Top 145 Quotes & Sayings by Brent Spiner
Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American actor Brent Spiner.
Last updated on September 17, 2024.
I'm an avid biography reader.
Having spent so much time in a fictional world, I prefer to read about the real world.
My own personal favorite Cher song is the unforgettable Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves.
If I'm not mistaken, I think Data was the comic relief on the show.
People think that being on Star Trek is career suicide, but it's really just the opposite.
Acting is acting.
Yes, Data is hairless but I am not. And we are both anatomically correct.
I don't read fiction at all.
I think it's the business part of the word show business that causes me the most concern.
There is no question that everybody who works in show business is lucky because of the number of people who wish they where working in show business.
If you look around at the people in show business today they are basically the people who didn't give up.
And, you know, when you are a kid, everybody wants to be an actor. I think that everybody wants to be in show business, frankly.
And I think it's likely that there will be Data's out there one day. I hope so, if there are, that they all look exactly like me!
Radical surgery is never fun.
I think the potential for man is so enormous, if we can stay alive long enough, we're going to be seeing a lot of what Star Trek is projecting.
I don't read Science Fiction.
I think he is an extremely accessible character. In Data there is no potential for cruelty.
Joey being one of my finest performances ever. Matt LeBlanc's basically doing the same thing right now, playing himself on Episodes. When I did Joey, I really leaned on them to make me the biggest ass they possibly could, because, frankly, everyone in their heart of hearts thinks of themselves that way. Or at least I do, anyway.
I went to New York out of college, and in my day, we were told that was the way you became a good actor. You don't go to Hollywood, you go straight to New York and work in the theater. So that's what most of the people I knew did.
I like to think of myself as the Rutger Hauer of this show Star Trek: The Next Generation. But then I like to think of myself as Rutger Hauer in real life: strikingly handsome, irresistible to women, an intergalactic enigma.
I don't know you could do a whole film about Dr. Okun from Independence Day.
I love the South Park guys, Trey Parker and Matt Stone. They're geniuses. I throw that word around a lot, but I really do mean it.
I think everyone agrees First Contact was our best film, and even at that, they're kind of... I don't know, they're sort of movies. But they're kind of really Star Trek movies, if you take my meaning. It's hard for me to say. I was glad to be doing them. Whether they were good isn't really up to me to determine, and it doesn't matter what I think. I thought we had a really nice script on Nemesis, and the audience didn't seem to care for it, so what can you do?
I've gotten such good feedback from that [re-team with Wil Wheaton for Big Bang Theory appearance], and I hardly did anything.
I'm, like, y'know, I didn't have a problem doing one scene in Dude, Where's My Car? I'm certainly not going to have a problem doing one scene in a [Martin] Scorsese movie!
[The Aviator] came about through John Logan, who I've been friends with for many years.
Obviously we're doing a comedy [Fresh Hell], and our intent is to entertain, but we're also really aware and trying to stay aware of the subtext of what it's like to reach a certain age and be dismissed, basically, from the fraternity you've always wanted to be a part of, and the desperation involved in trying to claw your way back into it.
The kid in the episode [of Tales From The Darkside ] was played by Christian Slater! He was all of about 12 or so, but I've run into Christian many times since then, and he always does his line from Tales From The Darkside whenever he sees me.
I've played myself before this ["Brent Spiner"] - and I've played myself since, for that matter - and playing yourself one of the most difficult characters you can play, 'cause God knows most of us don't know who that is.
Generally, I have to be able to get the lines out of my mouth without making a mistake before I go to sleep.
I think there is something like 90% unemployment in the Screen Actors Guild, so we are the exception.
Voice acting is about the easiest thing to do. You roll out of bed, throw your clothes on that you had on the night before, you go into the studio, and nobody cares, just as long as you can speak.
When I go to the old folks' home, I'm gonna be sitting in a rocking chair, telling everybody how I worked with Jack [Lemmon] and Walter [Matthau].
Any job you can go to and have a laugh everyday has got to be a good job.
And the basic sort of thrust of Star Trek being about equality and tolerance and things I believe in deeply.
I try not to make plans. Because, even the best laid plans etc. etc.
We were kind of never one of CBS favorites [with Threshold], even though we'd gotten really good reviews for the pilot. We were on at, what was it, 10 o'clock on a Friday night? That's kind of where you bury a show if you don't want it to last. But, wow, what a cast, huh? You could never get that cast together again.
