Perlman: The
Viceroy and he met in sort of a mining situation on the planet Remus.
The Viceroy is Reman, and [Shinzon] was a young boy at the time. We
were exiled to this mine on this dark planet. I don't do well in light,
but I took some sort of control over his development, [his] evolution
into this man who eventually came to power over Romulus and Remus...
He's very mysterious - he's like an iceberg, you can only see one-eighth
of him and I like that, playing what's not seen and what's not explained.
The script [by John Logan] is really good, written by a world-class
screenwriter. It's not predictable, it's not obvious, it's very well-realised.
That, to me, is key in developing enthusiasm.
Dreamwatch: In what ways does the makeup
influence your portrayal of the character?
Perlman:
Having the externals dictates what I do internally. There's no way you
can create a character like this until you're actually in the get-up
and look at yourself in the mirror. That basically is the first clue
as to what he walks like, what he talks like and what his mindset is.
And that dictates everything else. You do some sort of generalised homework
about the circumstances of this guy, but you really have to wait until
everybody puts on what it is they're putting on you to create what is
not a human, but is an abstraction. He's a very abstract kind of being,
as has been the case with the other four or five bif makeup jobs that
I've done. The voice, the walk, everything else comes after you see
what you think he would sound like or walk like or be like - what his
evolution was - to get to the point where we see him now.
That's an interesting way of working. It's different from the naturalistic
kind of roles that I've done, especially from utilising what God gave
me. God in this case is [makeup creator] Michael Westmore.
Dreamwatch: How did you get on with
the Next Generation cast?
Perlman: I haven't worked [before]
with Patrick [Stewart, Captain Picard], but I know Patrick socially.
Same with Brent [Spiner, Data]. And Jonathan Frakes [Riker] and I were
working on a play [My Life in Art] together many years ago when he got
the Star Trek series - the same day I got [Beauty and] the Beast! So
even though we haven't seen much of each other over the years, there's
a great fondness and a real enthusiasm that we're finally doing a movie
together.
Dreamwatch: You always looked upon
the role of the Viceroy as a one-time gig, but we've heard you'd be
interested in doing more Star Trek in the future...
Perlman: The
cool thing about it is, I could be in the next Star Trek and [because
of the makeup] nobody would know it was me. It's cool to be in Star
Trek - it's a great franchise.
DREAMWATCH MAGAZINE # 101.
* * *
Also Trekweb.com reported that the previous issue of DREAMWATCH
contained an interview with Jonathan Frakes in which he said it was
a pleasure working with long-time friend, Ron Perlman, for a climactic
Nemesis sequence.
"The best part of the fight was that we were dropped into this
holding system where they fly you above the set," Frakes explains. "I
was rolling around with Ron, and Ron and I had done a play with each
other right before he got "Beauty and the Beast" and I got "Star Trek."
We were lying there sweating, wired up and saying we were both way too
old to be action heroes. It was great to be with someone that I knew.
I think that sequence actually is going to be pretty hot because the
stuntmen worked their asses off to make us look good, as they always
do.
The interview with Jonathan Frakes can be found at Treweb.com
