Star Trek actors/actresses

[los2188]

This is a hard question to ask, let alone ask in the proper way, so I'll do my best. There's something I've always wondered about lo these many years regarding the actors/actresses of Star Trek. Why is it that it seems that only...and I beg your forgiveness if this offends anyone, but why does it seem that only "B" grade actors and actresses get the roles for Star Trek? There are obvious exceptions including Patrick Stewart, Brent Spiner, Christopher Plummer, William Shatner to name just a few. Also, this primarily seems to be something regarding TOS and TNG era episodes and movies. Please understand, I am not in any way, shape, or form a judge of good actors/actresses on a pro level and I mean no disrespect to anyone who had the honour and privilege to put on a Star Trek uniform, because Lord knows that I'd give my left foot to be able to even be associated with Star Trek. With that said, I've read a lot of not so positive comments about certain actors/actresses with questionable acting abilities, and I'm sure I don't have to name them. A lot of the criticism is valid, in my humble opinion. Also I notice that a lot of them seem to have issues just finding other acting gigs. I do understand the stereotypes once you've been....oh....let's just say Pavel Chekov for 30 plus years. I recall reading about how Brent Spiner had some sort of a petition to be able to play an ancestor of Dr. Soong in one of the nuTrek movies. Why he'd have to have a petition, is apparently beyond my scope of understanding. So why does it seem like most actors/actress of Trek tend to be "B" grade? Or am I just way off?

 

[MacLeod]

Acting like any profession has people in it with varying degrees of skill. Speaking in general some actors might be better suited to period pieces rather than comedy and so on.

Also an actor can only work with what he has been given, i.e. the script. They may have limited leeway in what they can do during filming by a particular director.

Perhaps today, the makers are more willing to pay more to get a name actor to play the lead(s)on which they can draw in an audiance.

 

[Elder Knight]

Down through the years, I was impressed with Shatner, Nimoy, Kelley, Takei, Stewart, Muldaur, Spiner, Picardo and others. Upon seeking out (or stumbling upon) their earlier work, realized that they had always been good, and I belatedly saluted the Trek producers on their casting choices. They went for the solid, "unsung" players, and quite often they chose very well.

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

I'm kind of glad the producers have to look for people with the chops to pull in the role. The character begats the actor,. They don't have it so the actor begats the expectations of box-office performances.

 

[Miss Lemon]

I've always wondered why people think Brent Spiner is a good actor.

Acting like any profession has people in it with varying degrees of skill. Speaking in general some actors might be better suited to period pieces rather than comedy and so on.

Also an actor can only work with what he has been given, i.e. the script.

Good points. I wonder how Patrick Stewart would have been received if he had been given Deanna Troi's lines... "Pain.... I feel pain....".
I think his acting was not very convincing at certain times, for example during the drunken scenes with Beverly Crusher in The Naked Now.

 

[Nerys Myk]

This is a hard question to ask, let alone ask in the proper way, so I'll do my best. There's something I've always wondered about lo these many years regarding the actors/actresses of Star Trek. Why is it that it seems that only...and I beg your forgiveness if this offends anyone, but why does it seem that only "B" grade actors and actresses get the roles for Star Trek? There are obvious exceptions including Patrick Stewart, Brent Spiner, Christopher Plummer, William Shatner to name just a few. Also, this primarily seems to be something regarding TOS and TNG era episodes and movies. Please understand, I am not in any way, shape, or form a judge of good actors/actresses on a pro level and I mean no disrespect to anyone who had the honour and privilege to put on a Star Trek uniform, because Lord knows that I'd give my left foot to be able to even be associated with Star Trek. With that said, I've read a lot of not so positive comments about certain actors/actresses with questionable acting abilities, and I'm sure I don't have to name them. A lot of the criticism is valid, in my humble opinion. Also I notice that a lot of them seem to have issues just finding other acting gigs. I do understand the stereotypes once you've been....oh....let's just say Pavel Chekov for 30 plus years. I recall reading about how Brent Spiner had some sort of a petition to be able to play an ancestor of Dr. Soong in one of the nuTrek movies. Why he'd have to have a petition, is apparently beyond my scope of understanding. So why does it seem like most actors/actress of Trek tend to be "B" grade? Or am I just way off?

