Fox, guest-star Peter Weller graciously spent part of his day speaking with myself as well as fellow journalists on a conference call. The following is an edited version of that Q & A. Enjoy! 

How did this opportunity on Fringe come about for you?

PETER WELLER - They [the show's producers] called my agents and said, “We’d really like him [Peter] to do it.” I’d seen a little bit of the show, but I’ve been finishing a PhD at UCLA, so I don’t get a lot of time to watch primetime television. However, I had seen a bit of the show and my wife is a big fan of it, so I asked her, “We got this offer, what do you think?’ I have to tell you that, honestly, I’m very discerning about primetime television and guest-star spots. A lot of it is entertaining, but sort of hamstring stuff. Fringe, however, is unique. It’s the best that Science Fiction can be. It’s fantastic and entertaining, but at the same time it has a humanist theme to it of people, places, things and relationships. So my wife said, “I think it’s brilliant.” I said, “Really? OK.” So I read the script and it was brilliant, so I said, “I’m in.”

What can you tell us about the character you’re playing?

PW - He’s a guy who’s going back in time and making some serious sacrifices in terms of other peoples’ livelihood and well-being. And it’s all in order to save his wife from dying in a ridiculous moment, a mistake that he made. So he’s trying to find redemption and go back to the only person who really means anything to him. It’s just tremendously romantic and very moving; that alone was enough to make me want to jump on it.

What were some of the challenges you found with this role?

PW - First of all, there were scenes that were four pages of explanation and dialogue, but they were really well-written. They weren’t just expository, but dramatic scenes to justify love, need and family. Those were a challenge to make come alive. The story is predicated on losing the person you love. I come from the method [acting]. I come from [teachers like] Elia Kazan and Uta Hagen, and you’ve got to plug your personal life into that stuff, and it’s upsetting stuff. So you have to sort of imagine what it would be like if I was a guy who lost his wife or fiance, and that’s hard stuff to tap into. At 60 years old, you want to kind of sit by the sea, which I’m doing now, smoke a cigar, have a cappuccino and not take a look at those possible horrors. So again that’s the biggest challenge, how to access the sorrow of losing the dearest person to you in the world.

What was it like to kind of delve into that type of story?

PW - Well, it’s entertaining. HG Wells was maybe the first to do it. The thing about Science Fiction is that it’s sort of like an autobiography of the world. If you can follow me with that – it’s like if you read history. I’m finishing this history piece at UCLA, and it’s like if you have a linear sort of record of the great events in the world. And then you have intersecting it, vertically or thematically, Science Fiction; the what-ifs, the what if we did this, the whole thing outside our sort of linear experience. That’s the great gift of Science Fiction. So it’s fun. What can I tell you? If you have any kind of inventive mind at all, you go racing with it. I just think it was great. I don’t understand science that much. I’m not a scientist and I’m not really good at mathematics, but Science Fiction is just an extraordinarily imaginative trope.

You just mentioned what Science Fiction is like; what’s your view of Fringe‘s science?

PW - The reason why I love Fringe, and not just because I was on it, is that it goes past the surface adventure of science and sort of plumbs the responsibility and accountability of Science Fiction. Where the human being goes with it, what he has to suffer and what joy and also misery that he pulls out of messing with, if you will, fate or destiny as the Greeks say, or choice or the order of the natural world. That’s what Fringe does. It takes you a little bit deeper, and as a matter of fact, in my opinion, a lot deeper than the usual Science Fiction program. It’s all entertainment, but Fringe has an inquiry into what it means to be human along with this, and that’s what really turns me on to this show.

How does it compare to the [Science Fiction] series you used to be on, Odyssey 5?

PW - It’s very similar. That’s what turned me on about Odyssey 5, too, is that people are placed back in time except that they have the knowledge of the future. And so they look, they mess with Mother Nature and everything goes askew. As a matter of fact, when I first started to do Fringe, I called up Manny Coto, the creator of Odyssey 5, and he said, “Oh, wow, this sounds like Isaac Asimov.” Indeed, the [show's] writers are Asimov fans. So I think it’s very close in parallel. Both these shows, particularly [the Fringe episode] White Tulip, and Odyssey 5 - or a bunch of episodes of Odyssey 5 - use Science Fiction to leverage the audience into an inquiry about being humanly accountable as far as relationships go with other human beings. Are you a person of peace or are you one of greed and aggression? These are great inquiries to me, and I really appreciate you bringing up the analogy between Fringe and Odyssey 5 because that’s the very thing that turned me on about White Tulip.

