Spock Meets Spock!

Zach, were you a Star Trek fan?
QUINTO: I am, peripherally. I had some exposure to it when I was younger but I can't say I'm fully immersed in the mythology. But I'm looking forward to doing that. I've gotten some e-mails from friends who've been fans of Trek since they were kids and know so much about it, so I drew upon that.

How did you prepare for the audition? Spend a lot of time in front of a mirror cocking an eyebrow?
QUINTO: Noooo. This is funny. I wasn't allowed to take the material away from the casting room. So when I went in, I had my bag and journal, and I'd take the material out into the hall, and as quickly as I could, I would transcribe it into my journal. I was like, how can I work on this if I can't take it home? So I did that and took it home with me.
ABRAMS: And the next day it was on the Internet. Weird.
QUINTO: Yep, that was me.

J.J., are you ready for this? Ready to take on this huge responsibility of becoming the new caretaker of this world?
ABRAMS: I'd like to think so. But again, I'm not looking at it that way. If you're going to climb a mountain, looking at the whole mountain is probably pretty intimidating. I'm just looking at the story and the characters — I'm looking forward to realizing that. The specter of this massive fan base and their expectations... Look, there's no way you can please everyone. But we're going to do our best to make a great movie, and I hope fans of the series will appreciate the respect and awareness that we have of the thing they love. One of our writers [Roberto Orci] is a Trekker, so it's great to have someone who can speak for that world. I feel like this is a world I want to enter, almost despite that kind of level expectation and fandom. But I couldn't be more excited.

So Zach...can you do the Vulcan salute?
QUINTO: I can do it on my left hand really well. That's pretty good, right? But I can't do it at all on my right hand, which is the one Nimoy uses. I put rubber bands around my ring finger and pinkie and have been doing exercises, so by November I'll be good to go.

Which one do you have to use?
QUINTO: Well, all the pictures I've seen of Nimoy are right-handed. So that's the one I have to worry about. And I'm sure in the mythology about Star Trek it's probably a profound insult if I do it with my left hand, so if I do it there might be an uprising.

How's this going to affect your participation with Heroes?
QUINTO: We're all in the process of working it out. We have the support of Tim and the show and network. It's going to be a big undertaking. I'll be with the show until I have to leave to do the movie in November, and my ideal is to be back on the show when I'm done.

Leonard, have you offered Zach any advice?
NIMOY: I asked him if he could raise an eyebrow.

Can you?
QUINTO: You'll have to wait and see.