Leonard Nimoy is best known for his role as Spock in the Star Trek franchise. Originally beginning his journey in 1966, the actor became an irreplaceable part of pop culture as the Vulcan commanding officer of the USS Enterprise. He has been often parodied and has been one of the most popular characters in sci-fi history.
Spock is known by his classic Vulcan features, including his pointy ears. The actor was reportedly unhappy with the makeup for the years initially and had disapproved of it even till the filming of the pilot. It got so bad that Nimoy was reportedly promised that if he hated it even after filming, the makers would write in a surgery sequence to remove them.
Leonard Nimoy hated Spock’s pointy ears before filming started for Star Trek
Leonard Nimoy was the first Vulcan species that fans encountered when they were introduced to Star Trek. The actor became a pop cultural icon as Spock in the original series and reprised the role in the original films as well as the animated series. He portrayed elder Spock in J.J. Abrams’ reboot of the franchise, where Zachary Quinto replaced him.
Nimoy’s Spock has been one of the most recognized pop cultural characters and it is mostly due to his pointy ears. The Vulcan ears are easily identifiable and are a defining feature of the Vulcan species. Nimoy had to wear the prosthetic throughout his three-season and six movie-run as Spock.
However, the actor was not reportedly convinced with the prosthetics during the initial designs and was extremely unhappy with them till almost the shooting day of the pilot episode. He said (via THR),
In the early stages of developing the makeup, before we shot the first pilot, we were with the wrong makeup people. And they were making the ears for me, experimentally at first, and they really looked grotesque. And we went through three or four of those sessions. As time got closer to the first day of shooting … I became more and more concerned about the look.
After he expressed his concerns with showrunner and creator Gene Roddenberry multiple times, Nimoy was reportedly promised that a surgery scene with the ears removed would be written into the show.
Leonard Nimoy’s Spock ears and its mould were up for auction for up to $20,000
After the whole hullabaloo with Spock’s ears, Leonard Nimoy’s complaints reportedly resulted in make-up artist Fred Philips crafting the right formula for the prosthetics with another friend, Charlie Shram. The resulting ears, which were crafted from a mould made out of Nimoy’s ears, eventually became the iconic shape of Spock’s face.
Nimoy credited Philips with saving his look for Star Trek and said that the studio had some contract in place to save money. He said,
The problem was the studio had already made a commitment to these other people to make the ears and didn’t want him to go elsewhere because it would cost more money. [Phillips] said we must and forced the issue, and got me a good pair of ears to solve the problem.
Fred Philips had to reportedly create several prop ears by baking them from the mould as they would not fit Leonard Nimoy all the time. The ears and the mould were reportedly up for auction at Los Angeles, with the ears listed for up to $2,000 and the moulds for up to $20,000 (via BBC News).
Star Trek: The Original Series is available to stream on Paramount+.
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