It wasn't exactly a cattle call. I had an agent, and they were seeing people for the parts, so my agent said, "Here's the script, see if there's anything that speaks to you." And I did, and I called my agent and said, "I think this character Data is kind of interesting," and she said, "Well, okay, I'll get you the appointment with Junie Lowry." I had to read with the casting agent first, 'cause nobody really knew me then. Then after that, I had, I think, six different auditions for the role. And finally it was me on Star Trek.
I like to think of myself as the Rutger Hauer of this show Star Trek: The Next Generation. But then I like to think of myself as Rutger Hauer in real life: strikingly handsome, irresistible to women, an intergalactic enigma.
Independence Day was a sweet, sweet job, because it was one of those big surprises.
I think the potential for man is so enormous, if we can stay alive long enough, we're going to be seeing a lot of what Star Trek is projecting.
I think Rick Berman just called me and asked me if I wanted to do the show, and he said they'd write an arc if I'd do it.
I think Night Court was the first thing I did when I came out to Hollywood. It was just one of those things that... I'm from Texas, and it was a character I'd been doing when I was a kid, just for fun.
I had no idea I was part of what was going to be a big mega-hit. I thought I was doing a B sci-fi movie Independence Day. And, actually, it was Jeff Goldblum who looked at me one day and said, "You know, I think this is going to be really something." And I said, "Well, I hope you're right." And sure enough, it turned out to be.
People think that being on Star Trek is career suicide, but it's really just the opposite.
I think that Enterprise was getting better and better, actually, and if it had kept going, I think it would've turned into as good a show as any other in the Star Trek franchise.
And the basic sort of thrust of Star Trek being about equality and tolerance and things I believe in deeply.
It seemed like an interesting movie Independence Day, and I thought I had a take on the part that was going to be unique. That doesn't happen to me very often.
And I think it's likely that there will be Data's out there one day. I hope so, if there are, that they all look exactly like me!
I don't think everybody wanted to be on new Star Trek series. I certainly didn't.
That's what kids were like then. So I really like the movie (Dude, Where's My Car?), I think it's genuinely funny, and I wish I hadn't been so arrogant about it. And, of course, I didn't know it was going to be my best work, either.
Earl Mills is probably the best role I've ever been given in a film. And it was a great experience to work with Halle Berry and Klaus Maria Brandauer, an Austrian actor who's a hero of mine. Martha Coolidge directed the movie Introducing Dorothy Dandridge, giving me another shot, and it was an amazing experience.
I don't read Science Fiction.
A job is a job. And I like to work.
So we (with Chris Ellis) did (Fresh Hell), and we did the first five episodes as a lark, just to see if anybody would respond or be interested, and we got enough feedback that was positive that we thought, "Let's keep going with this and see if we can flesh it out a bit this season." We've had 10 episodes, and they've been longer and a little more complete.
Gian Luigi Polidoro and his girlfriend had written this script, it was an American comedy, and they decided I was the guy to play the part. I was young, they offered me the lead in the film, and I said, "Sure, I'll do it." And I'm telling you, there is a movie waiting to be made about the making of a movie like that, particularly at that time in New York. I mean, we shot all over the streets of New York without permits. We would literally grab a shot and run. But Rent Control... I think the total cost was $100,000, and to this director's credit, I think it looks like $200,000.
The character of Brent Spiner (in Fresh Hell). We certainly collaborate on the concept of that, but he basically writes the script, then it's sort of a combination of his voice and my voice.
Obviously we're doing a comedy (Fresh Hell), and our intent is to entertain, but we're also really aware and trying to stay aware of the subtext of what it's like to reach a certain age and be dismissed, basically, from the fraternity you've always wanted to be a part of, and the desperation involved in trying to claw your way back into it.
We got to be really good friends (Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau). It was just thrilling, every day. Every single day. I had a big couple of musical numbers in (Out to Sea), and I remember doing one of them and shooting it from beginning to end.
I try to do as much as I can. I probably knew more about Earl Mills than anybody on earth besides people who actually knew him.
Radical surgery is never fun.
