Leonard Nimoy Was So Frustrated with The Character Spock, He Almost Quit STAR TREK While Shooting The First Episode
The original Star Trek took sci-fi entertainment to a new level of greatness with its bold exploration of philosophical, social, and scientific themes. It wasn't just the fascinating vastness of space that was the show's final frontier, but also the breadth of human experience and potential.
One of its most enduring and beloved characters was Mr. Spock, who was so wonderfully portrayed by the late Leonard Nimoy. The half-Vulcan, half-human science officer became synonymous with the logic and reason of the show, serving as a counterpoint to Captain Kirk's emotional, human-driven decisions.
However, some fans may not know that Nimoy was initially very frustrated with the character and because he wasn’t really sure how to play the emotionless character, he almost quit the show while shooting the first episode.
In the book “The Fifty Year Mission — The First 25 Years," director Joseph Sargent opened up about what Leonard Nimoy was going through while they were shooting the first episode, "The Corbomite Maneuver", and how the actor wasn’t sure how he was going to pull off playing this character:
"He said, 'How can I play a character without emotion? I don't know how to do that. I'm going to be on one note throughout the entire series.' I agreed with him and we worked like hell to give him some emotional context, but Gene [Roddenberry] said, 'No way, the very nature of this character's contribution is that he isn't an earthling. As a Vulcan, he is intellect over emotion.' Leonard was ready to quit because he didn't know how he was going to do it."
So, how did Nimoy actually figure out how to play the character? He came to the understanding that Spock did have emotion, but the character was just very good at controlling his emotion and not letting it show. That was enough to give Nimoy something to work with. Nimoy went on to say that with all that bottled-up emotion, he found himself randomly bursting into tears during meetings because, as he put it, "the emotions just had to come out somewhere."
Thankfully, Nimoy didn’t end up leaving the show and he brought to life one of the greatest characters in the history of pop culture.
Via: /Film