Two Spocks Share 'Secret Selves' on Hammer Stage

Two "Spocks"—Leonard Nimoy from the Star Trek TV series and Zachary Quinto of the Star Trek movie—united for a lecture at the on acting and discovering your true self.

The lecture, titled Secret Selves, was a discussion on celebrity, the separation of self (or selves), and the concept behind Nimoy's photographic exhibit, also called Secret Selves. Nimoy appeared onstage Tuesday night to a burst of applause and jokingly waved it away with a Vulcan salute.

The Secret Selves project began with an ad. Anyone could drop into a studio Nimoy had set up, dressed or looking like their “secret self.” The volunteers arrived with a short personal statement and then stepped in front of the white backdrop and promptly had their portraits snapped by Nimoy and his crew.

After introductions at the Hammer, Nimoy screened a 40-minute documentary-style video that captured 25 of these portrait sessions. Some of the subjects were charmingly self-aware of their own zaniness, such as a children’s book author dressed as a mad scientist with a briefcase filled with inane objects like a “light up blue thing." Most looked as if they were just having fun, but a few, like the downtrodden lesbian and the domestic abuse victim, were inspiring. One woman posed in her old Junior League suit complete with pearls and boxing gloves.

After the screening, Nimoy and Quinto sat down and jokingly began their Q&A session by sharing the little known fact that one thing they had in common was that both of their fathers were barbers. They interviewed each other about their respective paths to fame and how their roles as Spock affected their personal lives.

They first touched on what Quinto called the "insidious nature" of celebrity. He went on to say that "the differentiation between the people we play and the people that we are becomes a little bit murky."

Nimoy reflected on how actors are traditionally trained to expose, and how playing the role of Spock was challenging.

"I said to you the first time we met, 'Do you have any idea what you are getting yourself into?' " Nimoy told Quinto.

Nimoy described Spock’s character as “hidden, covered, unrevealed” and that this was “an inversion of what you are trained to do.

"This had an effect on me personally,” Nimoy said. "I found myself in a character that I wasn't really prepared for."

Quinto and Nimoy also discussed the process of adopting a new self that comes with a new role, and the difficulty of escaping their most famous pointy-eared one.

Members of the audience laughed and asked questions about Spock rather than Nimoy’s work, reinforcing the difficult distinction between the two.

The Hammer Museum will be uploading a streaming video of the Q&A on its website.