Host: Jay Leno

JL:   Ladies & Gentlemen, he's been flying around with Captain Kirk on Star Trek for the past 24 years and is doing so again in ST V The Final Frontier which opens this Friday. Please welcome Leonard Nimoy. (Leonard enters stage to great applause)
How are you Sir?

LN:   Great.

JL:   How were you at spelling? (Spelling has been the topic before)

LN:   I was pretty good at it actually. I was in high school. I think I won the tenth grade championship. And I was, I think, second in the city of Boston.

JL:   Oh, that is pretty good. Could you spell those words?

LN:   (laughing) No.

JL:   I guess words have changed since we were kids.

LN:   Yeah. They're much more complicated

JL:   More syllables and all that nonsense. You started back…, no, where are you from in Boston? Because I'm….

LN:   I am from Boston, Boston (spoken a Boston accent) People say (audience is cheering)...Yeah, Boston

JL:   I am from the outside. About twenty miles out. You are right from Boston. Where in Boston exactly?

LN:   Well, I'll tell you. It's by the Charles-river. The mass church of General Hospital. The Charles Street jail.

JL:   Oh, the jail!

LN:   ………….square…………….

JL:   The jail, where they buy these roast beef…?

LN:   Yeah, that's right.

JL:   ….where you go past the jail and we buy these roast beef sandwiches and throw them to the prisoners over the wall...

LN:   Exactly. It's a very cruel thing to do

JL:   And it's the oldest prison in life

LN:   It's coming down.

JL:   Are they taking it down?

LN:   Yeah. Very famous institution.

JL:   Oh yeah.

LN:   I used to walk past it every day.

JL:   Did your parents encourage you to come to LA?

LN:   No, no. My parents were immigrants. They came from Russia, during the Twenties. And they came because really they wanted their kids to have freedom of education and freedom of opportunity. So when I announced that I wanted to be an actor. They thought I was crazy. That's like saying: 'What are you gonna do for a living'

JL:   (both laughing) So much for the freedom.

LN:   LN: That's right.

JL:   I knew you are from Boston because I was a fan, but you never sounded like... You lost the accent…

LN:   When I came out to here the first thing I did is take some speech courses. I used to (in a heavy Boston accent) park cars in Boston gardens

JL:   Really.

LN:   Yeah.

JL:   Like a mechanic.

LN:   Yeah, So I figured out I better get rid of that because otherwise I would be playing Boston-guys for the rest of my life. There are no Vulcans in Boston.

JL:   No Vulcans in the south end.

LN:   No Vulcans with a Boston accent either.

JL:   When you first got the script to the Star Trek TV. I mean obviously  I can't imagine anyone thought that the thing would go on to the hype that it did..

LN:   No.

JL:   Didn't you look it at it and go "oh, this is stupid..."

LN:   (both start laughing) No, on the contrary. No, No,

JL:   Be honest now.

LN:   No, No,

JL:   I am supposed to play a guy with ears honey.

LN:   (both Leonard and audience still laughing)

JL:   You actually said: this is what I want. I want the ears.

LN:   (more serious) No, I was scared of that. I was scared of that because I thought I could be Dumbo of the year if it didn't come off...

JL:   That is true

LN:   ...But I thought the character was intelligent. I thought the show had a chance. But when we did the first pilot and it didn't sell I thought: "well, I understand that."

JL:   Honestly, I didn't know this. You didn't sell the first time around...

LN:   1964 or something like that or ‘65.we did a pilot which did not sell, and I thought that was the end of it. Then they decided to make a second pilot which did sell and we went on the air. We were never a big hit, you know.

JL:   Yeah.

LN:   We were always marginal. After two years they cancelled us. And there was a big outcry and the Network got a lot of letters and they said "Okay we'll put you on for another year" and we struggled through and we were finished. And I thought it was over in 1968 I guess. That is twenty-one years ago.

JL:   Right, right.

LN:   I thought we were finished and then eleven years later we did a movie. And I thought. "okay, now we are finished"

JL:   Right, it's over

LN:   Then we did a second movie and Spock died and I thought: "okay, now we are finished"

JL:   "I am out of here" And now ‘The Final Frontier'. You know this will be the last one.

LN:   No, no, no. I think we will be doing this until we are three old guys in wheelchairs. You know. " Spock I need some help" "Yes, captain, I am right here" (starts to snore)

JL:   (starts laughing)

JL:   I remember back in the middle seventies watching you on some show and things and I think that time you seem to be, before you did all the directing I guess, you seem to be bothered by that Star Trek thing because it is hard….Once you get typecasted…

LN:   During the seventies it was hard, yeah. Because there was no ST being done. And ST was tremendously successful in syndication. People were watching it every night at six o'clock. I got stopped in airports . People, women would say to me: "you are killing our diner-hour. Kids won't sit down and eat because they want to watch ST reruns" But there was no ST-production being done. So I go out and would do a play on Broadway or whatever I was doing, and people would say: "What about Star Trek?" You know, everyone wanted more of that. I was like that plant in 'Little Shop of Horrors' (raspy voice) "Feed me! Feed me! More Star Trek! More Star Trek!'

JL:   "More knowledge"

LN:   Yeah, yeah.

JL:   You directed the last one. Which was my favourite. I thought you just did a terrific job.

LN:   Thank you. Thank you.

JL:   I not kissing up to you here. I thought it was a great... (audience starts laughing)...You know what it is. I am a Star Trek fan, so I go see it no matter what they are saying. (audience cheers)
I thought the last one was a great movie. The whole thing with the whales, I thought it was terrific.

       When you work with William Shatner. Did you….. were you giving him directing tips on this?

LN:   I gave him one piece of advise. The first couple of days of shooting I said: "Stop talking so fast." It is the sign of a first-time-director. You come on stage on the first day on the set. The first day you are excited, your adrenaline is going and you are nervous. And if you want to spot a first-time-director you look for the guy with the sweaty palms and he is hyperventilating and he is talking too fast. And particularly Bill Shatner talking fast is like (starts talking very fast): "Hello. Leonard, we got a horse, run at this side of the hill, De, you run here, I go at the top, I knock out two guys, I meet you at the other side, and we go..."  And I go "Bill, slow down. Slow down". He thought that by talking faster he would speed up the schedule but we couldn't understand one word he was saying. (laughing)  "Bill, slow down!" That was the best advise I could give him.

JL:   You went to Russia too for the opening of Star Trek IV
LN:  Yes, this was really good stuff because Star Trek IV, as you recall, was about the endangerment of whales, of the species on this planet.
JL:   Right.
LN:   And the Russian government, a year and a half ago, signed a moratorium on all commercial whaling which was great. So they invited us to come over and bring over the movie; and we showed it in Moscow. And it was nice. They enjoyed it. They'd never seen any Star Trek. They didn't know the first thing about it. But still, they enjoyed it. It was a science fiction story about concerns for the planet and they were not the heavies, so they enjoyed that.
JL:   Every time they're not the bad guy, they like it.
LN:   There were a couple of things that were really big and successful with the Russian audience. For example, near the end of the movie when we've been court-martialled and all of that, and are wondering what our new assignment is gonna be. And Bones, Deforest Kelley, had a great line for the Russians. He says: " The only constant in the universe is the bureaucratic mentality" And the Russians went crazy. They loved that. A great moment.
JL:   That's great.
LN:   They had a great time.
JL:   That's great. Good luck with the new picture.
LN:   Thank you. Thank you.
JL:   And I am big fan. I'm gonna see it.
LN:   I hope so. We need your money.
JL:   Yes (laughing)