DeForest Kelley On...
ST:TMP
ST II
ST III
ST IV
ST V
STVI
Generations
Comparing the Movies and the Series
Storylines he'd like to see
Do you know, so many people have asked if that was my real beard in Star Trek I, even here... I walked down the street in Paramount, you know, between shots and so forth. I told everyone I grew the beard. Of course I didn’t. Fred put it on, our makeup man, he did a marvelous job on it. A guy in Hawaii... we were coming back from Australia and we had stopped in Hawaii. I went to Australia for the opening of Star Trek I, and we stopped in Hawaii and a guy approached me in the hotel and he said the same thing, he said, “Mr. Kelley, you’ve gotta settle a bet for me.” I said, “What did you bet?” He said, “I bet my roommate a hundred bucks that that was your beard.” I said, “Kiss that century note good-bye.”
[Q: heard he was accidentally turned into a Vulcan by the makeup man one morning on STI]
That I was turned into a Vulcan by the makeup man on Star Trek I? No, not that I remember.
No, it isn't true that I'm going to be delivering Saavik's baby. I'm going to do it if I can get those ears out. (laughter)
Do I have as big a part as I have in Star Trek III? It didn't seem so to me. I don't know what they do with me. I told someone I feel like the fighter, Mohammed Ali, who used to say, you know; I just float around like a butterfly and come in and sting like a bee and go out again. That's it. I seem to be in a great deal of it. Not having seen it, so often, even what you do, you are shocked when you see the film they've edited and it's a bit of a surprise some-times to see that you don't have as big a role as you had originally. I hope so, but it's not... it's nothing that I went home and told Carolyn, "My God, this is the greatest role of my life!" It's not that. I think it's a good role and there's a lot of humor in this picture. I think you're really going to love it. It has a lot of things going for it. It's more like the old Star Treks that we used to do than any film that we've made without a doubt and I just know you're going to love it. It's nice to be able to say that and really mean it, you know? I'm not up here pushing the film, but I have a great feeling about this picture.
Have fun what? In the water? Oh, boy! You would have to ask that. Yes, there is a scene that involves a great deal of water in Star Trek IV and it was really a very difficult thing to do. There is a storm scene, I'll tell you that much. And they have these tremendous wind machines and the water is choppy in front of the top powered wind machines and it blows right into your face. And I want to tell you, if we weren't a bunch of drowned rats for about four or five days... it was absolutely unbelievable. People falling and slipping. It was quite a thing to see. I don't want to do any water scenes for a long time.
Thank you. We had a great deal of fun doing that scene together Scotty and I did in the plexiglass factory. It was very interesting you mention that... We got a lot of laughs, and we broke Leonard up completely. We suddenly discovered we were a great deal like Laurel and Hardy. We had fun with that.
What’s my favorite scene? I don’t know, I guess... I enjoyed the hospital bit. You know, we were shooting that at this hospital in – Gosh, where is it? – Inglewood and I, of course, was in a surgeon’s gown, you know, walking around. And we were the... like the 3rd floor, the 3rd or 4th floor, and we had to go downstairs to the commissary or wherever we were gonna go. And I’d get on the elevator and go down and these people would get on the elevator and look at me and turn around -- with the surgical mask hanging down, you know, the gown and everything -- like, God, Almighty, can it be, or...? I never said a word, and they never said anything. I’d just walk on out, like I was heading to surgery.
There have been rumors of McCoy being killed off. I have no idea, because I have not seen a script and as I say, it’s my prerogative to decide whether I want to do this film or not. I am not under option. So I can elect not to do it if I am terribly unhappy with what’s going to be presented, I have that... I’ve heard that rumor, too. I don’t believe it, but I don’t know... You never know who’s gonna kill you in this business.
Any information on the next Star Trek movie? Yes, it’s been delayed. For a year. It’s been delayed till next year, next October. [Production or release?] Production. Remember that line in there, “the actors are aging and soon may die”? No, there’s been some... There’s been a very difficult situation, I know, that popped up with Leonard. Leonard is, as you quite well know, has become very hot as a director in Hollywood, and -- which is wonderful. He has had numbers of things offered to him and a particular property which he felt that he could not... he could not delay any longer, he had to give them an answer. And it just didn’t look like the time element was going to work out. So that is the main reason for the delay, that Leonard can proceed on this next motion picture that he’s going to direct.
The movies or the series? I... They’re two different animals, altogether. The series had a plus at the time we were doing it because you’re busier in a series. You’re working every minute. In a motion picture you come in at 8 in the morning sometimes, or 9, and you sit around until 4 in the afternoon before they get to your scene, and by that time you really, mentally, it’s very hard to bring yourself up to it. So, in a series there’s hardly any time for much of that waiting around except in very rare situations. I suppose now that I would choose the motion pictures, in 1966 I would have chosen the series.
Star Trek: The Motion Picture
I wore this jacket because I thought you might enjoy seeing it, this is the first jacket that was given out on Star Trek One. [Jacket reads “USS Enterprise” on back] It used to have a little cord or rope that ran through this and tied in the center, but after we got about 15 weeks into the show, they thought somebody might hang themselves with it and took them out.
McCoy
What did he do in the between time? He went to a ranch in the south and enjoyed it. (applause) I was down there rustling cattle and had become very disillusioned with the human race and was devoting all my time to veterinary medicine. (laughter) I don't know. That's what I said. They said, "What do you think McCoy should be doing?" So that's what I told them. They had plans at one time of opening up, you know, with McCoy, a very long shot, just so you would see this figure on a horse out there roping them. (laughter)
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Ad-libbed lines
Kirk and I are leaving the bridge and Spock is standing there in that obnoxious way of his and he says “Be careful, Captain,” and I said, “We will.” They kept that one in.