Speaking of time travel, if you were able to go back in time to either warn yourself about something or even relive an experience in a better way, is there someplace that you think you’d like to go?

PW - Yes, there are a couple of places I would like to go, but I don’t know if I’d redo anything. I’ve been very blessed, but there are a couple of relationships that I made youthful mistakes about and they were very egotistical and sort of self-absorbed mistakes. Just like the guy in White Tulip; he gets into an argument with his fiance, just a small argument, and therein death happens. So I’d go back and sort of make a few amends with some people who are no longer on this Earth. That’s all I think I would do.

If I just really could time travel, though, there are a few people, including a couple of Renaissance artists and an emperor or two who I’d like to shake hands with. I’d certainly like to go back and step on the Island of Elba and talk to Napoleon for a second, or go back to talk with Frederick II, who was a great emperor in the 1200′s who gave Jews and Muslims a whole lot of civil freedom and spoke Arabic and Hebrew and was a vegetarian and a poet. So those are two people I’d specifically like to meet, but, again, as far as my own life, there are two or three people who I regret mishandling and I’d like to go back and sort of straighten that out.

Don’t you kind it remarkable that what is Science Fiction one day can very likely be Science Fact the very next day?

PW - I think you’re absolutely right. I did this wonderful movie with a bad title called Screamers based on a Philip Dick short story called The Second Variety. And Dick’s whole theme was that kind of Zen thing where if you invest your consciousness into building a robot or an automaton, it will eventually have a conscience because you put your soul in it. So I think guys like him and HG Wells are rolling in their graves about what’s going on now with, for example, world communications and the possibility of space travel. And who knows, it might be like Albert Einstein thought; a general theory of physics may allow us to cross into another dimension at some point. The whole parapsychology thing that I thought was goofy when I was a kid, now looks more and more real to me and I can understand why places like Duke study it. So yes, it’s astounding.

What was it like working with the cast of Fringe?

PW - Fantastic! One of the most fabulous crews who are on the ball, and the cast is egoless, which is sometimes and many times not the case. I’ve been in the movie business for I don’t know how many years, and I’m sure when I was a young man I occasionally threw my own little hissy fits. But after a while, you just want to get the work done, particularly if it’s a great part in a great show. You just want to really get the best work out there and the way to do that is for everyone to put their ego on hold and, while a movie set is not a democracy, it’s essentially an oligrarchy. There’s somebody in charge and somebody else in charge. If everyone is receptive to ideas, then you really get something done. And the Fringe set – and again, I’m not just saying this because I was on the show – has this fantastic egalitarian accessibility of everyone on it. It’s magic. That show is a gift of creation and a wonderful place to create. The writers were available to me on the phone, the directors were available to me night and day, the crew was unbelievably helpful, and the cast was nothing but gems. I just had an absolute ball.

Is there a chance that you will come back and direct an episode of Fringe and put Fred Weller in it as well.

PW - I put Fred Weller and Graham Beckel in everything I direct. I’m going to pound Fringe to direct an episode for them. I’m actually cranking up a film to direct, but I’d love to direct for them and, if so, yes, I’ve got to get Fred Weller and Graham Beckel in it because they’re gifted. I don’t know if you know who Graham Beckel is, but he’s been in every movie I’ve ever made, and Tommy Lee Jones once said that Graham is probably one of the two or three most inventive film actors walking on planet Earth.

You said you were cranking up to direct a new film; can you tell us a little bit about it.

PW - It’s called The Meaning of Nowhere and it’s about a very, very bad girl who kills three people. She’s a low-level heist operator who kills three people in the first five minutes of the film and, by destiny, she ends up in a life that’s actually sort of nice. It’s not about somebody trying to go good because she doesn’t want to go good. It’s just that the current takes her on down the stream and she ends up in a fairly nice little sort of Brigadoon paradise and then doesn’t want to let it go. It’s actually a thriller, and one that’s about whether you are fated to be one thing or whether you can choose to be another.

We’re all desperately awaiting the return of RoboCop and rooting for Darren Aronofsky’s vision. Have you heard anything about the status of the film and what do you think about bringing back this wonderful character?

PW - You know, I wish Darren well. He’s a gifted director. I was happy to do it [the original RoboCop] and happy to leave it. It’s like Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis; they were happy to get together and happy to part because they went their own ways. I left RoboCop to do Naked Lunch, and I was very grateful for everything that RoboCop brought me, particularly a large listing amongst young people in regards to education and making some sort of contribution to education or difference to education because young kids will listen to me because of that film. But I think the [new] movie will probably be good.

