Leonard Nimoy may be the definitive Spock, but Ethan Peck did a good job in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. The half-Vulcan, half-human first officer of the Enterprise has been portrayed best by Nimoy, but has also been played by Peck and Zachary Quinto in J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek movie reboot.
However, it was reportedly not that easy for Peck to get into the mindset of the Vulcan. The actor mentioned that he struggled to portray Spock’s largely emotionless demeanour and did hone it in during reactions. Funnily enough, the legendary Leonard Nimoy also reportedly struggled with the same issue during the pilot of TOS.
Ethan Peck struggled to show no emotions as Spock in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
Ethan Peck began his tenure as Spock in the prequel series Star Trek: Discovery. He was the third actor to play the role after the legendary Leonard Nimoy in TOS and the films, and Zachary Quinto, who played the role in J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek trilogy. Peck’s performance was received positively by fans.
Set several years before TOS, both Discovery and Strange New Worlds explore different adventures of the USS Enterprise. The latter sees Captain Pike, who was supposed to be the lead of the original series before it was changed to William Shatner’s Captain Kirk in the second pilot episode.
Ethan Peck mentioned that he felt weird while playing Spock and struggled with portraying a mostly deadpan character. Spock is half-Vulcan and half-human, which makes him question some natural human emotions and feelings, and see them rationally. Peck mentioned to Trek Movie,
People come up to me after a scene or after a day’s work, and they are like, ‘Did you have fun?’ It’s like, ‘Yeah.’ I mean, in between takes, I have fun, but being Spock is quite a pressurized experience and a delicate endeavor because he is in control of so much of his emotions. It’s quite challenging, at least for me as an actor. What’s too much emotion? What’s too little? What’s too Vulcan? What’s too Human?
Peck was reminded that the legendary Leonard Nimoy also struggled with similar challenges initially, as he had difficulty in portraying someone who was so emotionless.
Leonard Nimoy almost quit Star Trek because he was struggling with Spock
For some, it may seem like being deadpan and showing no expressions is the easiest thing in the world. It requires no effort to not express something and feel nothing, right? Well, ask anyone who has played Spock, the half-Vulcan first officer in the Star Trek franchise, who never has to react to stimuli, and they will talk about the struggle.
While Ethan Peck mentioned that it was extremely challenging to remain emotionless during scenes on Strange New Worlds, the OG Spock, Leonard Nimoy, was so troubled by the prospect that he almost quit the show. According to director Joseph Sargent, who spoke to the authors of The Fifty-Year Mission (via /Film),
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.’
Nimoy reportedly almost quit the show because he struggled to navigate it. He later reportedly managed it by controlling his emotions instead of avoiding feeling them, which led to random outbursts.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is available to stream on Paramount+.
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire