Pine: William Shatner’s Kirk More Iconic Than Ford/Baldwin/Affleck’s Ryan

Star Trek’s new Kirk Chris Pine is currently shooting on another big role for Jack Ryan. In a new interview promoting Rise of the Guardians, Pine discussed the differences in stepping into Jack Ryan’s shoes to Kirk’s space boots, noting how William Shatner is more iconic. Watch the video bellow.

 

Pine: William Shatner’s Kirk More Iconic Than Ford/Baldwin/Affleck’s Ryan

Speaking to Digital Spy, Chris Pine contrasted the challenges of taking on the roles of James T. Kirk in Star Trek and Jack Ryan (for Jack Ryan). Pine said.

"Star Trek has a very fervent, avid fanbase that is very protective of their characters and their stories. Jack Ryan not so much…Obviously William Shatner put an iconic stamp on that role. Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford and Ben Affleck [all played Ryan] … it seems to be more easily changeable."

Watch the video

 

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Sounds sensible to me!

Smart guy, and great performance as Kirk. Look forward to more of his work!

I’d like to think that Chris Pine’s first loyalty is to Trek. After all, without ST (2009) and all the fame it entailed, I doubt he would have been considered for Jack Ryan.

Kirk kicks butt.

thats good that chrisis loyal to trek, bye they way guys star trek 11 is on saturday december 1, @ 8 pm on the fx channel i will be out at a meeting so i will not get to see the movie untill i come home

It’ll be a challenge to be iconic in the footsteps of Shatner, especially without the luxury of being in a tv series before. But an actor shouldn’t worry about that.

#5

Use tha’ Hoppah.

Oh Young Captain… I’m waiting for you!!!

;-) :-)

James T. Kirk, Jack Ryan, and James Bond

A couple of years ago, I wrote:

“Is James T. Kirk the 23d Century version of James Bond?

A recent article suggests that the new cinematic version of the Star Trek icon should be more in keeping with a “bad boy” image infused with humor. But how faithful would this be to the original Kirk? Does this remind anyone of the perennial Bond debate over Connery versus Moore? Who, exactly, should James Kirk, once described as a stack of books on legs, be?”

Will Chris Pine bring his inner James Kirk to the role of Jack Ryan (an Americanized James Bond)? Or will Jack Ryan come to infuse the James T. Kirk we all know and love?

All I can say is: “Enterprise, this is Kirk.”

Tha’s all that need be said.

See: http://hatricksblog.blogspot.ca/2010/07/kirk-james-kirk.html

— Hat Rick

I thought Jason Bourne was the Americanized James Bond?

Story origin:
http://www.trektoday.com/content/2012/11/a-conversation-with-j-j-abrams/#more-21554

The latest Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab Conversations Series will feature Star Trek‘s J.J. Abrams.

Tomorrow at noon, Abrams will be the featured speaker, and the event will be webcast for those unable to attend the event in person.

The Media Lab Conversations series features “visionaries who work at the intersection of technology, art, and enterprise.”

The Media Lab Conversations Series featuring Abrams will be held on Tuesday, November 27 from noon to 1:30 PM at the MIT Media Lab, Building E14, 3rd Floor Atrium, at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The webcast can be seen live tomorrow here:
http://www.media.mit.edu/events/medialabtalk/

Twitter fans can join in using #MLTalks.

I have to say that while I’m glad Trek movies are being made, this new generation of Trek stars are very different than the previous casts. No conventions, very little fan interaction, no resonance with the tradition of being part of the Trek phenomenon. It seems as if it’s just another role for this new cast.

Am I wrong? Cuz if I am, great. if I’m not, it’s going to be a very different Trek franchise a years down the road as the TV shows (and their involved casts) become a distant memory.

Sorry to jump the gun. This is the origin of the story for J.J.’s talk tomorrow:

http://www.media.mit.edu/events/2012/11/27/media-lab-conversations-series-jj-abrams

However TrekToday did cover the announcement

@shinzon’slover (10), if you look at the novels by the right-wing author Tom Clancy, I think that a better case can be made that Ryan is the American version of Bond. In fact, Ryan eventually becomes President of the United States in his Ryanverse.

Bourne is great, but as far as I can tell, he’s not as socially well-placed as Bond.