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
The "green-blooded sonuvabitch" line
I tell you, that line was given me in the original script and I thought, Gee that’s wonderful. Then Harve Bennett called me and said they were taking it out and I said, “No!” He said, that’s too insulting. I said, “The fans will love it.” I fought... I can’t tell you how I fought for that. I fought and I won to keep that line. I said that line will create such laughter they won’t hear the next one, which is funny. When he says its his revenge for... what was it? ... all the arguments he lost... yeah. As if he ever lost any.
Nimoy as director
Losing the Enterprise
How do I feel about the destruction of the Enterprise? I think it was as much a surprise to all of us as it was to you and, I don't know, I was completely baffled by it because I felt the Enterprise was the star of the show, so to speak, and I couldn't imagine that happening. I don't know what sense of desperation led them to that. Sometimes you just can't understand the thinking of studio people. God willing, it'll all come out all right. Maybe we didn't do it after all. Maybe it was a dream. (laughter)
Naming the McCoys
Leonard H. McCoy, what does the H stand for? Horatio. (laughter) In the movie I told them my father's name was David. Remember that? (applause) Son of David. They wrote it son of Leonard. I wanted son of David. They thought I was using it because I was fishing it out of the Bible. It was my father's name. (applause) They almost picked it out of the Bible. He was a southern Baptist minister. You're looking at a PK.
Saavik
Why did they change Saavik? Oh, the actress, what's her name, Kirstie? Kirstie came back with a very big, heavy, solid salary demand and the studio balked. They won't go for that That's the reason. Money is the name of the game, isn't it always? All the way down the line from a plumber, farmer, or an actor. It's always something, and bills.
Favorite Scenes
There are scenes that kind of stand out in your mind that you find were enjoyable. I enjoyed the scene with the alien in Star Trek III in the nightclub. (laughter) We had a lot of fun with that.
Doing another
I don't know what my feelings will be after this or even if they would want me to do another act. I don't know. I really don't know. I'm not tired of it The thing I do not like about it is the long wait between films. (applause) You know, originally we were not going to do movies. We were going to do TV. We were coming in prime lots of a certain number of ninety minute shows a year which I really would have liked to see them do, like five or six solid Star Trek stories. The thing I didn't like about it is the long, long wait between, but no, I am not tired. If the script is good, they are a joy to do. But when the script is bad, man, I was ready to fade out after that number one.
About the next movie...
Are they going to continue the story line? Yes, we have to. (Laughter and applause) As I said before, we really are in a hell of a mess. Gee, we stole a ship. I'm dying to see how they get us out of this one.
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
Did I enjoy making this film? Yes, I enjoyed it very much. It was our second outing with Leonard, who is a very fine director. And we all feel comfortable with Leonard because I can't think of anyone that knows better how a Star Trek film should be made. There was a nice, loose feeling about it. This script impressed me as being the best that we have done and, according to what I hear... I have not seen the film, but from what I hear, the studio is very high on it. I know that when I read it, I felt that it would have been a good motion picture whether or not it was a Star Trek. And I've heard that they're so high on it they may release it over here as just The Voyage Home.
"I don't doubt it."
There was really very little ad-lib in Four. The thing at the console I ad-libbed with Spock When I’m trying to find out about how it felt, you know, to die and come back and all that jazz, and he says, you know, “Dr. You’ll have to forgive me but I’m hearing strange voices” or something. And I said, “I don’t doubt it.” I ad-libbed that and the crew fell out, and they kept that in.
Doing another
How many more are they going to do? Oh, that I would participate in? I don’t know. I feel that each one is the last. I don’t know, I really don’t know. It depends upon how they handle the stories and how we’re treated in the stories. I really don’t know. I don’t even... I can’t say standing in front of you, exactly if I’m going to be in the next one. I haven’t signed a contract. I haven’t read a script. I haven’t negotiated any of my wishes or thoughts with them at this point. Things get rough around negotiation time. So... They don’t have an option with me for this picture. They have had for the last two. I had to do them.
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
Saved by the Admiral
Yes, you know, as I said yesterday, when I did the Admiral, the 138-year-old man, 137-year old man... I was reading... going through some fan mail one day and I received this letter from somebody, I don’t know who it was that wrote it, and said, “Do you realize now that they can’t kill you off in Star Trek?” I had never thought of that. Honestly, it never passed through my mind. The only thing that made me happy about playing the old man is that now, then, everybody says “you look much younger in person.”
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
Generations
Comparing the Movies and the Series
[Any bloopers from the movies?]
It's a different situation with film and television. In television, as most of you know, you work long, hard hours and you're trying to pull a show in on a short length of time. And sometimes, to let off steam, silly things happen. But in a motion picture, you sit around on the set and wait for hours to go in to do the sequence. Sometimes you'll get there at 9:00 in the morning ready to work and they don't get to you 'til 4:30 in the afternoon. And it's pretty hard to get the juices going again, to get ready for that. It's very difficult that way. The waiting in motion pictures is the worst thing in the world. So, as a result, they don't seem to come about as often as they do in television.
Storylines he'd like to see
Would I want to bring back Natira? I don’t know, that wouldn’t be a bad idea. If I had to bring... Do you mean that if I had to bring back a somebody in a show that I’d done, or my characters? One of the things I’d done? [] Oh, I see what you mean. If I... That’s not likely, but I... I love time-warp stories. I love the idea of going back in time [with the help of?] from some advanced civilization. I don’t know, this is not a reality and I wouldn’t do it, but I’d love to do this on any kind of a show. I’d love to go back into the 40's. I would like to do something in the era of the big bands, and that big romantic period of the 40's when I was a young man. I’d like to drop back into that somehow, witness it in some way or build a story around it somehow. I know it’s been done a couple of times in movies, but not the way I have in mind.