Leonard Nimoy was so frustrated with the character Spock that he almost quit STAR TREK while filming the first episode

The original Star Trek took sci-fi entertainment to a new level of greatness with its bold exploration of philosophical, social and scientific themes. The show’s final frontier was not only the mesmerizing vastness of space, but also the breadth of human experience and potential.

One of his most enduring and beloved characters was Mr. Spock, who was played so wonderfully by the late Leonardo Nimoy. The half-Vulcan, half-human science officer became synonymous with the show’s logic and reason, serving as a counterpoint to Captain Kirk’s emotional, human-driven decisions.

However, some fans may not know that Nimoy was initially very frustrated with the character and because he wasn’t quite sure how to play an emotionless character, he almost left the show during the filming of the first episode.

In the book “The Fifty Year Mission – The First 25 Years”, the director Joseph Sargen talked about what Leonard Nimoy was going through while they were filming the first episode, “The Corbomite Maneuver”, and how the actor wasn’t sure how he would be able to play this character:

“He said, ‘How can I play a character without emotions? I don’t know how to do that. I’ll be on one note the whole series.’ I agreed with him and we worked like crazy to give him emotional context, but Gene [Roddenberry] he said, “Absolutely not, the very nature of this character’s contribution is that he is not an Earthling.” As a Vulcan, he prefers intellect to emotion.’ Leonard was ready to leave because he didn’t know how to do it.”

So how did Nimoy figure out how to play the character? She came to the conclusion that Spock did have emotions, but the character was simply very good at controlling his emotions and not letting them show. This was enough to give Nimoy something to work with. Nimoy went on to say that with all those pent-up emotions, he found himself bursting into tears during meetings because, as he put it, “the emotions just had to come out somewhere.”

Thankfully, Nimoy didn’t leave the show and brought to life one of the greatest characters in pop culture history.

Via: /Film