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Star Trek “doctor” reveals details of Kirk's birth in Abrams' film
Sonita Henry, who plays a doctor in J.J. Abrams' upcoming Star Trek, told SCI FI Wire that her new character plays a pivotal role in the franchise's history. (Spoilers ahead!)
"I play the doctor ... that delivers Kirk," the English actress said in an exclusive interview. "I don't know how big it is in the movie, but, you know, I think in Star Trek lore, I think it's pretty big. I would like to think it's pretty big. I'm the first person that ... touches Kirk. The famous James T. Kirk."
Henry's doctor—an unnamed humanoid of some kind—appears in early scenes in Abrams' reboot movie aboard the ill-fated U.S.S. Kelvin—captained by Kirk's father, George (Chris Hemsworth)—and attends to the very pregnant Winona Kirk (Jennifer Morrison) as she's about to give birth to James in the middle of an attack, presumably by the Romulan villain, Nero (Eric Bana).
"It was a very intense scene, because things are blowing up, so they actually had things blowing up and ... gangways moving, and then we had a ton of extras running against us," Henry said about her scenes, which were shot at a power station in Long Beach, Calif., and on soundstages at Paramount in Hollywood.
"And I remember Kelvin Yu, who plays one of the med techs, one of the extras just ran straight into him. ... And the next thing I know, he's gone flying up in the air, and just landed on his back on the floor. ... Yes. So there I was, and there's sparks going off, and my hair is full of product, and I'm like, ... 'Oh, my God, I'm going to burst into flames. I finally get to work with J.J. Abrams, and I'm going to die.' ... So there's a lot of running around corridors and pushing a wheelchair and, yeah. Everything's going on at once."
Henry also revealed that she wore special dots on her face to capture her facial expressions, which will be replaced in post-production with computer-generated facial features.
"I know that they are going to do some form of computer generation with my face," Henry said. "Because they had to put little dots on. ... I have freckles, which is funny, and they had to completely cover my freckles, and then draw little black dots on my face with a marker so the computer can read them. I guess my freckles would just confuse the computer. And I would have ended up looking like the elephant man. So, yeah. ... I think they're just kind of stretching my eyes out. ... They actually wanted to shave my eyebrows off, and I just couldn't do it. ... It's very extreme. Especially when you're only shooting for a few days, you know, and, I was like,'Look, you can shave my head, I really don't care. But my eyebrows have to stay.' So they covered my eyebrows with little skullcaps. ... So two hours of makeup every day. To do that."
As small as Henry's role is—she shot for four days over a two-week period—she detailed some of the security measures she had to endure while shooting her part: She never saw the full script, only got her pages on the day of shooting and had to return them at the end of the day, even had to sign in to receive her Starfleet insignia badge every morning and had to return it at the end of the day.
The Los Angeles-based Henry is no stranger to science fiction: She previously had a small role in The Fifth Element and said that she's part of a proposed science fiction TV show under development, about a base on the moon. Star Trek opens May 8.
By siUK75 at 7:49 AM ON 03/20/09
This is gonna be amazing!
By 57ukIS at 10:07 AM ON 03/20/09
Amazing be gonna is this!
By kwaldon at 10:23 AM ON 03/20/09
lol Yes, this is gonna be cool.
By Dreadlord at 11:43 AM ON 03/20/09
gonna amazing be this is !
By Methos at 12:31 PM ON 03/20/09
She is HOT!
By trektimeline at 12:54 PM ON 03/20/09
I am really looking forward to this movie but....Kirk was born in Iowa. In Star Trek 4 Kirk reiterates this with the phrase "I was born in Iowa. I only work in outer space."
By Infomred Misery at 1:11 PM ON 03/20/09
Well, actually, he said he was FROM Iowa not that he was born IN Iowa.
But this movie still looks like a stinker.
By Dave T at 1:13 PM ON 03/20/09
Maybe the ship is crash landing in Iowa at the moment of his birth. :)
By Magicmind at 2:14 PM ON 03/20/09
The bad guy goes back in time and makes changes....the time ripples change many things like places of birth.....starship nacells....how some characters turn out. You might say "Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations" :)
By Captain Calvin Grant at 7:45 PM ON 03/20/09
By having this stunning and talented actress schlock this insult of a motion picture to star trek fans everywhere, it only shows that wonderboy Abrams will do anything to put lipstick on this pig of a movie.
By macmikey at 12:17 AM ON 03/21/09
Because of course, Captain Calvin Grant, you've seen the movie already and are speaking with the voice of sage experience.
I will confess to not being crazy about Enterprise's new "aesthetic," but there's not reason to trash it before it comes out. Everyone who hates it seems to think that all of Abrams' other stuff is crap and this must be, also.
Frankly, the only Abrams thing I've seen is "Cloverfield," and I actually liked that. But ST is different enough a kind of story that I don't see how ANYONE can make predictions on how it's going to play, up or down. So check your doom and gloom at the door, Cap. Wait until it's actually OUT before you trash it.
