The Galway Film Fleadh took place last weekend in Galway and although there were certainly some very high-profile guests, the big draw was the wonderful Zachary Quinto. The actor who played Spock in the wonderful reboot of the Star Trek franchise by J.J Abrams was on hand at two separate Q&A sessions, one of which was after the amazing Margin Call where he discussed the film and his approach to acting.
Quinto began his own production company in 2008, the same company which is responsible for Margin Call, a film about how the economic crash unfolded in one of the main companies in New York. Qunito said the company started small with a couple of friends “We spent the first year of the company trying to figure out what we were doing and what it meant to be a production company, other than the fact that I had all this exposure as an actor that I wanted to parlay into taking more control of the stories that I tell, supporting emerging talent and giving people the opportunities that I had as an actor.”
Quinto discussed how he became involved with Margin Call and his first meeting with director, JC. Chandor: “We read the script that night and immediately called each other the next morning and decided this was the film we wanted to make. It took a year from that point to get the feature together, get everyone cast. Every aspect of the experience was surprisingly easy and enjoyable and we shot the movie in 17 days. We have been told since then it is never this easy or enjoyable and I asked, well, why not?”
The actor also spoke passionately about Independent Cinema and its struggle against the Hollywood machine: “My company very specifically has no relationship with the big studios, we make every movie independently and individually. We don’t have a film fund, we don’t even have a development fund. It would have been easy to forge a relationship with a studio and have a deal to expand our infrastructure but ultimately, we don’t want to be beholding to a studio.
“We want to be an independant film company and the only way to do that is to cultivate personal relationships. We have relationships with the studios, but this tends to be through distribution. I just want to keep doing good work and telling good stories.”
The actor also spoke in depth about the methods he uses to get into his role and becomes the character: “Music is a part of my process, but physicality in general is a good point of entry for me. Shoes are really important for me actually. I feel like my connection to the ground and how I inhabit a space is really important. For Spock, there is a whole physical transformation that allows me to inhabit that character where other characters come from within. It’s different for every opportunity.”
Quinto also discussed about how doubling over as both producer and actor can be very interesting in itself: “It’s really interesting to hear how actor’s are talked about. I’ve had to tell people I work with before that I will never be at a meeting with financiers where actors are discussed, but it’s horrific how we are spoken of, in terms of value. That’s a drawback, I didn’t need to know that!”
Zachary was also pretty clear about where exactly he saw his career going: “Social relevance is one of the prime concerns of my company. It gives people the opportunity to have a different experience, to think about things that they wouldn’t have otherwise and that is something we believe strongly in the stories we tell. As an actor, I want to do more theatre. I do want to direct and I do want to explore that! I’m trying to keep a balance and stay open.”
If you haven’t checked out Margin Call yet, the film is probably one of the finest concerning the economic crash. Quinto will next be seen in The Invitation.
