Spock's struggle between his human and Vulcan halves is Star Trek XI, according to Zachary Quinto.

As reported by the Bosh, for Quinto, playing Spock means making the character his own. "I don’t think there is a way to play this character without respecting what Leonard did before," he said. "It was always infusing the choices I was making in the work I was doing, but just knowing I had his support and his openness to the process and to what I was going to do with it, and he was always available as a resource or a support system."

There was obviously a physical similarity between Quinto and Leonard Nimoy. Nimoy soon realized that they were similar in understanding the character that both would be portraying as well. "It was great," said Nimoy. "The first thing they asked me to do was look at some film on Zachary, which I did, and I immediately saw the resemblance and that made a lot of sense, but much more important was that I understood very quickly that he's a very good actor and also a very smart actor, and he understands the character and has a sense of how to approach it and how to do it, and I think the character is in great hands. I feel terrific about passing the torch."

Part of that understanding was recognizing what makes Spock interesting is the conflict between his human and his Vulcan half. "I think that [the conflict between the two halves] is this movie in a lot of ways," said Quinto. "I think that exploration is a huge part of my character’s journey and hugely important to defining a lot of things that fans have come to rely on and expect from the franchise and from the characters, and I think that's what this movie sets up in a really different way, new way, cool way.

Both actors were asked about a famous visitor to the set, Tom Cruise, who visited the set multiple times. "Yeah, he came and visited one day," said Nimoy. "He made 'Mission Impossible 3' with J.J. Abrams. Abrams was this director of this movie and directed him in 'Mission 3', and he visited one day, and we chatted about that movie and about that fact that we met before, Tom Cruise and I. We talked about his interest in 'Star Trek.' I worked on 'Mission' for two seasons back in the late '60’s and so we talked about that a little bit. It was a very fun kind of conversation light hearted, easy about careers about movies. We had a good time."

Nimoy seemed to hedge though, when asked if Cruise had a role in the movie. "What’s your next question?" he asked.

Quinto did not think that Cruise would be in Star Trek XI. "Not that I know of," he answered when asked if Cruise was in the movie. He did see him on the set once. "I didn't know he was there for our day," said Quinto. "He came a few times actually to see J.J. He was there one day when we were shooting a fight scene sequence so we were all gathered around the monitor to see if the punches were landing, and I was looking at the monitor and I looked up and to where J.J. was standing and I was like, 'It’s Tom Cruise.' It was totally out of blue. He was so cool and really supportive. It was nice to have him around."

To read more of the interview, head to the article located here.

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