It was kind of an amazing class. I went to the Strasberg Institute in New York for a little while after I got there, and I've never seen anybody who was in any of my classes there ever again. I mean, that's not to say they didn't become somebody. I'm not sure. I mean, Sam Jackson could've been in my class, for all I remember.
We had lunch that day (with Chris Ellis), and I was talking about this idea. I toyed with it a little bit on Twitter in story form at one point. And he thought it was a great idea, and he thought, "Well, let's bring my friend Harry Hannigan in, who's a wonderful writer, and let's see if we can put something together."
Rent Control was an interesting movie. It was directed by... I had done a couple of plays off Broadway, and this Italian director came, his name was Gian Luigi Polidoro, and he determined I was the person to play the lead in his low-budget comedy. He'd won an award at the Venice Film Festival, and... He was, y'know, a skilled director.
As I get older and I get more of this dialogue and I lose more and more brain cells, it really does become the most difficult part of the job!
I do know that when I look around in show business, I see a lot of people who were in my drama class in high school.
I felt like I was a natural (in The Simpsons).
As it turns out, sometimes that bites you. In this case, I saw pictures of Earl Mills, and...I actually met him. He was quite old at the time, but he had this sort of curly red hair, so we did that in the film. I got a perm and had red hair, and... It was a mess.
My own personal favorite Cher song is the unforgettable Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves.
I tended to do a lot of shows that were ahead of their time and didn't run very long.
Joey being one of my finest performances ever. Matt LeBlanc's basically doing the same thing right now, playing himself on Episodes. When I did Joey, I really leaned on them to make me the biggest ass they possibly could, because, frankly, everyone in their heart of hearts thinks of themselves that way. Or at least I do, anyway.
Rent Control is not a terrible movie, certainly not for the budget they had. And, again, it's such an '80s kind of thing.
In my heart, I've never left Brazil.
I did a couple of little Off-Broadway things, but my first Broadway show was A History Of The American Film, written by Chris Durang. Swoosie Kurtz was one of the stars. It was a wonderful show. It closed in 40 performances. I think it was kind of ahead of its time.
I´m thinking of going into rehab. Im not addicted to anything, but I think its good way to jumpstart an acting career.
I think it was somewhere around age 3 when I fell down the stairs at my house, and I got up and did a Jerry Lewis impression and got a big laugh. And I thought, "Oooh, I like that. I think I need to do this for a living!"
And, you know, when you are a kid, everybody wants to be an actor. I think that everybody wants to be in show business, frankly.
A couple of years ago, I went to see a production of Wicked in San Francisco with a friend of mine, one that Patty Duke was in, and he said, "Do you want to meet her?" And I said, "Yeah!" And I went backstage, and she walked out of her dressing room, looked at me, and said, "I know you." And I went, "Well, uh, yeah, I was in My Sweet Charlie." And she said, "Yeah! You were the guy in the car on the road!" And I was. It was amazing.
(Billy Bob Conroy role) that was a favor. Actually, the lady who cast Night Court asked me to do it, because it was a Friday, and the person who'd been rehearsing it all week got sick and couldn't come to the taping. And she figured I could put it together pretty quickly - it was not all that big a challenge, frankly - and I said, "Of course." I owed her, after all. Gilda Stratton was her name. She was a really, really nice person. So I did it.
I didn't really watch the show Star Trek. I still haven't seen about 150 of them. So I didn't really think of them too much in terms of episodes. I thought of them as kind of one long seven-year episode.
Any job you can go to and have a laugh everyday has got to be a good job.
I've gotten such good feedback from that (re-team with Wil Wheaton for Big Bang Theory appearance), and I hardly did anything.
(Out To Sea) began a relationship I had with (director) Martha Coolidge for a few years that was wonderful, and she certainly cast me in the best roles I've ever had in film.
I did a great show Off-Broadway called Leave It To Beaver Is Dead that was at the Public Theater in New York. It was written by Des McAnuff, who's an illustrious director now, and it starred... Well, I was in it, Mandy Patinkin, Dianne Wiest, Saul Rubinek, and Maury Chaykin. It was an amazing show. But it was definitely ahead of its time, and people didn't quite get it.
