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October 18, 2002

The main site has posted a recent interview with John Billingsley (Dr. Phlox). Here's some snippets from that interview:

"I moved here in October of '95 and started getting work in '96, but really began to get busy in '97," Billingsley remembers. "I think of '97 as the beginning of my film/TV career. I had done stuff in the past, in Seattle, where I had a theater company. You could do the occasional small part in a movie or TV show that would come to town."

[...]

Time isn't wasted for Billingsley when Enterprise is on hiatus. This past break, he managed to sneak in a film role. "I was doing a movie called 'Out of Time' with Denzel Washington, that Carl Franklin was directing in Miami. The show was nice enough to accommodate a tricky shooting schedule. I was back and forth between Miami and Enterprise over the course of about six weeks from early July to the beginning of September. It's one of those summer popcorn movies … Denzel Washington is a small-town cop who's framed for a murder he didn't commit and I play his best friend who's sort of a scrofulous, alcoholic coroner — kind of a wisecracking foil. It was a lot of fun. Not the greatest script in the world, but a wonderful experience."

[...]

Billingsley has worked on other movies in and around Enterprise. A role in the movie 'High Crimes' just preceded the show. But, as he explains, it ain't easy doing both. "It's tricky with a TV show schedule to work much else in. It's a little easier for me as the one character guy on the show. I have a slightly less demanding load. Still, from week to week you can't anticipate what your schedule's going to be. ['Out of Time'] was the only movie I've done [since Enterprise]. I've done a few other TV spots. They were awfully nice to accommodate [for 'Out of Time'] with a three week negotiation between MGM and Enterprise to work out the shooting schedule. I really was scheduled for every single day for about six weeks without any possibility of changes taking place. That's an awfully hard thing to pull off in this business. Usually, something's going to happen that's going to screw thing up. To have both parties sign off on it is pretty amazing. I was very appreciative."

[...]

And although Billingsley says that there are no new revelations about Phlox in the upcoming episode "Singularity," he does promise that the episode is an entertaining take on the question "What if what if everyone's worst tendencies are amped up to the max?" Phlox's tendencies are particularly gruesome. "My tendency is to rather cheerfully and blithely go on with whatever medical experimentation that might interest me. This is where I'm prepared to open up Mayweather's skull, because he has a headache and I'm curious to find out where it might be stemming from. He's extremely cheerful in his willingness to commit a lobotomy on one of the crew."

For Billingsley, the main follow-up to "Singularity" is an episode called "Vanishing Point." "Hoshi has to be transported from the surface of a planet where storms are raging and she's afraid her molecules are breaking up. It does seem as if her crew members are suddenly not able to see her and she can't get through doors," he says.

[...]

To read more, click on the link below:

http://www.startrek.com/launch/firstthoughts/billingsley.asp