By GustavoLeao / 18:11, 6 March 2008 / Star Trek: Nemesis

The Trek Nation posted an exclusive interview with Star Trek New Voyages (now titled Star Trek Phase II) producer and Kirk actor James Cawley. Here are few excerpts.

Trek Nation: Are you finished with everything you'll be doing for the movie?

James Cawley: I am basically a glorified extra. It started because Marc Zicree, who directed "World Enough and Time," was friends with J.J. Abrams; J.J.'s a big Twilight Zone fan, and Marc Zicree wrote the Bible about The Twilight Zone. They met and Marc said, 'I'm doing this Star Trek thing' and J.J. was very interested because he had just taken the job to do the new feature film. As things progressed, Marc said, 'You really should take a look at James. Maybe there's something in the picture you could put him in. That would be really cool.' I thanked Marc for that, but never expected anything. Then I got a call for an audition. I auditioned in New York. They videotaped it, sent it out.[...]
 

I flew out to California on other business, for New Voyages, and while I was on the plane I had I call from another gentleman at Paramount who wanted to talk to me in depth about some New Voyages projects. That's what I was doing on the lot. I was with a friend of mine who had been a stuntwoman on Voyager. She said, 'Let's walk by the soundstages.' J.J. came out on lunch break and recognized me. He knew who I was and said 'What are you doing here?'

So I told him I was there for this other meeting, and he said, 'When you're done, you're my guest; please come down.' I ended up being a glorified extra in the movie, which was more than enough for me. Even if they cut me out of the film I'm satisfied because I've met J.J. and I got a sense of what he was trying to do.

Trek Nation: I know the producers keep saying that they're all big fans. That's for real?

James Cawley: Bob Orci and Damon Lindelof are hugs fans. Bob Orci is an original series fan and he basically said, 'We wrote this movie for you.' Meaning, I was the litmus paper, so to speak: if I would like it, then they would feel comfortable that many Star Trek fans would like it. Because I'm a die-hard purist. I know it backwards and forwards.

Trek Nation: Did you see much of the script?

James Cawley: I did not see any script. I was involved in four scenes, and based on what I was witness to, I think it's going to be a terrific story. I had a number of conversations with J.J. Abrams and the most important one was, what did Star Trek mean to him and what was he trying to bring to it? He told me that it was all about capturing the feel of what it was like to be in the 1960s. What that meant to Star Trek. The message of hope and optimism and diversity. Once he talked to me about that, I thought, he's got a sense of it. The Enterprise can be different, or whatever he's going for physically; the production design can be different, but he's got the heart of what made the show so great. He's got the characters. They're in good hands.

Trek Nation: In terms of what you're doing in New Voyages, is it going to change anything if canon shifts in the movie?

James Cawley: Even if things change, and I don't know whether or to what degree they may - I'm sure they're taking some liberties with canon because they have to, let's face it, the original series even had problems with its own canon, and fans have forgotten that - it's not going to affect what I do. My goal with New Voyages was to prove two things. I wanted to prove that the characters and the original Enterprise were what really was Star Trek at its core. It was that group of people we loved and cared about. And I always felt that they were Shakespearean. Anybody could play those parts - any competent actors could play those parts, because they are what's important, those characters. I proved that; I honestly think that our numbers, our downloads and the attention that we've gotten from our fans, said to these guys, that's Star Trek. So I accomplished what I set out to do with that. [...]

The full interview, including his opinion on Rick Berman, can be found here.

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