I had to shave three quarters off each to play Spock
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Q7 Playboy: You’re half Irish, half Italian. Under which circumstances does one side win out over the other?
Quinto: The Italian side comes in handy when I lose my temper—if I lose my temper—because I can blame it on my fiery roots. I suppose the Irish side comes in handy when I sidle up to a bottle of Jameson, which is not often. [laughs] The Irish side certainly came in handy when I went to Ireland the summer between my junior and senior years in college. I lived in Galway. I waited tables in a coffee shop from eight at night until four in the morning. I did a play there. The people of Ireland are amazing.
Q8 Playboy: So many know you as Sylar, and soon people will know you as the young Spock in the new Star Trek movie. When you go into Starbucks, do you ever feel forced to use a phony coffee name in order to retain whatever shards of anonymity you have left?
Quinto: Sometimes I’ll use Rex. It’s easy, it’s quick. It’s three letters, and you can’t misspell it. Then I just have to remember the coffee’s for me when they shout “Double latte for Rex.”
Q9 Playboy: Spock employs the mind meld and neck nerve pinch. When have you wanted to use either in real life?
Quinto: I was in New York recently, in the audience at a few Broadway shows, and I really wanted to bust out the nerve pinch on some people around me, just to put them to sleep and shut them up. As an actor who comes from the theater, I realized I might have inflated ideas of who we do theater for. The disregard brought my delusions of grandeur crashing down. I take theater seriously, and I was fascinated and repulsed at people’s casual, cavalier attitudes and behaviors in the audience. Opening candy packages, screaming and talking in the middle of the show—it was really alarming. I was galled by the nerve.
Q10 Playboy: What about the mind meld? Whom would you choose?
Quinto: With anyone, dead or alive? Carl Jung. The danger with the mind meld is that certain illusions are necessary in life. So if you meld, you have to be prepared for the whole experience because you will get into and see things you wouldn’t expect or necessarily desire. You don’t want to mind meld with somebody you consider infallible, because invariably you will be disappointed. That said, if Barack Obama had any time, I would love to know his experience. Star Trek director J.J. Abrams would also be a good candidate because how do you do what he does and stay as cool as he is?
Q11 Playboy: There are both Spock and Sylar dolls. Do you hide or display yours?
Quinto: [Clears throat] We, uh, like to call them action figures, by the way. I don’t have the Spock figure yet. The Sylar action figure is perched atop the filing cabinet in my office. His head turns, and he has a baseball cap that comes off. You can take off one of his hands and plug in a glass hand. It’s just plastic—no light ray is involved. I’ll be interested to compare the two figures.
Q7 Playboy: You’re half Irish, half Italian. Under which circumstances does one side win out over the other?
Quinto: The Italian side comes in handy when I lose my temper—if I lose my temper—because I can blame it on my fiery roots. I suppose the Irish side comes in handy when I sidle up to a bottle of Jameson, which is not often. [laughs] The Irish side certainly came in handy when I went to Ireland the summer between my junior and senior years in college. I lived in Galway. I waited tables in a coffee shop from eight at night until four in the morning. I did a play there. The people of Ireland are amazing.
Q8 Playboy: So many know you as Sylar, and soon people will know you as the young Spock in the new Star Trek movie. When you go into Starbucks, do you ever feel forced to use a phony coffee name in order to retain whatever shards of anonymity you have left?
Quinto: Sometimes I’ll use Rex. It’s easy, it’s quick. It’s three letters, and you can’t misspell it. Then I just have to remember the coffee’s for me when they shout “Double latte for Rex.”
Q9 Playboy: Spock employs the mind meld and neck nerve pinch. When have you wanted to use either in real life?
Quinto: I was in New York recently, in the audience at a few Broadway shows, and I really wanted to bust out the nerve pinch on some people around me, just to put them to sleep and shut them up. As an actor who comes from the theater, I realized I might have inflated ideas of who we do theater for. The disregard brought my delusions of grandeur crashing down. I take theater seriously, and I was fascinated and repulsed at people’s casual, cavalier attitudes and behaviors in the audience. Opening candy packages, screaming and talking in the middle of the show—it was really alarming. I was galled by the nerve.
Q10 Playboy: What about the mind meld? Whom would you choose?
Quinto: With anyone, dead or alive? Carl Jung. The danger with the mind meld is that certain illusions are necessary in life. So if you meld, you have to be prepared for the whole experience because you will get into and see things you wouldn’t expect or necessarily desire. You don’t want to mind meld with somebody you consider infallible, because invariably you will be disappointed. That said, if Barack Obama had any time, I would love to know his experience. Star Trek director J.J. Abrams would also be a good candidate because how do you do what he does and stay as cool as he is?
Q11 Playboy: There are both Spock and Sylar dolls. Do you hide or display yours?
Quinto: [Clears throat] We, uh, like to call them action figures, by the way. I don’t have the Spock figure yet. The Sylar action figure is perched atop the filing cabinet in my office. His head turns, and he has a baseball cap that comes off. You can take off one of his hands and plug in a glass hand. It’s just plastic—no light ray is involved. I’ll be interested to compare the two figures.