I don't read fiction at all.
I mean, I'm the tag of the Big Bang Theory show! That was one of the easiest jobs I've ever had.
Of those, the only one that really stands out for me is Tales From The Darkside, for a couple of reasons, one in particular being who I got to work with on it, which was Eddie Bracken. I mean, what a man. Someone who's done Preston Sturges movies, and I actually got to work with him? And he was great.
Both of the Quaid brothers, Randy and Dennis, were in my class, and Tommy Schlamme, who produced and directed The West Wing with Aaron Sorkin, among many others. Marianne Williamson, who did A Course In Miracles, she was in my high-school drama class, too. So it was kind of an amazing class.
I try not to make plans. Because, even the best laid plans etc. etc.
I think I worked an average of about 10 minutes a day in Big Bang Theory series. It took longer to get to the studio than I actually worked. So I regard the driving there as the actual job. The work itself was just fun.
(The Aviator) came about through John Logan, who I've been friends with for many years.
When I get to work with people I admire, it's such a bonus, so it was an easy sell when I got this phone call asking, 'Will you do this thing with David Strathairn?'" Also, they didn't ask me to audition, which is another bonus. But they said, "All your scenes will be with David," and I said, "I'm there!"
If you look around at the people in show business today they are basically the people who didn't give up.
I think we're all fans, and I understand the whole world of fandom, because I am a fan.
Voice acting is about the easiest thing to do. You roll out of bed, throw your clothes on that you had on the night before, you go into the studio, and nobody cares, just as long as you can speak.
That was a really interesting series Threshold that I think would've been really great had it continued. I know Brannon Braga, who was running the show at the time, had a lot of really interesting ideas for what was going to happen the second, third, fourth, and fifth seasons, and they had it really planned out what was going to go on. But CBS just decided to pull the plug on it.
The one on Fresh Hell is a little easier, because we make it up. It's a strange kind of hybrid of the real me and... Well, obviously it's me standing there, and it's my voice and my face, but it's also kind of filtered through Harry Hannigan's take on the character, the one he's writing.
Timing is everything, as you know.
I really enjoyed Eddie Bracken. He told me a great story. He did The Odd Couple on Broadway, replacing Art Carney, and he said, "Art Carney did it for six months and I did it for three years, and I don't think anyone I've ever spoken to saw me. They all saw Art Carney."
One of the things about working on Star Trek that was always so great was that we all got along as well as we did. We really became family.
Having spent so much time in a fictional world, I prefer to read about the real world.
Basically, my deal is that I choose roles based on three criteria. One is the role, obviously, if it's something that speaks to me. Two is, are they gonna pay me? And three is, who am I gonna work with? And, really, if one of those is there, I'm pretty likely to do it, but it's particularly important to me who I'm going to work with, 'cause that's part of the joy.
John Logan pretty much does the Woody Allen thing of just bringing people in and meeting them.
I went to New York out of college, and in my day, we were told that was the way you became a good actor. You don't go to Hollywood, you go straight to New York and work in the theater. So that's what most of the people I knew did.
I've toyed with this idea of Fresh Hell for a long time. I actually wrote a feature years ago with this sort of concept in mind, and it's gone through several incarnations, and... It wasn't 'til I met Chris Ellis, who directed me in a little thing that was actually for a ride in Universal Singapore, for those of you who happen to be going to Universal Singapore.
I have to say, though, that somebody pointed out to me on YouTube that Conan O'Brien was being interviewed, and he was talking about how, oddly enough, he went to see that movie South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut in Hawaii with his girlfriend or wife or whoever, and he didn't even realize his character was in it. But there he was, and he said, "This voice comes out of me, and I'm thinking, 'That's not me! Who is that? That doesn't even sound like me!'
I know a guy who writes on the show, it was his episode, and he called and said, "Would you do it?" And I said, "Yeah." There's not really much else to tell, except that I was thrilled to be on The Simpsons, because it's one of the greatest series in the history of television.
