Nichols Wants Characters To Be 'Heroes' To Actresses

Nichelle Nichols (Uhura) and onscreen granddaughter Dana Davis held a joint press conference at NBC Universal, where the two discussed their characters on Heroes, the upcoming Star Trek movie and their personal affection for one another.

"I always say I’m jealous of Monica because if I could pick a grandma, it would be Nichelle," Davis said during the lengthy chat transcribed at ENI. "When I found out that Nichelle was joining the cast...I was so excited and I called my manager!"

Nichols, who said she feels she has adopted Davis the way Nana has taken in Monica and Micah, explained that she did not know how many episodes her recurring role on Heroes would involve but said she hoped it would continue. She described their fellow Heroes actor Zachary Quinto as "very, very excited" to have been cast in the upcoming Star Trek movie: "He himself is a Trekkie so you can imagine how excited he is to be chosen to play a young Spock."

Nichols said that she gave Quinto her best wishes when she met him. "I saw him in one of the episodes I said, 'Oh my God, look what an actor," she recalled. "Then when I met him in person I said, 'This is a young Spock.' They did a brilliant job in casting him."

Asked whether she thought William Shatner (Kirk), who is not on the cast list for the new Star Trek film, or Leonard Nimoy (Spock), who is, might be interested in appearing on Heroes like Nichols and George Takei (Sulu), the actress said, "I have no idea. And oddly enough...I was not aware that George had joined the cast, you know, for the time that he did until just before I signed on."

Though Davis admitted that Monica's powers are growing, Nichols said she couldn't talk about whether Nana has a power or whether she is part of the older generation of heroes that includes Takei's character Kaito Nakamura, Claire Bennett's father Noah and Peter and Nathan Petrelli's mother Angela. Asked what power she would like to have, Nichols said, "I'm going to keep that under my belt...I don’t want to jinx it." At the time she auditioned, she added, she expected the role to be in a single episode and was delighted to learn that it would be recurring.

As for her successor as Uhura, Zoe Saldana, Nichols said that she was looking forward to meeting her and "to know that Gene [Roddenberry]'s legacy shall not only live in what was there when he was here. But that it's going on in that same image...I know that he’s up in heaven going 'Right on,' you know."

The full transcript is at ENI.

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