Noel Clarke & William Shatner Talk Trek

Star Trek stars old and new are in the news. Noel Clarke, one of the Brits – alongside Benedict Cumberbatch and Alice Eve -- helping round out the cast of the Star Trek sequel, recently spoke to London 360 about Trek about landing his still-unidentified role. He told them, “It was just an audition like all the others, really. You do your lines and see what happens, and luckily this time I got the job. It was just a standard audition.”

Asked about how he got word of his casting and how he reacted, Clarke admitted that he didn’t let himself overreact. “I was at home, in my kids’ room, because they were making noise in the living room,” he explained. “So I went into their room. And, yeah, I was told I’d got it, and, yeah, I was happy. I was happy. I don’t get over-excited about things because I’m just kind of like that. I was happy, but a job is a job. You get some and some you don’t get. You can’t get over-excited about stuff because that would mean if you got a review that was good you’d have to be really happy and if you got a bad review you would have to be distraught. I can’t switch it off, so I just read ‘em all. So I got the job and was like, ‘Hey, I’m in Star Trek.’”

Finally, queried about the ways in which appearing in the Star Trek sequel might impact his career moving forward, he commented, “I think it’s just one of those things where it’s another level of accomplishment, where you’ve done another job that is bigger than the ones you’ve done before. All of that stuff helps in your career, so hopefully it will just help me in mine, but I have no idea. How people look at me is up to them.”

Next, William Shatner appeared as a guest at the Wizard World convention in New Orleans the other day. During a give and take with the crowd in attendance, someone asked Shatner if he ever hated Captain Kirk. “Last night we were having dinner (on Bourbon Street), and the waiter comes up and says, ‘What would you like?’ I said ‘Oysters.” And he said, ‘Beam me up, Scotty!’ I mean, come on. On the other hand, I would not have been here ordering those oysters if it hadn’t been for Captain Kirk. It’s a two-edged sword. Imagine getting to do the things I’ve done as a result of playing the part of Captain Kirk.”

Shatner was also well aware that the Star Trek sequel is now filming, and he noted that, having been impressed by the work of Chris Pine in Star Trek (2009), Kirk is in good hands. “He’s a lovely young man, who is really talented and looks really good,” Shatner said, praising Pine. “He’s got the demeanor, the body and the voice. So along with being a good actor, he’s got all the right equipment.”

To check out the video of Noel Clarke discussing the Star Trek sequel, click HERE. And keep an eye on StarTrek.com for ongoing coverage of the sequel.