I love the South Park guys, Trey Parker and Matt Stone. They're geniuses. I throw that word around a lot, but I really do mean it.
I think it's the business part of the word show business that causes me the most concern.
Although I could be wrong. If Roland Emmerich's thinking about doing that at some point, I'd be glad to don the long hair again. But sometimes you can just go a little bit further out with something you're only going to be doing for a short run.
I didn't audition or anything like that. But I went into John Loganhis office... It was his screening room in his office, actually, and I sat and schmoozed with him for about two minutes, which I think is standard, and, y'know, we got on fine.
Dana Carvey is hilarious. He's a really, really funny, talented guy. You know, I can't think of anything I've ever done that I regret doing, and I certainly don't regret doing Master Of Disguise, because I got to hang around Dana.
Certainly I find it most interesting to play a role that I can invent from nothing.
I was, like, "Wow, is this ever going to happen again? Am I ever going to work with another bunch of people I get along with this well?" And then, sure enough, Threshold was just a great bunch of people, and I thought, "Hey, I could hang with these people for a long time!" But, unfortunately, it was 13 episodes and we were out of there.
(Martin Scorsese) basically works just like any other director. You work the scene, you try to find what's best in it and make it work. That's what it was like.
It's fun to do something different. And there are things you can do in a small palate that you can't necessarily do in a larger role. You can go a little further and do things you could never pull off for any length of time, but you can do for the short run.
I'm an avid biography reader.
I have to go with Data's makeup, because that was basically every day, 10 months out of the year, for seven years. There were only a couple of days that I had to endure for Dr. Soong.
I got to play a funny part (in the The Master Of Disguise). There was one thing my character did that involved flatulence and laughing at the same time - that was in the script - and that was basically what sold me on it. I really thought, "This can't help but be funny." And when I saw the film, I was proud that I'd had those moments.
I've played myself before this and I've played myself since, for that matter - and playing yourself one of the most difficult characters you can play, 'cause God knows most of us don't know who that is.
I think there is something like 90% unemployment in the Screen Actors Guild, so we are the exception.
Felicia Day is really figured it all out, and it was impressive. It was nothing like our set, because her set was like working on a real film.
There's such a grand fraternity of actors who've played the Joker, not the least of whom is Mark Hamill, who voiced it for so long and was so great. I did it one time and... I've gotten some feedback on it from people who've seen it and really enjoyed it, but I don't know.
I don't know you could do a whole film about Dr. Okun from Independence Day.
There is no question that everybody who works in show business is lucky because of the number of people who wish they where working in show business.
Needless to say, I was impressed by Felicia Day and her moxie with how to do a web series. I mean, she's the queen of the web.
We (with John Logan) started talking about The Searchers, and then he went on to tell me a story about when he first met John Wayne, and he said, "Hey, you be me and I'll be Wayne," and I said, "No, let me be Wayne!" Anyway, it was a very pleasant conversation, it was clear to him that I was a big movie fan, and by the time I got home, there was a phone call, asking if I'd mind doing one scene in the movie (The Aviator).
Pierre (from Dude, Where's My Car?) could be the best thing I've ever done. When you distill it down to a minute and a half of work, that may be my finest effort.
No, actually I'm trying to stay away from the big screen.
I actually had some funny dialogue in Stardust Memories, a little piece, and we shot all day in this big ballroom. Gordon Willis was the director of photography, and at the end of the day, Gordon turned to Woody Allen and said, "We cannot accomplish all of this in this space. It's impossible." And we'd been rehearsing and trying to shoot this thing all day. So Woody said, "Okay, let's do something else." He looked at me and said, "Come back tomorrow, I'll put you in something else." And he did.
I don't know if the character's come back and it was someone else playing it, or maybe they never did it again. But I loved it. It was a great part (The Joker) to play.
Initially I objected to the Data makeup. I said, "Why do I need this makeup? Why can't I just look like me?" In fact, I said to Gene Roddenberry, "Don't you think that by this time in history, they would've figured out how to make skin look like skin?" And he said, "What makes you think that what you have isn't better than skin?" And I went, "Um, okay."
