LOS ANGELES Six men and one woman get unique opportunities to boldly go where few have gone before Friday when they play the icons
introduced more than 40 years ago aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise in a classic TV series. Of course, they’re young stars blazing new frontiers in the latest, state-of-the-art “” movie. All but Simon Pegg, who conjures up chief engineer Montgomery “Scotty” Scott on the big screen, were on hand recently to talk about the challenges of their career-making roles, as well as staying faithful to the characters originally played by actors almost everyone now knows. James T. Kirk “I saw Bill (Shatner) for the first time at his charity show in Burbank and he was very kind. It was a very short meeting. He had a lot of people to see and it was a big event that had been taking place all day, but my interaction with him has really only been wonderful. “I sent him a letter early on, explaining who I was — who this punk kid was who was taking over his role, at least for the time — and he was very kind and wished me all the luck in the world. There was a wonderful feeling of ‘handing over the mantle’ and wishing us luck, but it was more about allowing us the freedom to make these characters our own, without any feelings of expectation and responsibility.” Spock “I think all of us were faced with a certain level of intimidation stepping into these roles theoretically, though (director) J.J. Abrams did a wonderful job of diffusing that from step one.
“We were encouraged to use the original performances as points of departure. But, from there on, we were expected to really develop our own points of view and perspectives on these characters.