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].

Earl Mills is probably the best role I've ever been given in a film. And it was a great experience to work with Halle [Berry] and Klaus Maria Brandauer, an Austrian actor who's a hero of mine. Martha Coolidge directed the movie [Introducing Dorothy Dandridge], giving me another shot, and it was an amazing experience.

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].

I'm an avid biography reader.

Although I could be wrong. If Roland Emmerich's thinking about doing that at some point, I'd be glad to don the long hair again. But sometimes you can just go a little bit further out with something you're only going to be doing for a short run

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.

Having spent so much time in a fictional world, I prefer to read about the real world