Adam Nimoy on growing up the son of Spock

Adam Nimoy’s father, Leonard Nimoy, played Star Trek’s Mr. Spock, the most famous alien in television history.

In reality, he was a tough, uncompromising father.

In a conversation live from CitySpace, Nimoy discusses his book “The Most Human: Reconciling with My Father, Leonard Nimoy.”

Guest

Adam Nimoy, filmmaker and author of “The Most Human: Reconciling with My Father, Leonard Nimoy.”

Part I

MEGHNA CHAKRABARTI: Imagine growing up as the son of the most famous alien in the world. That was Adam Nimoy’s boyhood. His father, Leonard Nimoy, played the legendary role of Mr. Spock in the original Star Trek series. The role made Leonard Nimoy a global superstar. But off the set, he could be a demanding, tyrannical, and even at times cruel father, as inscrutable and unyielding as the character he played on TV.

Adam Nimoy tells the story of growing up, growing apart, and then back together again with his father in the memoir, The Most Human: Reconciling with my father, Leonard Nimoy. I recently talked with Adam about the book. We were at CitySpace, WBUR’s live events venue in Boston. And by the way, you’ll hear some specific references to the city in our conversation. Because Leonard Nimoy grew up in Boston, in a neighborhood that’s not far from WBUR’s studios.

Now, being a lifelong Star Trek fan myself, I took the liberty of beginning the conversation with a story from my own life and how much Mr. Spock was part of my family.

CHAKRABARTI: We watched the original series with my dad. And it was a very major part of my growing up. Star Trek was a very huge part of my family’s kind of understanding of the world, even.

And specifically, my father, who would sit cross legged on the couch and lean in and watch and he would just be deeply involved. And his absolute favorite character was Mr. Spock. To the point where, because my dad was a scientist, but he was also an emotional guy. So Spock’s duality of being both Vulcan and human, being deeply immersed in the pursuit of a logical existence, marred a little bit by humanity, my father deeply related to that, and he would often tell me, he’d say, daughter, because he didn’t call me Meghna, he called me daughter.

When I die, and I come back in my next life, I want to come back as a Vulcan. (LAUGHS)

So my dad actually did pass away a couple of years ago. And I’d like to think that somewhere on Vulcan, in a dimension where it still exists, that was my slam on some of the movies. That he has come back indeed as a Vulcan. And the reason why I wanted to start with that is not only to explain my personal passion and the importance that Star Trek has played in my life.

But to ask you, Adam, you must have heard thousands of equivalent stories. As an adult now, when people share those things with you, does it feel like a gift or a burden, and how does that compare with how it felt when you were growing up?

ADAM NIMOY: Wow that’s a broad question. That’s a big one to start with.

CHAKRABARTI: Star Trek asks big questions, so I felt like I had to dive in with something profoundly moral and exploratory.

NIMOY: The answer is it’s complicated. Things have changed over time. When Star Trek came on the air, I was very excited about the attention my father was getting, and people were interested in Spock.

He was a very popular character. Our lives changed right away. And it was novel, and it was wonderful. The paparazzi were showing up at our house. The 16 Magazine, a fanzine, had accidentally printed our home address as the mailing address for Spock fan mail. So we started getting sacks of mail. And there was just a lot of attention paid to us, and it was novel and really lovely and wonderful and exciting. It was an exciting time.

I was 10 years old. My sister was 11 and a half at the time, and it was really wonderful. The other side is that I had a lot of difficulty relating to my father, because he was so Spock and could be very reserved and introverted, and very obsessed with his career, and it is a fan-based business.

You have to pay attention to the fans and my dad did. I mean on the weekends, he’d spent a lot of time traveling all over the country making personal appearances, meeting with the fans, also generating cash. Which was a big part of his mentality, something he learned here on the streets of Boston. And there was a competitive element with the fans, where I couldn’t even be alone with him. Trying to bond with him on father son outings, without the fans wanting a piece of Mr. Spock.

And, but now, it’s gone back and forth, and then when I had trouble with my dad off and on, which I talk about honestly in the book, The Most Human, I would have a knockdown drag out argument with my dad. And then I would go to pick up my shirts at the cleaners and the guy would figure out my last name and wax eloquently, as did you, about how much he loves Spock and how Spock changed his life.

And I’m like yadda, yadda, can I just get my shirts? So there was that. And now, with the reconciliation with my dad and his passing, it’s lovely, really, to be out with people and being on this tour, and talking about this book, and talking about my life with Leonard. And having, and feeling the afterglow of the goodwill that he’s created all over the world.

CHAKRABARTI: So you were ten when all of this begun and it sounds like it was a completely, an overnight change in your family’s life. Did you ever get to visit the set?

NIMOY: Yes, so they started shooting the first season in really was late May of ’66. I was out of school in the middle of June, and for the next couple of months.

