Latest Brent Spiner Quotes from Interviews

Quotes about:

• Comedy really is my bread and butter, even when I'm doing a serious character, with the exception of Outcast. I have found very little humor in this character. Most of the time, what I do, somewhere there is comedy in it.

  Brent Spiner

  Character, Serious, Comedy

  Source: www.avclub.com

• So it was a really pleasant surprise when [Independence Day] turned out to be a successful film. I don't know if you've heard that they're going to be re-releasing it next Fourth of July in 3-D. I've actually only seen it once, and it was in Hawaii, in a little theater in Oahu shortly after it was released. But Roland Emmerich is a really smart guy, and he makes really fun movies to watch.

  Brent Spiner

  Fun, Smart, Successful

  Source: www.avclub.com

• A job is a job. And I like to work.

  Brent Spiner

  Jobs

  Source: www.avclub.com

• It seemed like an interesting movie [Independence Day], and I thought I had a take on the part that was going to be unique. That doesn't happen to me very often.

  Brent Spiner

  Unique, Interesting, Independence

  Source: www.avclub.com

• I had no idea I was part of what was going to be a big mega-hit. I thought I was doing a B sci-fi movie [Independence Day]. And, actually, it was Jeff Goldblum who looked at me one day and said, "You know, I think this is going to be really something." And I said, "Well, I hope you're right." And sure enough, it turned out to be.

  Brent Spiner

  Thinking, Ideas, Independence

  Source: www.avclub.com

• [Independence Day] was a sweet, sweet job, because it was one of those big surprises.

  Brent Spiner

  Sweet, Jobs, Independence

  Source: www.avclub.com

• Dr. Okun. Who's named after a special-effects guy named Jeff Okun, who had done Stargate for Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin, who did Independence Day. But "Brakish" just came up one day when Jeff Goldblum and I were improvising, and he told me his character's name and I told him mine.

  Brent Spiner

  Character, Names, Guy

  Source: www.avclub.com

• I think that Enterprise was getting better and better, actually, and if it had kept going, I think it would've turned into as good a show as any other in the Star Trek franchise.

  Brent Spiner

  Stars, Thinking, Get Better

  Source: www.avclub.com

• They were nicely written and nicely directed episodes [Star Trek: Enterprise]. I enjoyed working with Scott [Bakula]. So it was good to do, and, as you said, it did serve to enhance the Soong legacy.

  Brent Spiner

  Stars, Legacy, Episodes

  Source: www.avclub.com

• I think Rick Berman just called me and asked me if I wanted to do the show [Star Trek: Enterprise], and he said they'd write an arc if I'd do it.

  Brent Spiner

  Stars, Writing, Thinking

  Source: www.avclub.com

• Can't argue with Gene Roddenberry. He was a pretty brilliant guy.

  Brent Spiner

  Guy, Arguing, Brilliant

  Source: www.avclub.com

• Initially I objected to the Data makeup. I said, "Why do I need this makeup? Why can't I just look like me?" In fact, I said to Gene Roddenberry, "Don't you think that by this time in history, they would've figured out how to make skin look like skin?" And he said, "What makes you think that what you have isn't better than skin?" And I went, "Um, okay."

  Brent Spiner

  Makeup, Thinking, Data

  Source: www.avclub.com

• I have to go with Data's makeup, because that was basically every day, 10 months out of the year, for seven years. There were only a couple of days that I had to endure for Dr. Soong.

  Brent Spiner

  Couple, Makeup, Years

  Source: www.avclub.com

• I think everyone agrees First Contact was our best film, and even at that, they're kind of... I don't know, they're sort of movies. But they're kind of really Star Trek movies, if you take my meaning. It's hard for me to say. I was glad to be doing them. Whether they were good isn't really up to me to determine, and it doesn't matter what I think. I thought we had a really nice script on Nemesis, and the audience didn't seem to care for it, so what can you do?

  Brent Spiner

  Stars, Nice, Thinking

  Source: www.avclub.com

• I've worked with some great people [in Star Trek], and I was paid handsomely, and it was a nice role. So the whole experience was positive for me.

  Brent Spiner

  Stars, Nice, People

  Source: www.avclub.com

• I didn't really watch the show [Star Trek]. I still haven't seen about 150 of them. So I didn't really think of them too much in terms of episodes. I thought of them as kind of one long seven-year episode.

  Brent Spiner

  Stars, Thinking, Years

  Source: www.avclub.com

• It really was not that difficult a process, because I was playing [Data from Star Trek] something that doesn't exist. So it was really based on... Imagination was the key element in that, and whatever I could think of, I could do, because there was no precedent for it. It wasn't like someone was going to say, "Well, an android would never do that." They didn't know!

  Brent Spiner

  Stars, Thinking, Keys

  Source: www.avclub.com

• It wasn't exactly a cattle call. I had an agent, and they were seeing people for the parts, so my agent said, "Here's the script, see if there's anything that speaks to you." And I did, and I called my agent and said, "I think this character Data is kind of interesting," and she said, "Well, okay, I'll get you the appointment with Junie Lowry." I had to read with the casting agent first, 'cause nobody really knew me then. Then after that, I had, I think, six different auditions for the role. And finally it was me [on Star Trek].

  Brent Spiner

  Stars, Character, Thinking

  Source: www.avclub.com

• I don't think everybody wanted to be on [new Star Trek series] . I certainly didn't.

  Brent Spiner

  Stars, Thinking, Wanted

  Source: www.avclub.com

• I wanted to look right. I remember a review - a very positive one - in The New York Times that said I was so good in the role [Earl Mills] that I "even managed to overcome a terrible red wig." I wanted to write her and tell her about the agony I'd gone through with the perm, but I thought better of it.

  Brent Spiner

  New York, Writing, Agony

  Source: www.avclub.com

• As it turns out, sometimes that bites you. In this case, I saw pictures of Earl [Mills], and...I actually met him. He was quite old at the time, but he had this sort of curly red hair, so we did that in the film. I got a perm and had red hair, and... It was a mess.

  Brent Spiner

  Hair, Red, Saws

  Source: www.avclub.com

• I try to do as much as I can. I probably knew more about Earl Mills than anybody on earth besides people who actually knew him.

  Brent Spiner

  People, Trying, Earth

  Source: www.avclub.com

• Earl Mills is probably the best role I've ever been given in a film. And it was a great experience to work with Halle [Berry] and Klaus Maria Brandauer, an Austrian actor who's a hero of mine. Martha Coolidge directed the movie [Introducing Dorothy Dandridge], giving me another shot, and it was an amazing experience.

  Brent Spiner

  Hero, Giving, Roles

  Source: www.avclub.com

• I can tell you one other story about Rent Control. The lead actress in the film, her name was Elizabeth Stack, and it turned out she was Robert Stack's daughter. The only problem with that - and she was lovely - was that she was basically hired because [Gian Luigi Polidoro] thought she was [film producer] Ray Stark's daughter. And he figured that if he ran out of money, her father would kick in some more. I can still remember the day he freaked out when he realized she was actually Robert Stack's daughter. He was just screaming "Untouchables!" over and over.

  Brent Spiner

  Daughter, Father, Names

  Source: www.avclub.com

• It just occurred to me that there are some beautiful shots [in Rent Control] with the World Trade Center in the background.

  Brent Spiner

  Beautiful, World, Rent Control

  Source: www.avclub.com