Zachary Quinto
Zachary Quinto
Zachary John Quintois an American actor and film producer. He is best known for his roles as Sylar on the science fiction drama series Heroes, Spock in the reboot Star Trekand its sequels Star Trek Into Darknessand Star Trek Beyond, as well as his Emmy nominated performance in American Horror Story: Asylum. He also appeared in smaller roles on television series such as So NoTORIous, The Slap, and 24...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionTV Actor
Date of Birth2 June 1977
CityPittsburgh, PA
CountryUnited States of America
I think I integrated that over the first couple of years that I was out of school, mostly in auditions, to be honest.
I remember having to hit a mark and having no idea how to do it, real childlike stuff, because Carnegie Mellon didn't do an extensive job preparing us for film and television. It was very much a theater program. That was my first job. It was cool. I was glad it was.
The play I did on Broadway a couple of seasons ago started out of town and it moved its way into New York because of the experience that we had out of town.
My return to the theater in New York was so specific. I didn't want it to be about leveraging my exposure or my fame, so the first show I did in New York was an ensemble piece at an Off-Broadway theater, and I wanted to make sure that it was just about the play and about the experience.
I think somewhere in the '90s, it started to shift, and you started to see a lot of film and television actors doing theater, and producers using the notoriety of the film and television actors to sell tickets.
When I got out of school, it used to be that it was theater actors that ended up doing film and television, and you had to come from the theater to be taken seriously in that world.
Who's to say what would have happened if I had trusted my instincts and moved to New York like I thought I would.
We did monologues and scenes, and New York I did a scene from Amadeus and a monologue from Pounding Nails in the Floor With My Forehead by Eric Bogosian, and then in L.A. I switched the scene to This is Our Youth and did the same monologue. I was spiky-haired, super skinny. A lot of people were like, "You should come here and do a sitcom." That was the feedback that I got. Obviously it was quite a different journey than the one I've actually had, but I just listened to people.
I find that communication as an actor and person is an important part of who I am. And I'm really drawn into the psychology of those dynamics.
I don't immerse myself in the Internet chatter because it opens you up to a whole source of danger.
My first job was a show called The Others. I had, like, three lines. Julianne Nicholson was in it, and Gabriel [Macht]. I remember Gabriel wasn't there the day I was, but he sent a note, because he went to Carnegie Mellon as well, so we knew each other a little bit through that, and he was so sweet and generous. It was meant to be a recurring role that would evolve on the show, but the show only lasted a little while and I ended up only doing that one episode.
I'm a big believer in the notion that our greatest potential lies in our darkest parts. To a certain extent it's only in facing those parts of ourselves that we can truly grow, and I think that's true of all of the characters I've played, certainly in the past few years.
But when I found out that Jamey Rodemeyer had made an It Gets Better video only months before taking his own life, I felt indescribable despair.
Again, as a gay man I look at that and say there's a hopelessness that surrounds it, but as a human being I look at it and say 'Why? Where's this disparity coming from, and why can't we as a culture and society dig deeper to examine that?' We're terrified of facing ourselves.