I spent a lot of time on the set. I was just, I was old enough to behave myself, somewhat. And I was interested. Because I loved popular culture, I loved watching TV, I loved all the stuff that my dad had been doing up to that point. And I was very curious about what it was like to be on the set.

And he was willing to take, he brought me with him, I would go with him very early in the morning and watch him in make up, and hang out all day, my mother would come pick me up in the afternoon, and it was really, it’s like a Disneyland effect. You’re just in this fantasy world and it demystifies things a little bit.

Cause you can see how the Enterprise just set pieces all over the soundstage and then there was Planet from Hell on stage nine. But it was great because one of the things that I really loved doing was trying to remember what scenes they were shooting at the time. Because I would wait for those episodes and go, Oh, yeah, I was there for that. It really felt, I really felt a part of the experience. And although relating to my dad when he was on set was really complicated. Stay out of his way was like the MO.

CHAKRABARTI: Okay. Quickly, this picture from the cover was obviously a day that you were on, where you were on set, what was it like getting the ears put on?

NIMOY: It was difficult because they were oversized. My ears were not quite big enough. It took a lot of, I think they call it the spirit gum. It’s some kind of tape, double sided tape that Fred Phillips, the Makeup artist who made up my dad every day for the three years. He was on the series, Freddie Phillips was the guy who made all that happen, all that magic happened. It was this, was a prank. … Even though the show hadn’t even aired. This is July of ’66.

It didn’t go on the air until September 8th of ’66, 58 years ago today. And they were always into how to make Leonard laugh. That was one of the objectives on the set. Bill Shatner, that was one of his objectives, is how to get Leonard out of character. Because my dad had trouble getting in and out of Spock, and it was always, how do you pierce the veil?

And this was one way to do it. They figured while my dad was rehearsing. Somebody, the assistant director came and got me and said, you’re going to the makeup trailer. And Fred Phillips cut my hair. He shaved my eyebrows from which they never totally recovered. I don’t know if you’ve noticed.

CHAKRABARTI: (LAUGHS)

NIMOY: And then he put in the eyebrow pencil for the spot. You know, the eyebrows and then he tried to glue these ears on me and I And while they were shooting the scene, I was standing in the turbo lift.

This is one of these moments that, you know, you’re never going to forget. Waiting for that turbo lift to open so I could walk out and give my dad a kiss and say, Hi, Daddy. And that was the gag.

CHAKRABARTI: Can you tell me a little bit about how your father saw the role of Spock, or the importance of the role of Spock?

And I ask this because, of course, as everyone here knows, part of the immortality of the original Star Trek was the fact that it presented a future that we all hoped for, right? The diversity of the crew, humanity coming together and exploring space, etc. And I’m wondering if that aspect of the project mattered to your father, especially, him being Jewish.

NIMOY: Yeah, I think one of the reasons why Star Trek has resonated for so many years is because it is a message of hope. Not only are we gonna figure our stuff out on planet Earth, but we’re gonna have this United Federation of Planets. There’ll be this interplanetary cooperation. The thing about Spock, that in particular, and what you’re alluding to, in terms of his character, specifically, is this idea of being the outsider.

I hear this repeatedly when I talk to people, that what has resonated for so many years with people is the fact that Spock is an outsider and it’s okay and it’s cool. Actually, cool to be outside and my dad was speaking about this. In fact, at the commencement of Boston University in 2012, he was talking about the fact that Spock was the ultimate outsider much like my father was when he grew up in the West End of this city. Because the West End was a bubble of immigrants. It was an immigrant neighborhood of Italians, of Irish, and of these Russian Jews.

My grandparents, they were from Ukraine, but they considered themselves Russian. And my father’s whole objective was how can I get out of this bubble and integrate myself with the greater part of American society, something my grandparents knew nothing about, and give the best that I have to offer as an artist, as a creative person.

That’s why he left at age 18 and traveled afar, across the country on a three-day train ride, with no support from his parents. They wanted him to go to college and become a professional. They were devastated when he said he wanted to become an actor and go to Hollywood, and they would not help him.

By the same token, my father reminded me repeatedly, and rightfully, that although the Enterprise crew, the core crew on the bridge, was multinational, multiethnic, multi racial, multiracial, the only alien on that bridge crew was Spock. And as such, Spock’s objective was very much, his experience was very much like my father’s.

When he told his father that he wanted to join, he wanted to go to Starfleet Academy, his dad was appalled because he wanted him to go to the Vulcan Science Academy. So right away there was a parallel in their lives. And Spock’s objective was how can he integrate with his human counterparts on the bridge and give the best that he had to offer.

It was that specific. Because that’s what, and that’s the genius of my father, that’s how you bring a character alive, that’s how you bring a story alive, you must find some specific personal connection to the role you’re playing, the story you’re telling, because then it becomes more universal.

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.