Can you tell us a little bit about your experiences working with Jeffrey Hunt, the director of “White Tulip,” and what that was like for you?

PW - It was his first directing gig on the show. He’s one of the DOPs [director of photography] and he was absolutely fabulous. He had a structure and within that structure, John [Noble] and I, because most of my scenes were with John, got to invent, and John is a very inventive actor. He is a workhorse. John has been around the block, man. He’s done theater and everything else, so it’s not like the director was working with a couple of newbies. John is so in-tune to a physical space and movement within a room and so forth, and one of the things that I’m good at is physically inventing a room. Some people say I’m prop heavy, but I don’t call those things props, I call them physical life. The director really gave me a lot of leeway to work with stuff. He was great; it was as if he’d been directing all his life.

What would you say makes a career in this industry rewarding for you so far?

PW - You know, you can say it’s the perks. Tony Curtis said, “There’s nothing like the perks of the movie business.” Look, I got burned out on acting about four years into acting onstage. I was just chasing one job to the next. Then I had sort of a life change, and hopefully everyone has a life change. You’ve got to have more than one, too. You’ve got to have these epiphanies about every 10 years. I realized that what it was about, and this sounds very simplistic. As a matter of fact, it sounds vacuous. It’s like [the feature film] Alien; this thing is right on your face and you can’t see it. It occurred to me in a major epiphany that what I was about was communicating, and if I can communicate a particular experience that either assists, enlightens or makes some kind of difference in a fictional world to those who are watching, then that’s what I can do.

The fallout of that is that, as Robert Mitchum said, “Having celebrity can call attention to your favorite charity or getting a nice seat in a restaurant.” That’s about it. Insomuch as I got a little notoriety, I can bring some attention to my particular issues, which are essentially pre-school and early school elementary education.

It’s also given me the gift of travel, and travel is educational as well as brings the world together. You find out about somebody else’s culture, and then you don’t feel so isolated and alien about your own. As a result, you’re a little bit more available to understand somebody else’s position. Anything that can help somebody break bread instead of picking up a gun with somebody else is worthwhile.

And that’s what acting is, really. I don’t want to get high and mighty about it, but it’s really given me an access to the world. And subsequently in communicating a particular experience, like in White Tulip, which is about love. That’s all it is; the whole episode is about love and the desire for love and the loss of people who you love. If I can communicate that, then I get re-infused with it, and I can go out and be nicer to the person next to me. Moses, Jesus, Buddha and every other avatar on planet Earth said, “Handle what’s in front of you with kindness and then the world will handle itself.” That works by the way, you know?

Fox Renews Fringe For A Third Season

Joshua Jackson, John Noble and Anna Tova in the season two Fringe episode "Johari Window." Photo copyright of Fox TV

FOX has renewed Fringe, the critically acclaimed thrilling drama, for a third season, it was announced on Monday, March 8th by Kevin Reilly, President, Entertainment for Fox Broadcasting Company. “Fringe tapped into a deep creative mine this year that built momentum throughout the season and helped give us our first real foothold on TV’s most competitive night,” said Reilly. “The entire Fringe team – from the producers and writers to the cast and crew – has taken smart storytelling and top production quality to a while new level. The rest of this season is mind-blowing, and we can’t wait to get started on the third installment of this amazing journey. 

Said Fringe co-creator and executive producer J.J. Abrams, “We could not be more excited to continue the wild ride of Fringe. We are grateful to Fox, and our viewers, for allowing this fun, mind-bending adventure to go on.” 

Series showrunners and executive producers Jeff Pinkner and J.H. Wyman added, “This early renewal comes at a great time and adds to the cast and crew’s energy and excitement as we head into production on this season’s revealing final two episodes. We have so many stories to tell, so this is awesome that we have another season to explore the worlds of Fringe.” 

The second season of Fringe resumes with eight all-new and uninterrupted episodes beginning Thursday, April 1st (9:00 p.m. – 1o:00 p.m. EST/PST) on Fox. In Peter, the Spring premiere episode, Walter (John Noble) flashes back to 1985 while explaining Peter’s (Joshua Jackson) otherworldly origins to Olivia (Anna Torv). Also, Peter’s mother (guest-star Orla Brady) is introduced and details of the neighboring world reaffirm that there is more than one of everything. 

As noted above, photo is copyright of Fox Television, so please no copying or  duplicating of any kind. Thanks!