Truth to be told, I prefer Bourne to Ryan, if only because of the politics involved, but I can’t let that stand in the way of my conclusion.

That said, I cannot see myself getting into the Ryan character as much as Bond, simply because Bond is so over-the-top British and cariacatured that his essentially imperialist tendencies can be overlooked. Ryan, other the other hand, is a bit of too fascist for my tastes, from Clancy’s novels. And to top it off, he has a loose-canon of a lieutenant that makes Ryan look like a communist by comparison.

All this is just a matter of opinion, however.

^^ “a bit too much of a fascist”

As corrected.

@12 StevenPDX: Urban and Pegg are the real genre fans of the bunch, and they’ve shown their appreciation – Urban’s done at least six or seven conventions since 2009, and though he’s promoting other stuff he always talks about Trek, and Pegg clearly loves what he’s doing and is in constant contact with fandom through his twitter. Those two know their genre niches and who their fanbases are – the others don’t have the opportunity for the same kind of promotion/interaction with fandom because they do different Serious Actor projects. Celebrity culture has also changed a lot since the heyday of previous Trek casts – if someone was stalking me with a camera as I went to buy milk, I probably would be less inclined to go out and interact with people.

While I wouldnt compare how iconic the two characters are ,
Chris Pine is correct in terms of how changeable the Ryan role has been.

Sounds like Pine has a healthy take on his franchises. Here’s wishing him luck in his future career; he’s a talented kid.

@16 Nony

Great post. I learned a few new things from your remarks and appreciate the insight!

Funny thing, this. I’ve seen The Hunt for Red October more than once, but still I found myself sitting here reading the news title for a third time in a row, thinking “Who the duck is Jack Ryan?” Back then, I never realized he isn’t supposed to be some sort of a one-time throwaway character. I hope I’m excused by the fact my memory for names, well, sucks. ;-)

Pretty much most of the western world grew up with James T. Kirk already being around. Of course he’s iconic. Half the planet probably knows him by name, without having to ever watch Star Trek at all. But Jack Ryan? He sounds like some generic Irish guy, there’s absolutely nothing to suggest he might be important in any way. Not even a “T.” in the middle. *shrug*

And yea, Pine is definitely a nice guy. I still don’t like his eyebrows, tho’. :-P

@12 true, there is that with the new cast, but that is less symptomatic of NuTrek and more symptomatic of Hollywood at large these days. Isolate the stars from the ‘average joe and jane’ as much as possible. Some believe its to cultivate in celebrities the notion of elitism and that the rest of us are proverbially cattle by comparison…but the more logical explanation is by cultivating more isolation from the average person, Hollywood is ‘protecting their products’…. because studios do not view celebrities as people. They view them first and foremost as products, basically breathing versions of action figures… or a variant on corporate personhood. Each celebrity is a ‘brand’ unto themselves and the ‘brand’ is the primary concern, and to cultivate ‘the brand’ of each given celebrity, from a marketing standpoint, the best course of action is to promote them as superhuman, almost the 21st Century equivalent to Greek Gods and Goddesses, as unattainable no matter what. Thus why the New Cast is not about conventions or fan interaction. NuTrek is mainstream Hollywood… the Trek we fans came to know before was different. Non-mainstream. Thus convention-going was the norm. Now, with Trek becoming mainstream Hollywood, this is the new norm.

Chris Pine if I was a girl I’d go out with you

20. Isn’t Jack Ryan a heck of a Bella Swann, er, Mary Sue? In one of Clancy’s books, he saved Prince Charles and Princess Diana (and all they hang out at the Ryans’ house). I think he becomes the first unelected U.S. President, or something, in another of the books. He may or may not cure cancer.

Wait, do the names Tom Clancy and Jack Ryan, like Isabella Swann and Stephenie Meyer, have the same number of syllables?

12. Well, Shatner wasn’t big on fan interaction. Especially for the first 20 years or after Trek was cancelled.

I still think the main reason the lesser-billed TOS actors did conventions in those years before the movies was because there wasn’t much other paid work. And, yeah, they found this community that treated them like stars (or like their characters) — when maybe others in the business were treating them like they’d been bit players on a long-cancelled, never particularly popular, three-season scifi TV show. But at the end of the day, it’s a paid job. And an ego-boost. And some of them probably do get a kick out of meeting fans. But they’re not doing it to spread world peace.

