With the 45th Anniversary of Star Trek coming up, we sat down with Tim Griffin for an exclusive interview to talk about what the series and the movies meant to him. The “Star Trek” reboot of 2009 may have been a love-it or hate-it movie for Trekkies, but for Tim Griffin, playing the role of a Kelvin engineer it was the dream of a lifetime. An old-school “Star Trek” fan, Griffin told me in an interview recently that he only liked the original “Star Trek,” with Captain Kirk and Spock. He didn’t care for the New Generation and all those story lines — those three short seasons with the original characters were what he watched and dreamed about as a child. Later, starting acting at the age of 12 and finding success at it, he never even dared to dream he might one day be on a “Star Trek” movie, and he certainly never dreamed he would work under famed director J. J. Abrams.
But that all changed when he got the call for the 2009 Abrams project: the “Star Trek” reboot. Originally, Griffin thought he would get the role of Kirk’s father, but that didn’t happen. Instead, he had to settle for an unnamed engineer aboard the doomed Kelvin.

“It’s all cool,” he told me. “Dying for J. J. Abrams was an honor.”

Since he never actually got to the USS Enterprise, Griffin couldn’t tell me if the doors opened with real pneumatics in the 2009 movie, or with hidden people and sound effects as they did in the original series. But he seemed pretty confident they were motorized. Aboard the USS Kelvin however, he didn’t think there were any mechanical doors, period. The movie was filmed in a power plant, using the catwalks and freight elevators that existed. All they really added was some high-tech equipment and some fire and boom! Ready to shoot. “It was funny,” said Griffin. “We all had to have on hard hats. Everyone was running around in hard hats and you couldn’t be on the set without them. Then when the cameras started rolling, we all took off our safety equipment and I was like, wait! This isn’t right!” Tim Griffin can be seen in NBC’s new crime drama “Prime Suspect,” which premieres September 22. He also has a role in Taylor Lautner’s new film “Abduction,” and Maria Bello’s new film “Carjacked.” As for whether there’s going to be another Star Trek movie, and whether he will have a better role, Griffin didn’t know. But he sure is hoping so!

Related posts:

1. JJ Abrams Talks Star Trek!
2. JJ Abrams Expecting Star Trek 2 Script In March
3. JJ Abrams Yet To Sign Up For Star Trek Sequel
4. Sulu Talks Star Trek 2
5. J.J. Abrams Has Not Agreed To Direct Star Trek 2 Just Yet

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