John Billingsley

If you own a TV, or have visited a theatre in the past twelve months, chances are you’ll recognize John Billingsley’s face (he’s the dashing looking gent to the left). Probably best known for his role as the Denobulan Dr. Phlox on the short-lived but popular ‘’Star Trek: Enterprise” series, Bilingsley has gone on to appear on Alan Ball’s exceptionally popular ‘’True Blood” – as Mike Spencer- and the most recent season of ‘’24” (Yes, that was him going BOOM!). He now takes to the big screen, playing Professor West in Roland Emmerich’s end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it hit ‘’2012”. Clint Morris caught up with the always amiable actor to discuss the movie.

Firstly, how did you enjoy the new ‘’Star Trek” movie?

I wasn’t all that enamoured of it, to be honest.  Terrific performances, I thought, but the script was pretty mundane, and as is often the case with the movies, there’s too much of a premium put on ‘action’ at the expense of character development.  I also felt that it was a colossal cop out to create a ‘parallel universe’ – this allows the filmmakers to do whatever they want in subsequent instalments without worrying about Trek continuity, plus  now they can kill actors off if they start bitching about not getting paid enough.   Personally, I could stand for a moratorium, in Trek-ville, on all ‘time travel’ yarns:  I’m sick to death of characters meeting themselves, their long dead mothers, etc., etc, etc.   Still, if J.J.Abrams reads this: don’t take it personally, J.J., all is forgiven,  and don’t you think you could stand to introduce a Denobulan into the mix sometime soon?

Ha. Now you’d obviously miss ‘’Enterprise”… but you’re now on ‘’True Blood”. You never seem to be short of work…. or is that how we see it?

Well, if you’d said that a few months back I might have agreed (modestly), but right now I’m completely shut out of things, not an audition to be had, much less a gig. Our industry is going through some real upheaval: the major corporations that own the film and tv studios have mandated massive cost-cutting, which has meant fewer movies are getting made, for one thing.  And financing for indie films has completely dried up.  On the tv front, the dearth of advertising has meant that a lot of shows are slashing their budgets – i.e, smaller casts, and this of course comes on the heels of 8 years of reality tv programming, which has reduced opportunities for actors by 20-30 percent, by some calculations.  All of this, coupled with the overall insecurity about the future of residuals- as shows become available online, DVD sales plummet, etc. – has encouraged  ‘namey’ actors to lower their quotes and take gigs they never would have considered taking a couple of years ago.  All in all, it’s meant that everybody on ‘the ladder’ is being pushed, somewhat violently, down a few rungs – at best – or off the ladder entirely, if they don’t have the means to keep pursuing their careers.

That’s a story I’m hearing from a lot of actors – that it’s only got tougher out there.

Fortunately the missus is still appearing on Chuck (as General Beckman) and, as you say, there’s a chance I’ll be returning to True Blood this December, when it starts up again – I’m not under contract, however, and last season’s story line demanded using me quite a bit, which I suspect was an anomaly. The good news is that Bonnie and I have had a very nice run for a long time, and we were quite frugal, so it’s not a hardship hanging out, reading novels, traveling, visiting pals.  We’ll see if things change over the course of the next six months or so – in the meantime, we’re doing a few more conventions than we’re used to, which can be fun (NZ in the spring and Australia next fall, at this point, among others) and we’re working with a pal on a film project which we hope to bring to fruition this spring – a black comedy about a middle aged couple who run a bed and breakfast that caters to wannabe suicides. That is to say, if we can procure the funding . . . buddy, can you spare ten grand . . . ?

Was going to ask you the same question, John. So onto talking about films run by those that had the money up-front… 2012. How did you get the role? Emmerich a closet Enterprise fan?

No, Trek had nothing to do with it.    The casting directors, April Webster and Scott David, have always been big supporters.  They brought me in to do a table read for Roland and his team.  None of the stars participated, which happens quite a bit,  i.e, a movie’s already been cast with names but at different stages in the process they’ll bring other actors in to read the roles cuz the stars aren’t available.  I read Oliver Platt’s role, and they liked what I was doing, so they then brought me in to read for the role I was eventually cast in.

Was it mostly acting opposite green-screen? If so, how difficult is that?

