Meaney's 'Moon for the Misbegotten' Arrives in New York

Colm Meaney (Miles O'Brien) discussed his first Broadway play since 1999, a revival of A Moon for the Misbegotten starring Kevin Spacey, and expressed his gratitude to Star Trek both for giving him good casts to work with and for allowing him time off to pursue other projects.

In an interview at BroadwayWorld.com, Meaney discussed the role of Phil, for which he was nominated for an Olivier Award in Great Britain when A Moon for the Misbegotten opened at the Old Vic Theatre. "It's been a long time," he said of his return to Broadway, adding, "With this production in particular, it's a real pleasure...when you read the play, you realize it's such rich, wonderful, emotional writing with great, great characters. So, I felt I had to go do it." Though he was reluctant to uproot his family to take on the drama first in London, then in New York, "It's been such a pleasure...the writing is so fantastic and the production is so good."

Meaney found it a thrill to work at the Old Vic and called his Olivier nomination "a very pleasant surprise", as he was back in Los Angeles when the news arrived. "It was always like I was two different actors with two different careers. There was the Star Trek audience who knew me for that work exclusively and then there were people who knew me from the films I had made," he explained.

Having worked on both The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine, Meaney felt that the shows were "well written for the most part and we had a good bunch there. We all got along well together." However, he added, the biggest perk was that to convince Meaney to become a regular on Deep Space Nine, executive producer Rick Berman promised him time off to do other projects, and "for seven years, he was true to his word."

At the moment, "I'm really glad to get back to the theatre. It's been seven years since I have done a play and it was time to get back into it," Meaney said. "But I know at the end of the run, I will be thinking, 'That's enough of this now.' I mean eight shows a week is a bit tough." He prefers independent films to big-studio movies, the latest being Five Fingers, a film with Laurence Fishburne which will be released soon. He also did a two-part episode of Men in Trees.

For more, including Meaney's preference for Parisian wine over Irish cabbage, the full interview is here.

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