Funny coincidence re. Nero/Bana in 1996

[Horizons96]

Whilst reliving a 1996 Australian comedy sketch show called 'Full Frontal', I came across an interesting coincidence. Eric Bana, (who played Nero in Star Trek 2009) was sending up a well-known Aussie current affairs host, during which there were references to Star Trek and Bana gives a Vulcan salute.

At the time, Bana was only popular in Australia, and only really for the comedy sketch shows he appeared in.
I bet the last thing he would of thought after doing that particular skit, would be that 13 years later he would be working in Hollywood, playing the arch-villain in a re-booted Star Trek movie, and would have ties with Spock/Nimoy himself both on and off camera.

link to specific time-code: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puPvvF_pSbc&t=32m25s

There's good reason many people in Australia, who were around in the mid 90s, find it hard to take Bana seriously when he plays serious acting roles, as he's even admitted. Not to say he's not good, he is, but we'll always know him best for his hilarious comedic work.

 

[Taelon]

Well his "Hi Christopher, I'm Nero" was quite funny.

 

[Melakon]

I bet the last thing he would of thought after doing that particular skit, would be that 13 years later he would be working in Hollywood, playing the arch-villain in a re-booted Star Trek movie, and would have ties with Spock/Nimoy himself both on and off camera.

He probably never thought he'd be playing The Hulk 6 years before playing Nero either.

 

[Khan 2.0]

when Bana was cast in ST09 I was pretty astounded theyd got a genuine current film star in Star Trek - not a no name like Luckinbill or Hardy (at the time), or a tv star like Llyod or an older film star who hadn't been in anything big in years like McDowell, Plummer, FMurry but someone who was currently in big blockbusters. I think they originally offered Nero to Russel Crowe and Pike to Tom Cruise

 

[Melakon]

not a no name like Luckinbill

Laurence Luckinbill wasn't really a no name at the time. Only three years younger than Shatner and Nimoy, he was a respected stage actor, and had some significant film and television roles around that time, but he was never a big box office star.

Plus, he's married to Lucille Ball's daughter.

 

[Malaika]

Well his "Hi Christopher, I'm Nero" was quite funny.

this I didn't expect him to calmly introduce himself like that
like if he wasn't the guy who had just destroyed the whole fleet and wants to kill everyone basically.
I love it! I always thought that crazy villains don't see themselves as crazy villains.
I still think that Nero was in many ways more scaring and convincing as a villain than reboot Khan.

 

[fireproof78]

Well his "Hi Christopher, I'm Nero" was quite funny.

this I didn't expect him to calmly introduce himself like that
like if he wasn't the guy who had just destroyed the whole fleet and wants to kill everyone basically.
I love it! I always thought that crazy villains don't see themselves as crazy villains.
I still think that Nero was in many ways more scaring and convincing as a villain than reboot Khan.

Agreed. For me, Nero was one of the few villains who was completely psychotic, and had broken with reality. It was quite interesting to me.

 

[M'rk son of Mogh]

There's good reason many people in Australia, who were around in the mid 90s, find it hard to take Bana seriously when he plays serious acting roles, as he's even admitted. Not to say he's not good, he is, but we'll always know him best for his hilarious comedic work.

The best comedians are often very good at drama as well. Australians shouldn't find it any more difficult than North Americans when people like Robin Williams win the Oscar for a dramatic role.

 

[eyeresist]

Bana of course first came to notice as a dramatic actor playing a cheerful psychopath in Chopper.

 

[Doctorwhovian]

The Countdown comic (Which dealt with events in the "Prime" universe that led to Spock and Nero going back in time) had Nero as a kind of good guy (More of a working class Romulan than what we got in the TV series) who was friends with Spock, but the destruction of Romulus got him unhinged.


Interestingly, Nero's motivation-the death of his wife and destruction of his planet, as well as his posession of a device intended for good but used for destructive purposes (Genesis/Red Matter)-seems a bit closer to TWOK Khan's motivation than STID's Khan-who was more sort of angry at Marcus using him and his people.