Some green screen, yes, which I wasn’t unaccustomed to.  However, it was a l75 million dollar movie, so the sets were incredible, and very detailed, and you get more than enough sense of the overall ‘mise en scene’ from the hundreds of extras, the detailed art design, etc., etc., etc.  Harder, really, imbuing a lot of blah blah blah – the tectonic plates, what have you- with the requisite emotion – I haven’t actually seen it, because, to be frank, special effects driven movies are not my cup of tea.

So my next question –  about which scenes of yours didn’t make it into the movie – is now void then!

Yeah, because I haven’t seen it, I couldn’t really tell you.  I did pull a little prank in one scene, when Thandie [Newton] and Chewitel [Ejiofor] are talking about their relatively unspectacular romantic histories – on a transport plane we’re taking from location x to location y-, and if the creators/DVD extra guys are puckish they might throw that clip in, got a big laugh on the day,  but I’m not sure I want to give ya the spoiler . . .

No don’t… It’ll go straight to Twitter. Now does a film like this open doors for you? I mean, you’ve quite a big part in it!

Well, I doubt it.  Truly, the industry is in such turmoil and there are so many big names standing in line ahead of me right now, competing for roles they wouldn’t have sniffed at a few years back . . . plus, although it’s certainly a box office hit, it’s being attacked critically so I’m not sure that a good odor attaches . . . my agents are all saying the opposite, but their job is to practice and promote the wholesale sprinkling of pixie dust . . . I’m a realist, maybe even a cynic.  I’ve had ‘opportunities’ in the past – oooh, this will open doors – and nothing’s come through – it’s awfully hard to develop ‘traction’ if you’re a pudgy, four eyed,  50 year old character guy.

Harsh [Laughs]. Do you believe any of this ‘World ends in 2012’ stuff?

No, but I do believe that global warming is legit and that we’re probably a day late and a dollar short re: arresting some pretty fucking scary eventualities – massive flooding = massive dislocation = disease, despair, death and rage = political upheaval and  war up the poop shoot- plus I do believe in the ‘end of oil’ – many books written about this. Depending on your point of view, whether we are forced to transition to alternative modes of energy creation sooner rather than later – and if that’s even feasible, I should add – we could be in for some pretty hairy years . . . the author’s name escapes me, but there’s a book called The Long Emergency that is pretty terrifying in it’s prognostications.  I’d also recommend reading anything and everything by the journalist Elisabeth Kolbert, who writes for The New Yorker.  She’s particularly good at writing about the oceans and the effect global warming is having on them, and what the health of the oceans means to us all.  On the bright side, efforts to desalinize water on an industrial scale are moving apace, and since the world’s most precious and most rapidly diminishing commodity is fresh water, there’s some good news there.  Sadly, I live in a country where troglodytic Republicans believe that if you concentrate reeealll hard you can wish yourself back in time – say, the l9th century.   I’m afraid their no-nothing obstructionism – given the importance of the US being a global leader on the environmental front – is going to make the future pretty miserable – has, indeed, already done so – witness the perfidies of financial deregulation.  Thanks, Pres. Reagan, Phil Graham, Newt Gingrich, etc – not to take Dems off the hook, gutless and craven wonders they have been going back mannnnnny years-  Sigh.  See what you started . . . ?

So what’s next for you… besides bashing politicians? [Laughs]

At this point, that means “What Am I Reading”.  Just finished Little Dorrit (Dickens), Mysteries of Pittsburgh – Michael Chabon’s first novel – not recommended, I’m afraid, though his later stuff is fabulous, The Great Reheasal – a terrific book written by Carl Van Doren in l948 about the creation of the US Constitution in l787, The Reader by Bernard Schlink, which is lovely and moving in ways the movie isn’t.  Currently half way through Confederates in the Attic by Tony Horwitz, a terrific, hilarious and somewhat scarifying book about the movement in the US to ‘keep the Civil War alive’ in our memories.  After that, I move on to A Civil Action by Jonathan Harr, Puddnhead Wilson (Twain), and an early Anne Tyler – A Slipping Down Life.    We still do some charitable work for the Aids Service Center, as well, Bonnie putters in the garden, we love our cats, go out to eat with pals, generally lead a pretty nice, sedate, quiet life.  Well, except of course when I hit the road on the weekend with my motorcycle gang  . . . That last bit was a joke.

2012 is now showing