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Posted on 12/10/2002 6:11:14 PM PST by new cruelty
By LUAINE LEE Scripps Howard News Service December 10, 2002
NEW YORK - Don't ask Brent Spiner, the lovable yellow-eyed Data from "Star Trek: The Next Generation," what happened in Episode 17. Or 42. Or 135, for that matter.
Spiner doesn't watch the show much, even though he starred on it for seven years and is back again, squeezed into his Spandex leotards and pancake-batter makeup for the new feature, "Star Trek Nemesis."
"I didn't watch the show," he says, looking strangely normal on this brisk afternoon in a bustling hotel here. "I did it one time, and it was over. ... I like other things (aside from science fiction). I'd seen a lot of the original series when I was in college, seen about 20 episodes of our series, and that's it. For the most part, I'm not a huge sci-fi fan. For me, I like Jack Haley in 'The Wizard of Oz.' "
Spiner admits he was worried about accepting the role when it rolled around 15 years ago, and he was still a hand-to-mouth thespian. "I was really afraid to take it because I thought it would ruin my career. It wasn't that I was constantly working, but I worked a lot at that time before I did 'Star Trek.' I'd already done four Broadway shows. I had done a lot of guest shots, other pilots. Things were happening, I was working. Then I got offered this and a friend of mine, who's an actor, I said to him, 'I don't know if I should take this. I may never work again.'
"He said, 'You're crazy, you'll work MORE.' He was right, really. I think I've been working a great deal since the series ended in other things. I don't know, I may have never really emerged in any sort of way. I may have been a journeyman actor - which is what I was and might've been completely happy with that."
Even so, Spiner, 53, admits that his life changed with the advent of Data and his total recall. "The biggest difference for me was the luxury - being an actor - of being able to pay my rent every month without thinking about it, of knowing for sure I could pay my rent or mortgage or whatever. It was a huge difference and huge luxury for an actor. That's been the biggest difference. And my parents don't really worry about my future because I'm an actor."
Spiner, whose gentle spirit shines through the heavy makeup and limited emotionality of his android character, admits he's playing a new role now for which he's singularly unqualified: The role of father.
"I don't know the first thing about being a father because I didn't have a role model. I didn't have anyone doing it every day for me to know what to do for my son," he says.
Spiner's dad, who owned and operated a furniture store in his native Houston, died when Brent was 10 months old. His mother married five years later and his stepfather adopted him and his older brother.
"Fortunately, I think it (parenting) comes naturally," he says, shifting in his chair, a shaft of sunlight piercing the afternoon haze. "As long as you respect your child, loving him becomes really natural. I don't know what I'm going to do when he's older and things like discipline are concerned. I'm just not sure how I'm going to deal with that."
Becoming a father was a revelation, says Spiner, who's married to Loree McBride. "What I discovered about me was that I was capable of doing it, which is something I just doubted for a long time because I didn't have a real role model for it. I really questioned whether I could do it, and I'm having a really nice time with it."
While many famous television personalities, like Henry Winkler, Carroll O'Connor, Roseanne, Richard Thomas and Mary Tyler Moore, have had difficulties erasing their indelible TV images, Spiner hasn't suffered a similar plight. "It's not a problem," he says, shaking his head.
"I don't think the industry knows who I am. I've done 10 other movies since the series ended that haven't been 'Star Trek.' I've done other television shows and Broadway. I did '1776' here five years ago, the lead in a Broadway show. I never had done that before. I did the series, so obviously it hasn't hurt me," he says, shrugging.
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Sometimes it's frightening how time flies.
Actress Marina Sirtis (news ) poses for a photo after arriving to the premiere of 'Star Trek Nemesis' in Los Angeles, California on December 9, 2002.
Sirtis stars as Lt. Commander Deanna Troi in the movie, which opens in the United States on December 13. REUTERS/Adrees Latif
I always thought one of 'em was bigger than the other.
17 = "When the bough breaks". 42 = "Q Who". 135 = "The Quality of Life".
"I didn't watch the show," he says
How sad. STtNG had some great episodes.
Good for him. There is a lesson in this. I must say, I've always been impressed by actors who are better than the silly trash they appear in.
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