Yes, Data is hairless but I am not. And we are both anatomically correct.
Voice acting is such an easy job. It's like stealing money, really. Which I'm always happy to do.
John Logan was kind of wrapping up - "Well, thanks for coming in..." - and I thought, "Oh, God, this is over and I'm out of here, and I really don't want to leave."So I said, "Can I ask you a question?" He said, "Sure." "What movie do you think you've seen more than any other movie?" And he said, "Wow, let me think about that. I guess probably The Searchers." And I said, "Well, oddly, that's the movie I've seen more than any other movie." And I wasn't just BS-ing. It's true. It's my favorite movie.
I did have a tiny moment in a TV movie called My Sweet Charlie, starring Patty Duke.
Generally, I have to be able to get the lines out of my mouth without making a mistake before I go to sleep.
Like, she had a caterer, she had wardrobe people, she had two makeup artists... I mean, we have makeup and we have wardrobe, but Felicia Day was, like, on it. She had two cameras operating, sets, extras everywhere. It was unbelievable. I don't know what her budget was or is, but she had sponsors for her show, and we don't have a sponsor yet, so basically, the difference is, our moms make our costumes.
I think everyone agrees First Contact was our best film, and even at that, they're kind of... I don't know, they're sort of movies. But they're kind of really Star Trek movies, if you take my meaning. It's hard for me to say. I was glad to be doing them. Whether they were good isn't really up to me to determine, and it doesn't matter what I think. I thought we had a really nice script on Nemesis, and the audience didn't seem to care for it, so what can you do?
The Dain Curse (Tom Fink) was a great job. I was in New York, and I was young - I think I'm 28 years old in that - and I got to work with James Coburn and Jean Simmons and Jason Miller. Plus, it was a Dashiell Hammett story, and I had a great character. It was fantastic to shoot.
Acting is acting.
I did learn a lot from Felicia Day, though, and I was able to usurp some of her talent.
I'm, like, y'know, I didn't have a problem doing one scene in Dude, Where's My Car? I'm certainly not going to have a problem doing one scene in a Martin Scorsese movie!
It really was not that difficult a process, because I was playing Data from Star Trek something that doesn't exist. So it was really based on... Imagination was the key element in that, and whatever I could think of, I could do, because there was no precedent for it. It wasn't like someone was going to say, "Well, an android would never do that." They didn't know!
Harry Hannigan and Chris Ellis are sitting there while we're doing Fresh Hell, and Chris is directing, obviously, but if we start fooling around a little bit, Harry comes in, and he's got some addition that makes it even funnier. But we start with a complete script.
I had a fantastic teacher in high school. I had one of those guys you dream of having, who molds your life and inspires you to go in a particular direction, and he was quite brilliant. His name was Cecil Pickett, and a lot of the kids from my high-school drama class are in professional show business and have done quite well.
Can't argue with Gene Roddenberry. He was a pretty brilliant guy.
If I'm not mistaken, I think Data was the comic relief on the show.
So it was a really pleasant surprise when Independence Day turned out to be a successful film. I don't know if you've heard that they're going to be re-releasing it next Fourth of July in 3-D. I've actually only seen it once, and it was in Hawaii, in a little theater in Oahu shortly after it was released. But Roland Emmerich is a really smart guy, and he makes really fun movies to watch.
Hollywood has more than its share of harsh and crewel stories. In fact, it's probably more the norm than the exception.
Dr. Okun. Who's named after a special-effects guy named Jeff Okun, who had done Stargate for Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin, who did Independence Day. But "Brakish" just came up one day when Jeff Goldblum and I were improvising, and he told me his character's name and I told him mine.
I think he is an extremely accessible character. In Data there is no potential for cruelty.
I've worked with some great people in Star Trek, and I was paid handsomely, and it was a nice role. So the whole experience was positive for me.
Rick Berman, who produced Star Trek, was a big Night Court fan. So he knew who I was as soon as I walked in.
They were nicely written and nicely directed episodes (Star Trek: Enterprise). I enjoyed working with Scott Bakula. So it was good to do, and, as you said, it did serve to enhance the Soong legacy.
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