Esquire UK (May 2009)

Scans | Transcript by cheerleaderful

Step Forward Zachary Quinto – The New Mr. Spock.

There aren’t many 31-year-old actors who can boast having not one, but two, action figures made of themselves. Pittsburgh-born Zachary Quinto can, having been miniaturised and plasticized first as Sylar, the brain-snatching psychopath he plays in cult TV show Heroes, and now as the young Spock, whom he portrays in JJ Abrams’ new Star Trek movie and on Esquire’s cover. “If you took both of the action figures and put them together in one, that’d be the best likeness,” he says. “But what are you gonna do? It’s a rubber head, you know?”

Quinto took an unusual approach to expressing his interest in the Spock gig (for which he had his eyebrows shaved and that signature bowl cut: “It wasn’t the most comfortable six months of my life,” he admits). “I was starting to appear on Heroes and was doing a lot of press for that. During the first interview I gave, the journalist asked if there were any other parts I was interested in. I’d just heard they were making the [Star Trek] movie, so I started to talk about it.” The story was picked up, JJ Abrams got wind of it, they met, end of.

Well, almost. There was the small matter of the original Spock, Leonard Nimoy, who was also going to be in Abrams’ film and who had to approve the actor playing the younger Vulcan. Nimoy gave Quinto the go-ahead after seeing his audition tapes. “When we met, the first thing he said to me was, ‘You have no idea what you’re in for, kid.’”

Certainly, Star Trek is a leap again for Quinto. Though he’s acted since he was a kid (including a turn as the Modern Major-General in a school production of The Pirates of Penzance, though h declines to give a rendition: “It’s early here!”), he has had doubts. “I was about to be 30 years old and was really just wondering what the hell was going on. Then Heroes came along and changed everything.” He must be pretty glad he held out? “I would concur,” he says, with Spock-worthy certainty.

Now Quinto is looking for a change to return to his favourite discipline: theatre (he’s on the board of directors for the Ojai Playwrights Conference and names Chekhov as one of his favourites). His schedule is a problem – after the publicity tour for Star Trek he’ll be on standby to film season five [ed] of Heroes, NBC willing – but he’s open to ideas. Perhaps he could be lured over here as one of Kevin Spacey’s Old Vic Hollywood imports? “I’d love to do something in London! Do you have some strings you can pull for me?” Kevin, if you’re reading this, you know what to do.