Executive Producer/Edotor: Jon Groat

Camera: Sarak Frank, Dylan Isbell

LN: Fascinating
ZQ (says it differently): Fascinating
LN (says it in another way): Fascinating. (Both are laughing)
It is a great character touch. I didn’t come up with it, the writers handed it to me as a gift. A great character touch.
ZQ: Well, he’s a fascinating character, so it’s an appropriate word.
LN: Fascinating, fascinating.
ZQ: I only got to say it once in the movie.

Countdown Break 7

(The topic seems to be a question concerning make up or ears) LN: It is complicated. Every time I came back to the set to do a Star Trek for a movie or whatever, I had to go through a process with the people who have been making them, particularly because of the craftsmanship. There is a certain amount of artistry involved. If the shape isn’t right, it gets me crazy. I say: That’s not the way it should look.
ZQ: How were these ones for you?
LN: I thought they were okay, it worked. Yours were very good.
ZQ: Yeah, I felt so, too, seamless.
LN: I got jealous. Why were your ears better than mine?
(laughing)

Countdown Break 6
 

ZQ: Well, the physical transformation in general I think is so key, so important. I know, I felt like, in the morning, two hours when I was in the makeup chair, as we get to the end of the process I felt like an emergence of the character. I would come to work in the morning as my sleepy self and then over these two hours I start as something certified.
LN: I recognize it. I felt like this when coming to work for the early shows, I used to say about half way through you could see me drifting into the character and I think it was emerging more and more.
ZQ: Exactly.

Countdown Break 5

(About the Vulcan greeting) ZQ (forming the Vulcan greeting) talks about the New York Post writing he couldn’t do it.
LN: Wrong!
ZQ: Probably Leonard has a little bit more of the experience.
LN: I had it longer.
ZQ: And he invented it, I mean not "invented", but appropriated it, right?

Countdown Break 4

ZQ: Leonard gave me a wide, creative birth. There is no part of him that wanted any proprietary action to what I was doing to the character. He was incredibly supportive and available to me whenever I needed him to be. But I felt that you are just supportive, you know? I would say.
LN: I never felt that he needed me to say: Do this but don’t do that. We talked very generally about the philosophy of Star Trek and the nature of the character, but he is a trained actor and he knows how to do his job.

Countdown Break 3

LN: We are very good friends, we see each other regularly and I think he is okay. He was in one of the movies that I was not in, I think it was number 7 of Star Trek, the first of The Next Generation movies and I just accept it as a fact that the movie was really about his relationship with Captain Piccard, I wasn’t involved and 18 years later we come out even.

 Countdown Break 2

ZQ: That was the first thing you said to me in the elevator, right? The elevator door opens and he said: You have no idea what you have gotten yourself in, kid. (laughing)
LN: Did I say this? How presumptuous.
ZQ: I mean it’s true though. You really can’t and you could never describe that experience in the variations that really exist within the fans. I mean I am just now starting to realize that.

LN: It’s just the beginning. Have they found out where you live?
ZQ: Schhhh!
(LN is laughing)

Countdown Break 1

ZQ: But as we speak I am building and fortifying my house, building a fence and a gate and …
LN: Good idea.
ZQ: Boundaries which are both, physical and personal I think are just a big part of going personally through this.
LN: It is complicated. It is very flattering and at the same time it can be daunting. I remember one night I was driving of the lot when we were making the series. And there were a group of fans at the gate, at the studio gate. I was flattered that they were there and they wanted an autograph and so on. Afterwards I realized they were following me with the car. So I thought: If I drive home I am going to lead them directly to my house. So I went through a couple of yellow lights hoping the red light would stop them. I pulled off at a street I normally wouldn’t take, stopped at somebody’s driveway and waited for about 15 minutes. And then I went to my house and they were right in front of my house waiting for me.