Continuing the interviews dropping today from British science fiction and fantasy magazine SFX, STAR TREK BEYOND’s Jim Kirk – actor Chris Pine – spoke with the publication about the captain’s growth leading into this third film, the lead up to production, working with Idris Elba, and if William Shatner might ever appear in the new movies.
On how Jim Kirk has changed in the new movie:
Everyone always talks about the pressure; I never felt one iota of pressure [on BEYOND] at all. In fact, it was the most fun we’ve had. Nine years in, it just gets easier.
What I really enjoy about this part of Kirk’s arc is that he’s relieved of all the onus of trying to live up to his father and the anger of never having met his father, all the stuff that drove the first films.
I think it was very important, especially for the first film, to [see Kirk being a young maverick]. There were fans that were dismayed that he had so much bravado – but there’s no place for the character to go if you don’t start somewhere. And that guy is certainly still in there.
Now he’s an older guy, not a young man anymore… he’s a leader and his priorities and motivations have changed. He’s thinking to himself, “Now that I don’t need [to be like my dad], what else is there?”
On the compressed development time that launched the BEYOND production:
The actors are usually the last people to find out anything; we have no control… they tell me when to show up.
You can bemoan the fact that you’re getting the script so late… you can either dive headfirst into that or you can struggle against it. I decided to dive headfirst into it. I’ve done enough of these [films] to know that, strangely enough, the more money that’s put into a project the more free-form it can be.
Simon [Pegg] and Doug [Jung] have come up with a great story, and Justin [Lin] is a master navigator [of these] big-budget film waters, so I trusted these people. My job is just to bring it to live, and be open on the day for anything to happen.
Pine also discussed working with Idris Elba – playing the villain Krall – and if he’d ever don similar prosthetic makeup appliances in the future:
He’s a huge guy; I’m not a small guy myself but Idris is a big dude, very charismatic. He came up with this rather extraordinary character. Let’s just say he’s an angry man and Kirk sees in him a lot of his own anger, just like Khan.
The thing that ties all these antagonists together, from Nero to Khan to [Krall] is their anger, obviously, but how it’s reflected off Kirk’s own anger. And Kirk is learning to deal with his anger, whether he’s set off by it or whether he can be zen.
[Prosthetics?] No. Seriously, never. I don’t ever want to do it. You’re not sleeping, you’re working 15, 16-hour days and you’re getting force-called every day, which means you’re finishing at 6 or 7 [at night]… you’re in bed at 10 [and] you’re up at 3:30 or 4AM.
Not an effing chance I’m doing that.
I like the idea of [motion capture], the idea of completely creating a [completely CGI character like] Gollum. But with prosthetics you’re just dealing with your sheer force of will. It’s an immense amount of concentration.
Sometimes they can’t even eat [and] have to use a straw… it’s awful!
The actor also spoke about the often-rumored appearance of William Shatner in the ongoing movie series, something he feels would overshadow everything else:
At this point there’s been so much built up about this potential portentous meeting between the two Kirks… [but the movie] would just become about that. The movie can’t be come about that. The movie has to be about whatever story we’re trying to tell.
It’d be fun, it’d be kitschy… but beyond that I don’t know what it serves for our storytelling purposes.
Lastly, Pine addressed what it means to be a Star Trek movie in modern times, and how the films have needed to change to be successful in the current cinematic marketplace – and what he’d like to see in a potential Trek 4.
You can’t make cerebral ‘Star Trek’ in 2016. It just wouldn’t work in today’s marketplace. You can hide things in there – ‘Star Trek Into Darkness’ has crazy, really demanding questions and themes – but you have to hide it under the guise of wham-bam explosions and planets blowing up.
The question that our movie poses is, “Does the Federation mean anything?” And in a world where everybody’s trying to kill each other all the time, it’s an important thing. Is working together important? Should we all go our separate ways? Does being united against something mean anything?
[If we get a fourth movie,] I would like a slower film. That’d be kind of fun. Kirk and team land on a planet and go explore.
It’s not going to happen, but it would be fun to make the Merchant Ivory version; a slow, talky film.
Stay tuned for more STAR TREK BEYOND news as it breaks.