Lin: childhood fan to ‘Star Trek’ director
Tell us what we can expect. Anybody who’s been a Star Trek fan, or nonfan, can engage with the essence of what made the show great, which is a sense of exploration, but at the same time being able to examine ourselves as a society of human beings in the process. Where are the Enterprise crew in this story? They’re three years into their five-year mission, and I think there are issues that come with floating in space, and dealing with a sense of purpose. Especially after what we’ve experienced with this crew in the last two films. What was your reaction when you first heard that you would be directing it? I felt a lot of responsibility, not only to the fans, but also to myself. It had to kind of come from the heart, I think, and to be that vulnerable, it’s a little bit scary, to be honest. What was your relationship with J.J. Abrams at that time and how did it work throughout the process? J.J. was really amazing. For him to hand off the franchise to me was incredible and that came with a lot of responsibility. I didn’t know J.J. before this so I am so appreciative of his gracious nature and trust. J.J. has been a great mentor in that sense. Were you a fan of Star Trek as a kid? Yeah, it was my time with my dad and my family. From when I was eight years old to when I left for college when I was 18, that was our family time. Is there a lot of action in this film and is it true that we see the Enterprise destroyed? Yeah, and we definitely don’t take that lightly. Inherent to this journey, there is going to be a lot of action, that’s just a fact, but I think to not take the action for granted, to really make sure that it’s a true obstacle. A lot of times through these sequences you actually get to know the characters in how they react because there is no cover, no superficial emotional cover, because a lot of the action is very raw and you will see the characters for who they are at many of these points. What was it like to be the new kid on set with the cast that was already established? I was very fortunate. I can tell you that my appreciation for J.J. handing me an all-star cast really made my job much easier. I felt like once we were able to figure out the film on the page, it was about respecting the cast and also earning their trust in working together through adjustment. They know the characters so well – they’ve lived with this for two movies so it was a bit of dance. For me, it was just about making adjustments and respecting the fact that they’ve built these characters. It was my job to make sure we calibrated because I was about to challenge them as actors and their characters because we devised all these new obstacles that they were going to have to go through. What was the thinking behind splitting the characters up into unlikely pairings? Growing up watching the show, it was a very traditional TV structure, but I realise how much fan fiction was going on in our heads, organically, so the idea of wanting to see maybe Spock and McCoy together, going through some gruesome experience without Kirk, that was very exciting. In my head, I knew that Kirk and Chekhov probably talked outside the bridge, but I rarely saw that, so it was nice to be able to see them alone. How did you bring Sofia Boutella into the cast? I would chalk it up as one of those moments where it was so early in the process and as we were doing the casting she came in and as soon as I saw her, I just put a stop to everything and asked for makeup screen tests right away and she came and just blew me away and I felt like, ‘that’s Jaylah’. She had so many of the qualities that I was looking for. Did she adjust well to the action sequences? Yeah, and she’s so disciplined from her background in dance and just her personality, her conviction. It really shows. When you watch it, even if you’re not thinking about it, you will feel it, because she’s someone who is never satisfied and that is the kind of energy that you want to be around. What did Idris Elba bring to it as the villain? Idris was fearless. The thing that’s amazing about Idris is that he comes prepared, but when you call “action” to “cut”, you are so into his performance, that you have no idea what he’s going to do next. The other thing about him is that I’ve never seen anybody work as hard. There’ll be shots where he’s off screen and you just watch him – he’s really in the moment and giving his all. Can you sum up Krall’s beef with the Federation? In deconstructing Trek, deconstructing the Federation or Starfleet, we had to create a character with a very valid point of view and philosophy and Krall embodies a lot of those viewpoints. In this 50th year of the franchise, we wanted to have a character to have those viewpoints, to come in and really deconstruct the film and hopefully our crew can reaffirm why it’s existed for 50 years and hopefully launch us into the next 50. – Supplied
Please note that this interview was conducted in May 2016, before the passing of Anton Yelchin.