It's hardly unique to Star Trek. Most productions, be it stage, screen or TV, will have actors of varying levels of skill and experience. TV, especially back in TOS's days, was place where younger actors learned the craft and older actors turned to after movies roles dried up. So you could have a first time working along side a seasoned pro. Sometimes, skill is not even a major factor in casting. Roddenberry was well known for his casting couch ( and he wasn't the only one). He famously cast his mistress in two other roles after the network nixed her in the TOS pilot.

That most actors don't find success after appearing in a popular TV series isn't unique to Star Trek either. Acting is pretty competitive profession.

 

[Finn]

..snip...but why does it seem that only "B" grade actors and actresses get the roles for Star Trek? There are obvious exceptions including Patrick Stewart, Brent Spiner, Christopher Plummer, William Shatner to name just a few. ...snip...

First of all, I wouldn't say that any of those are A listers. I wouldn't even put Brent Spiner in the B list column. Yes, not even Shatner is an A lister

It has nothing to do with their acting ability. A listers are generally too expensive for trek (the ones that showed usually were trekkies already like Whoopi).

 

[Mrs Q]

I think Trek had a lot of good and some excellent actors in it. Yes it had bad ones too, but so do most tv shows.

My choices for excellent are Leonard Nimmoy, Sir Patrick Stewart, Brent Spiner, John De Lancie and Robert Picardo.
Brent and John are woefully underrated actors in my opinion and it's a shame they aren't that well known outside of Star Trek.

 

[marksound]

There are thousands, maybe millions, of fine actors who will never make a "list". Entertainment is a funny business. You don't have to be the best to be a box office draw. Not too long ago, the A list included Tom Cruise, Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzewhatever, Sylvester Stallone, Burt Reynolds, et al. No Royal Shakespeare talent there, but huge moneymakers.

As far as TV goes, there is this little snag called a budget. Big names, if they even consider lowering themselves to do TV, ask for a ton of money. Producers have no choice to look to lesser or unknown actors to fill the roles.

Once in a while an actor goes from relative obscurity to being an A-lister "overnight".

 

[Tosk]

I'll take almost any of the really great character actors that have appeared in Trek over almost any A-lister you can name.

 

[Shanndee]

I agree with Tosk. Many of these character actors will continue to find work well into their senior years. "A" list actors often "age out" of jobs, and if they didn't have a good acting range to begin with they simply disappear.

 

[bbailey861]

I think the term 'A list' is a highly over rated term that refers primarily to money anyway. I think that the majority of the casting throughout all the series was well done, with some portraying their roles better than others. Also, as has been pointed out - a lot of the issue also has to do with the material given.

 

[F. King Daniel]

For whatever it's worth, Paramount did at one point consider recasting the TOS crew with big-name actors when planning what became Star Trek: The Motion Picture. There were fan petitions to keep the TV series cast.

 

[Mage]

Some of the 'lesser' actors on Star Trek have impressed me a lot more then some of the 'A' list actors out there. 'A' list actors got lucky, they got a brake and people liked what they saw and they became famous. That's it really.

 

[Drago-Kazov]

They are exceptions among the A listers but not everyone of them is tremenduosly talented.

 

[jayrath]

Casting is an art form in itself. I dislike nu-Trek, but let's say that Matt Damon had been cast after all. We'd all be saying, "Ooooh, Matt Damon is Kirk," rather than truly believing that a (previously) unknown character really inhabited the role.

Relatively unknown performers do not break audiences' concentration on the story. Stars do.

 

[Finn]

^Yeah. Harrison Ford apparently turned down the lead for Schindler's List because he felt his name would distract viewers from the moral and plot of the movie.