“I don’t think that in real life I’d make a good doctor,” laughs Karl Urban. “I don’t think I could handle the sight of blood or intestines. Just the graphic stuff they have to do is just a little bit beyond me.”
It’s the eve of the Star Trek NZ premiere, sixteen years after Wellington-born Urban appeared as paramedic Jamie Forrest on Shortland Street. Now, in his biggest role yet, he’s playing Doctor Leonard ‘Bones’ McCoy, the cantankerous medical expert aboard the Starship Enterprise.
Director JJ Abrams’ take on the sci-fi franchise, set to reinvigorate the aging series, is action-packed, fun, and visually spectacular. “It’s exciting,” agrees Urban. “I really feel that the writers did an extraordinary job to being honourable to what Gene Roddenbury created in the mid ‘60s, yet at the same time, with JJ’s vision came up with something that is really sort of ballistic and fresh. It’s Star Trek but it’s not Star Trek as you know it.”
Urban is clearly chuffed to be a part of it, glad to have been given the opportunity to shake off his action man shackles and flex his comedic muscles.
“Yeah, I’m very thankful for JJ Abrams taking a leap of faith and handing me a role that is sort of grounded in a genre that I haven’t been able to exercise for quite a few years. Really since The Price of Milk. One of the things that he really gets off on is engineering paradigm shifts with people, or surprising people and stuff. So I’m very, very grateful to him.”
This was your first time working for JJ. What’s he like? Is he very demanding?
“JJ is just cool. He is one of the smartest directors I have ever worked with. He reminds me a lot of Peter Jackson in his approach to crafting a film. And beyond the film he’s really a marketing genius. He’s one of those guys who could literally do any job on set. He’s that gifted. And he creates an environment that is entertaining and light and funny. I mean, I’ve never laughed so much on a set before. Such a great group of guys. At the same time, it’s hyper-focussed. He uses the same crew over and over again and they move really fast.”
Is he open to ideas?
“Yeah, very much. He’s very collaborative. You can bring ideas to the table and he’s open to anything and everything and if it works – great – and if it doesn’t, that’s okay too. There are no preconceptions as to what it has to be.”
Who is Doctor ‘Bones’ McCoy and what’s his problem in that first scene?
“[laughs] When we first meet Doctor McCoy he’s somewhat jaded, burnt by life, coming out of a failed marriage. He is this cantankerous, irascible, grouchy character, a little bit neurotic but beneath all that he has this absolute solid heart of gold and he’s the most loyal and altruistic friend that you can find.”
Kirk and Spock are the classic duo, but McCoy’s sort of the third wheel, isn’t he?
“Yeah, Bones formed the third part of the Spock/Kirk/McCoy ‘triumverate’. And the core of the show was the tension and conflict between the rational, logical Doctor Spock and the emotional, morally grounded and cantankerous McCoy. He was sort of the morally centred voice. The great thing is that we are sowing seeds so that, hopefully, if the film is received really well and we get the opportunity to make more films, we’ll have the opportunity to develop and grow those characters into their roles the way that they were traditionally formed and lived for the past forty years.”
So are there any things you’d like to see happen to your character in a sequel?
“You know what, mate, I have not even had the time to think about the sequels. We’ve just been focussing on making this film, finishing it, and I just hope that it finds an audience who embrace it and cherish it and love it as much as we do. And have as much fun with it as we had fun making it. And if it strikes a chord then we’ll be blessed with the opportunity to make more.”
McCoy seems bound to the ship in this. I’d like to see him beam down to a planet and fight aliens and stuff.
“Yeah, well the great thing is that we have forty year of Star Trek lineage to cherry pick from and we’ve got wonderful characters that we could pull in to any possible sequels and really go anywhere with it.”
You seem an expert on the topic.
“I’m a long-term Trek fan. I watched the show – the original series – when I was a boy. And then more recently, before I found out they were doing a sequel, I re-watched the entire series with my son on DVD box set. It was quite fortuitous because by the time the movie came around and they announced they were filming it, I was so versed in everything Star Trek because my son absolutely loved it.”
So are you mimicking DeForrest Kelly, who played the original Bones?
“No, I think it would be a mistake for anybody to mimic the original actors, and I think that nobody in the film does. At the same time, as a long time fan I felt it was important to see some degree of continuity between the Bones of the original series and the younger version that I have the opportunity to portray. There are just a few quintessential elements that I felt were important to incorporate but I channelled them through what my take on the role is.”
Any plans to attend those infamous Trekkie fan conventions?
“I don’t know. I’m on the fence about that one. You know what – I really enjoy meeting fans. When you do theatre, you get a pretty instant idea if the work you’ve done is appreciated and the jokes you’re telling are funny. In film it’s different, it’s not often until someone comes up to you and says, “Hey, I really enjoyed your work in that” that you get that long awaited applause.”
What’s next for you?
“For the next month I’m gonna be travelling around the world promoting this. And that’s all I’m currently focussed on. And then I’m just going to take it from there…”
More on Karl Urban…
After low budget Kiwi flicks like The Price of Milk and The Irrefutable Truth about Demons, Urban finally entered the blockbuster league with his role as Rohan horseman Eomer in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Supporting roles in dubious horror/sci-fi flicks like Ghost Ship and The Chronicles of Riddickfollowed. He played a hitman in The Bourne Supremacy, and was the lead inPathfinder and the cracking local dramaOut of the Blue. Now comes Star Trek – the popcorn flick of 2009.