People think that being on Star Trek is career suicide, but it's really just the opposite
I had a fantastic teacher in high school. I had one of those guys you dream of having, who molds your life and inspires you to go in a particular direction, and he was quite brilliant. His name was Cecil Pickett, and a lot of the kids from my high-school drama class are in professional show business and have done quite well.
The Dain Curse [Tom Fink] was a great job. I was in New York, and I was young - I think I'm 28 years old in that - and I got to work with James Coburn and Jean Simmons and Jason Miller. Plus, it was a Dashiell Hammett story, and I had a great character. It was fantastic to shoot.
We got to be really good friends [Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau]. It was just thrilling, every day. Every single day. I had a big couple of musical numbers in [Out to Sea], and I remember doing one of them and shooting it from beginning to end.
I did learn a lot from [ Felicia Day], though, and I was able to usurp some of her talent.
In my heart, I've never left Brazil.
I know a guy who writes on the show, it was his episode, and he called and said, "Would you do it?" And I said, "Yeah." There's not really much else to tell, except that I was thrilled to be on The Simpsons, because it's one of the greatest series in the history of television.
I think we're all fans, and I understand the whole world of fandom, because I am a fan.
Certainly I find it most interesting to play a role that I can invent from nothing.
As I get older and I get more of this dialogue and I lose more and more brain cells, it really does become the most difficult part of the job!
Harry [ Hannigan] and Chris [Ellis] are sitting there while we're doing [ Fresh Hell], and Chris is directing, obviously, but if we start fooling around a little bit, Harry comes in, and he's got some addition that makes it even funnier. But we start with a complete script.
There's such a grand fraternity of actors who've played the Joker, not the least of whom is Mark Hamill, who voiced it for so long and was so great. I did it one time and... I've gotten some feedback on it from people who've seen it and really enjoyed it, but I don't know.
John Logan was kind of wrapping up - "Well, thanks for coming in..." - and I thought, "Oh, God, this is over and I'm out of here, and I really don't want to leave."So I said, "Can I ask you a question?" He said, "Sure." "What movie do you think you've seen more than any other movie?" And he said, "Wow, let me think about that. I guess probably The Searchers." And I said, "Well, oddly, that's the movie I've seen more than any other movie." And I wasn't just BS-ing. It's true. It's my favorite movie.
Of course, when you see [ musical numbers] in the movie [Out To Sea ], it's cut into a lot with other scenes, but we shot the number straight through, so here I am doing it, and sitting right in front of me in the audience was Donald O'Connor. And I was, like, "Oh, my God, I can't believe I'm performing a musical number in front of Donald O'Connor," who's one of the greats of the silver screen. But it was a thrilling experience, it really was.
I mean, I'm the tag of the [ Big Bang Theory ] show! That was one of the easiest jobs I've ever had.
Im thinking of going into rehab. Im not addicted to anything, but I think its good way to jumpstart an acting career.
It wasn't exactly a cattle call. I had an agent, and they were seeing people for the parts, so my agent said, "Here's the script, see if there's anything that speaks to you." And I did, and I called my agent and said, "I think this character Data is kind of interesting," and she said, "Well, okay, I'll get you the appointment with Junie Lowry." I had to read with the casting agent first, 'cause nobody really knew me then. Then after that, I had, I think, six different auditions for the role. And finally it was me [on Star Trek].
Having spent so much time in a fictional world, I prefer to read about the real world
I think honestly, believe it or not, that Dude, Where's My Car? in a way represents its time better than almost any film made around that.
Comedy really is my bread and butter, even when I'm doing a serious character, with the exception of Outcast. I have found very little humor in this character. Most of the time, what I do, somewhere there is comedy in it.
Initially I objected to the Data makeup. I said, "Why do I need this makeup? Why can't I just look like me?" In fact, I said to Gene Roddenberry, "Don't you think that by this time in history, they would've figured out how to make skin look like skin?" And he said, "What makes you think that what you have isn't better than skin?" And I went, "Um, okay."
I did a great show Off-Broadway called Leave It To Beaver Is Dead that was at the Public Theater in New York. It was written by Des McAnuff, who's an illustrious director now, and it starred... Well, I was in it, Mandy Patinkin, Dianne Wiest, Saul Rubinek, and Maury Chaykin. It was an amazing show. But it was definitely ahead of its time, and people didn't quite get it.
Both of the Quaid brothers, Randy and Dennis, were in my class, and Tommy Schlamme, who produced and directed The West Wing with Aaron Sorkin, among many others. Marianne Williamson, who did A Course In Miracles, she was in my high-school drama class, too. So it was kind of an amazing class.
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