Peter Weller on Star Trek, Getting His Ph.D., and Defending J.J. Abrams

vulture.com ^ | 5-2-13 | Bilge Ebiri

[Bender2]

Peter Weller on Star Trek, Getting His Ph.D., and Defending J.J. Abrams

by Bilge Ebiri

If you saw Star Trek Into Darkness this weekend and couldn't quite place Peter Weller, the actor playing Starfleet Admiral Marcus, allow us to refresh your memory: Weller starred in two of the biggest cult films of the eighties, Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai and RoboCop, as well as in David Cronenberg’s adaptation of William S. Burroughs's The Naked Lunch. He's also had supporting parts on 24, Dexter, Fringe, and House. And if that weren’t enough, the man is currently finishing up a Ph.D. in art history. He talked to us recently about his stint on Star Trek, his diverse career, and his professor's problem with J.J. Abrams.

-snip-

Why would your character Admiral Marcus go and revive a madman like Khan, even to use as an ally in a secret war? When you prepare for a part like this, do you think those questions through in your mind?

Absolutely. Think: In the sixties, during the Cold War, most of the United States supported the making of plutonium weapons — and that’s waking up the past, that’s waking up nuclear energy and storing it, which is devastating.

[shibumi]

Rust never sleeps, but it’s been getting quite tired lately.

So I guess we’ll just have to wake up the Plutonium.

Neil needs a new hit.

[Bender2]

Gadzooks! Cannot forget... his hit—

Plutonium... on the rocks
Ain’t no surprise
Pour me a drink
And I’ll tell you some lies
Got nothin’ to lose
So you just glow... glow all the time--

[Kickass Conservative]

I believe Kurtwood Smith played a bad guy in one of the Robocop Movies.

[31R1O]

There are some people doing interesting things out there. I am really interested in seeing the Oldboy remake out this fall. I would have never imagined Spike Lee of all directors helming this project but I think Gary Oldman is a great actor so we’ll see. I also really liked Neill Blomkamp’s District 9 so I am looking forward to ELysium as well. There is a lot of chaff these days but some people are doing really neat projects as well.

[31R1O]

Not Gary Oldman but Josh Brolin (good actor as well!).

[Mr. K]

“Why is that Watermelon there?” “I’ll tell you later”

[Future Snake Eater]

Clarence Boddicker in the original "RoboCop."

[3Fingas]

Kurtwood Smith in real life is nothing like the common sense disciplinarian dad we all know and love. He is an Obamabot.

http://www.kenoshanews.com/news/dad_on_tvs_that_70s_show_stumps_for_obama_in_kenosha_441975341.html

Peter Weller, on the other hand, appeared regularly in documentaries for the History Channel about ancient history. He may or may not be a liberal, but he knows a lot about classical literature and history. So, that is one good thing about him.

[goldi]

He was a professor at Syracuse University.

[Resolute Conservative]

Go Eagles. Denton is not the town it was in the 60’s and 70’s.

[Resolute Conservative]

All movies are made for the ADHD crowd. No acting at all, just mindless violence, explosions, sex, and stupid antics. TCM is the only place I watch movies.

[a fool in paradise]

There are military leaders now in the United States who feel that, for instance, Obama’s a wimp. So it’s very simple to step inside that skin.

Where has Obamatron showed any backbone on national security or national defense?

[a fool in paradise]

I remember all the pop songs from the 60s that were about how fun plutonium weapons were.

Here's a scopitone from the 60s for one of them:

George McKelvey "My Teenage Fallout Queen"

[driftless2]

Clarence Boddicker....absolutely one of the greatest villains in movie history. Made the flick.

[a fool in paradise]

Hollywood (and Broadway) have given up writing anything new. 400+ comic books for Superman and Spiderman and they keep remaking the movies that they’ve already made about these characters.

[Lizavetta]

Just remember no matter where you go........

...... there you are.

[C19fan]

He narrates the Engineering An Empire series on History channel. You can tell how much he is into the Renaissance.

[Lee'sGhost]

LMAO! That’s just wrong.

[green iguana]

That’s Kurtwood Smith, not Peter Weller.

Peter Weller played Robocop - didn’t get to see his face much.

[Bender2]

Re: Denton is not the town it was in the 60’s and 70’s

Tell ya how quickly it started to charge in 1966. There was this girl at North Texas in some of my Broadcast-Film courses who was a knockout. Honey blonde hair worn like Sharon Tate. Always carried a hint of expensive cologne. Great figure, on the tall side with stunning legs. Like most girls on campus in those days, she always wore a mini-skirt, stockings and high heels. Was just a simple joy to look upon her, poetry in motion to quote an old Frankie Avalon song. She was refined, graceful and made sense when she talked. Sadly, I was engaged and being faithful or I would have been on her like fleas on a short haired coon hound.

A year or so flows by and I am shopping at Northpark Shopping Center in Dallas and there she is and I barely recognize her. Her eyes are glazed over and she is giggling like a simpleton. She reeks of body odor. She is unwashed, barefoot with long stringy, dirty, dirty hair dressed in a sweatshirt and torn jeans.

I stop and look at her in disbelief. She recognize me, ambles over and says, "Hi Danny-- [giggle, giggle, giggle], you know fighting for peace is like--- [giggle, giggle, giggle] f*#king for chastity. Want'a support some chastity? [giggle, giggle, giggle] Just need some bread to get some weed."

Yes, I turned-- Yes again, very slowly but I turned and walked away. I never saw her again. Now that always stuck with me as how quick things changed in the 1960s. Sure she was just one pretty young girl in my memory who fell from grace into the dark side of the anti-war hippie culture, but the crowd she ran to and with are the very sumbitches Obama is today putting into control over our government, our healthcare and our lives.

Now, that scares the living crap out of me!

BTW A very small part of me still stings that I didn't take her up on her offer... but a bigger part is glad I did not.

And now well into my dotage, I give that bigger part of me hell regularly for that! Like 007 I may have changed her for the good of King and Country.