Look at the conventions now. With a few exceptions, these aren’t usually people at the height of their careers or who are getting a lot of other regular work. You can say the same thing for the former Trekkers doing fan stuff on the Web.

He’s more Iconic because Shatner was so colossally BAD at it. Shatner wasn’t the reason why Star Trek got as big as it did, he ever was. He’s a terribad over-actor who thinks he’s funny.

FYI — this article has been floating out there on the web for over a week now.

As much as I hate JJ-Trek and loathe JJ Abrams and his “Supreme Court,” I just can’t feel the same about Chris Pine. Everything I’ve seen of him, he strikes me as a very down to Earth, sensible guy, who just happen to be the one hired to play JJ-Kirk. If it wasn’t him, it’s be someone else, and the guy has to work!

@12- No, you are not wrong. The new cast and crew have come into this whole thing as “just another Hollywood movie.” The same respect previous cast and crews have held simply are not there, nor will they ever be there. It’s just another string of film to put on their resumes.

@24 – Everyone is entitled to an opinion, but I have to disagree. Shatner’s Kirk was a third of why the show got big. If he or Nimoy or Kelly had not been there, it wouldn’t have worked.

#24.

I disagree with you. William Shatner was great during TOS, and in movies I-III.

Though from IV on, he started to ham it up, acting more as himself than as Kirk.

@24. Shatner not funny? Two words: Denny Crane

Pine just has to do his own thing with this part. It’s a new day. More ensemble now. As for Shatner, he’s been fan friendly – in terms of conventions – since the late 70s. Saw him at a convention before TMP. They scheduled him in a small ballroom. About thirty or so people were waiting for him, sitting on the floor (No chairs). He showed up, saw the group’s size, and decided to forget the stage up front and walk about the room for his talk.

Shatner not funny? Two words: Airplane 2 (and he’s just about the ONLY thing funny in it.)

Shat is iconic.

I loves me some good Harrison Ford, but he’s the same in every movie. That’s fine. But, he’s not “iconic” as Ryan, because I’m still seeing Indiana Solo.

^^^I was going to post this myself, rynocarp. What kind of a Trek news site is TrekMovie if it’s getting scooped on TREK NEWS by every other site out there?!

#25. “FYI — this article has been floating out there on the web for over a week now.”

FYI, this is the first I’ve heard of it, so I’m grateful to see the article posted here…regardless of how long it may or may not have been available elsewhere.

I love the way Chris breaks down his work; he cuts through to the truth of the character fearlessly & faces that truth head on in his performance.

Here he’s examining where Jack Ryan sits on the pop culture icon scale.

That’s why his Kirk was so good; it wasn’t a Shatner impression, yet it was James T. Kirk up there, because he understood everything about the character

It’s nice to hear a Hollywood actor be so open about their approach. Many try to act all secret & aloof about their technique, like they’re magicians or something.

This guy is always refreshing to listen to.

So who is Jack Ryan??

Pine stating the blindingly obvious there.

I vote for nuKirk, Jack Frost, Jack Ryan, Sherlock Holmes, Watson, and nuKhan. And Uhura. I vote for Uhura.

sooo dreamy

I like Pine as Kirk. I don’t think many actors could get me to say the same.

Of course William Shatner is more iconic as Kirk. Shatner defined the character and will always be Captain Kirk.

Pine has big shoes to fill. He can play Kirk in the film but Shatner wil always BE Kirk

James Kirk is a fictional character who can be played by any good actor. William Shatner is an actor, a non-fictional person, who got a lovely opportunity to help create a fictional someone who was to be iconic. Chris Pine is like William Shatner, ie an actor, a non-fictional person.

Chris Pine has now taken on that role as an actor. Given good scripts, direction and using his own, what I believe, is probably quite considerable talent, will continue to make this character as iconic as ever.

I do think that Chris Pine needs to develop a better opinion and more respect for this fictional guy James Kirk. James Kirk is an independent, intuitive, highly intelligent person, and who is also capable of great love (both personal and more altruistic in nature).

“Star Trek has a very fervent, avid fanbase that is very protective of their characters and their stories.”

Oh. Man.

I just wish we would finally get big screen verions of the Ryan novels, where Jack became president.
It sucks that this is the second reboot in a row for the series.