By Captain Calvin Grant at 2:31 PM ON 03/21/09
To macmikey, point taken on not seeing this movie. Also, point taken that one should not trash things one has not seen. I am judging this on news and comments made by the wonderboy and the people involved in it. From I have been reading, Abrams ignored established facts and canon of the original story set up by Gene Roddenberry just to make something that "looks really cool"! He insulted the long time fans by proclaiming "this movie is not for you". He later had to apologise for that after the studio smacked him down. I too noticed that many people are trashing this movie due to the dislike of the wonderboy. I am not one of those. I like his work a lot. Alias, Lost are my fav shows to watch. I think MI3 was well done and Cloverfield was my number 1 movie of last year. I just think he has taken on a project that was way to big for him to concieve and understand. He has admited on not being a fan nor watch the show until he begged to direct/write/produce it. I shall see this "epic" and if proven wrong (which really, I hope I am wrong). Will proclaim it that it was good and see it. Until then, I leave my comments here and I respect your comments that you make of mine.
By Spaceman Spiff at 10:57 PM ON 03/21/09
I can trash this movie from what I’ve seen in the trailers. One good example,
The corvette scene. It is a perfect example of complete illogicality.
The first thing that entered my mind the first time I saw this scene was, “How the heck does he even know how to drive that car?” Now let’s make an assumption. This is an original 68 or 69 vette.
If this is true then;
1. This would be an extremely valuable vehicle because keeping a 250 year old in running condition would be the job of a millionaire.
2. It would have enough security that a 13 year old juvenile delinquent would not be able to steal it.( I’m assuming it’s stolen since he has some kind of police officer chasing him.)
3. If he did manage that somehow he would have more than one police officer chasing him.
And even if it’s not original, even if it’s some kind of replica,
1. A thirteen year old boy born and raised in the 23rd century is not going to know how to drive a high performance manual transmission sports car. (Unless someone taught him and that implies a certain level of trust between Kirk and the owner which Kirk would be betraying by stealing the car and driving it off of a cliff!) And not just drive it, but drive it like an expert who’s been doing it all his life. (How many thirteen year old boys today can do that?)
2. There should not be any fuel available for it. (Since petroleum driven cars are no longer used in the twenty third century. Except like the parts it would have to be specially made, i.e. expensive)
Call me nitpicky if you want but these are the first things that went through my mind when I saw this scene for the first time not ‘Wow young Kirk is driving a stolen Vette COOL!’ This scene serves one purpose that I can see.
It introduces us to young delinquent Kirk. Who may be a thief but he is also bold and daring and has awesome skills. I’m sorry but there are more logical ways to show this within the context of the era Kirk lives in.
This is an example of what is wrong with this movie. King JJ does things that are illogical just because they are cool and because he wants to make Star Trek HIS baby. Like,
Completely overhauling the ship,
Putting ALL of the original crewmembers together at the same time,
Using 20th century slang in the 23rd century, (Why are you talkin to me man?)
Having the Enterprise built(or refurbished as the case may be) on the surface of the earth instead of in orbit.(The only possible reason I can think of for this is that it makes a really cool shot.)
Having that construction site guarded by a wire fence.
Now it is entirely possible that all these illogicalities will be satisfactorily explained in the movie, but I doubt it. Based on what King JJ himself has said. (This movie was not made for trekkies.) So yea I CAN trash this movie basede on what I’ve seen and heard so far.
By Arealtrekfan at 11:54 PM ON 03/21/09
It's actually a '65-67 Vette. And this bastardization of ST blows, even IF it's based on some alternate universe/time travel plot. (not again...)
By jim at 11:59 PM ON 03/21/09
Spaceman Spiff! get a life it is a moive! GOD!
By Jim at 12:15 AM ON 03/22/09
Why do people get so work up about a moive! It not a docunentray-it sci fi dork!
By IsoTek at 1:52 AM ON 03/22/09
I think I remember her from The Fifth Element, she was one of the flight attendants on board the starship Korben takes to the cruise ship. She looks so much better now.
By Spaceman Spiff at 4:49 PM ON 03/22/09
Thanks Arealtrekfan, I’m not very good at identifying cars by site.
JIM:
I give a logical analysis of the scene and the best you can come back with is dork? That must have taken a lot of thought. Did you even read the whole post? The whole scene is completely illogical.
Yes I know it’s only a movie. But believe it or not, except it or not Star Trek was and is a big part of peoples lives even if it is only entertainment. It pains us when some one comes along and just butchers it the way it’s been done here. Abrams claims he is a Trek fan and wants to re-vive it and make it what it once was. Well he went about it the wrong way. Judging from his other forays into science fiction (Cloverfield, which I hated even before I knew he would be directing Trek, It gave me a headache trying to watch it, and Lost) He was not a very good choice to direct this movie. With only those two SF credits to his name it makes me wonder how he convinced Paramount to give him control of one of their biggest franchises.
My problem with this movie and with J J Abrams is that he has completely ignored where Trek came from. He is trying to turn Trek into his own little baby by making it “Better” and “Fixing” it. There was SO much potential here and he just wasted it.
I used to look forward to any new Star Trek movies or shows but not any more not with King JJ in charge. If this is what Trek is going to be like from now on then all I can say is GOOD BYE Star Trek.
By The Beast at 1:32 AM ON 03/23/09
"I think I remember her from The Fifth Element, she was one of the flight attendants on board the starship Korben takes to the cruise ship. She looks so much better now."
Actually IsoTek she played the Presidents Aide not one of the flight attendants. I think she still looks the same.
By spaceflightengineer at 5:00 PM ON 05/11/09
Sonita Henry's alien face is singularly the most stunning I have ever seen on the screen (she's very beautiful as her normal earth faced self too!). Thanks for entertaining me! :^)
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spaceflightengineer:
Sonita Henry's alien face is singularly the most stunning I have ever seen on the screen (she's very beautiful as h...More »