NEW DIRECTION
‘Sorry, Charlie Miller’ a departure for stars
Trekking into a podcast as a cop tracking a tacky reality TV host may seem like an odd move for the man who stars as Spock, but Zachary Quinto says it’s totally logical.
Trading in his Vulcan ears and stoic countenance for a role in “Sorry, Charlie Miller” was perfect for Quinto, because it’s “just absurd and funny and kind of a real departure from other stuff I’ve been doing,” he told the Daily News on Tuesday over Zoom.
The “Star Trek” star, 43, appears in his new role as pop culture fanatic Mark, who’s wasting away at his police department desk job in the new comedy-mystery podcast from Audible.
When Ashley Benson’s titular TV veteran, known for shows not unlike “90 Day Fiancé,” falls off a boat in Florida and disappears, it’s Quinto’s chance to make his mark on the police force.
Benson, 31, who spent seven years starring as Hanna Marin on “Pretty Little Liars,” also relished the limits her role let her push and play with.
“I fell in love with the script. I thought it was hilarious. And I hadn’t really done comedy too much before,” she told The News over the same Zoom call. “And Charlie, my character, is just completely outrageous and so over the top.”
Quinto and Benson aren’t the only big names attached to the podcast — directed by New Yorker Tanner Cohen, who co-wrote alongside former Atlantic writer David Ludwig.
Michelle Buteau, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Chace Crawford, Christian Borle and Samira Wiley all feature in the “TikTok era mystery,” as Audible calls it.
The podcast, Quinto and Benson noted, ended up being a saving grace, as it got underway early last year as the world was locking down amid coronavirus.
“I don’t think we can overstate the value of having something to work on at the beginning of the pandemic,” said Quinto. “It was exactly a year ago that we started the project and it really did make a difference at a time when nobody knew what the hell was going on. Everything ground to a halt.”
The Emmy nominee added that the actors were sent boxes of equipment to make their own recording studios, regardless of where they were in the world.
“We had to figure out sort of what to do with them and where the best room in the house was to do a makeshift studio,” he recalled. “There was just something really engaging that helped, for me personally, temper the uncertainty of that time and give me something to work on, which I was really most grateful for.”
Ultimately, the “Boys in the Band” actor feels the show, which is being discussed for a possible TV adaptation, “is capturing this meta — not only the pop culture moment, but also the moment at which people are taking in content in many different ways and new ways.”