Two weeks after the death of his STAR TREK BEYOND costar and friend Anton Yelchin, castmate Zachary Quinto appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert where he talked about the passing of his young colleague.
[His death is] absolutely senseless; [Anton was] a beautiful guy. I don’t even know how to talk about it. [I and the cast] already knew this was going to be a really bittersweet experience because of the loss of Leonard [Nimoy] last year, but this has just been absolutely devastating for all of us, you know.
I think our goal has to be just to celebrate his incredible life and honor him as much as we can. It was a terrible loss, not only to us, but to the industry and audiences. He was such a talent.
I think we take [the nine years the ‘Star Trek’ cast has spent together] for granted in a lot of ways, because we genuinely love each other so much…. we are truly intertwined, inextricably, and I think we always will be, in such a great way.
We laugh like nobody’s business, but we’re very lucky to have each other. There’s no question about it, and I think we are genuinely connected on a really true an authentic level as a cast and as friends, even when we’re not filming the movies.
Quinto also jokes about how he didn’t quite latch onto the Original Series as a child due to the relatively low production values (compared to the big-budget films he’s starred in as Spock), in a good-natured conversation with the late-night host.