Saldana: Studios Unfair To Mothers
2 min read
After deciding to start a family, actress Zöe Saldana found out what many women learn, namely that businesses are often not family-friendly.
The trouble began once she became pregnant with her twins.
“Let me tell you something, it will never be the right time for anybody in your life that you get pregnant,” said Saldana. “The productions I was slated to work on sort of had a panic. I heard through the grapevine there was even a conversation of me being written off of one of the projects.”
Saldana couldn’t believe the attitude. “I was like, ‘Oh, my God, are you kidding me? It’s this bad?’ Right when I just feel super-duper happy, is that inconvenient for you? That me, as a woman in my thirties, I finally am in love and I am finally starting my life? And it’s (screwing) your schedule up? Really?”
What angered her even more was that studios “spend more money sometimes ‘perking’ up male superstars in a movie,” paying for private jets, assistants, bodyguards or booking “a really phat penthouse or them staying in a yacht instead of them staying on land.”
The same is not true for women, Saldana claimed. “But then a woman comes in going, ‘OK, I have a child. You’re taking me away from my home. You’re taking my children away from their home. And you’re going to make me work a lot more hours than I usually would if I was home. Therefore, I would have to pay for this nanny for more hours — so I kind of need that. And they go, ‘Nope, we don’t pay for nannies.'”
But Saldana loves her work in spite of trying to be a good actress and a good mother at the same time. “The battle will always be in trying to balance it out,” she said. “That’s the most exhausting thing, the balance of it all. But it helps when you’re doing it with your companion. If I know Marco is trying to balance it as well, then I feel like I’m not alone.”
About The Author
And a new generation hits the same wall all past generations have up up against; the absolute disparity in corporate gender equality. It’s not just Hollywood.
It does sound pretty unfair. The part about her being written off of a project because she’s pregnant though… I can understand that. If her character isn’t supposed to be pregnant on screen, she can’t expect them to write that into a movie role for her. Or it seems unreasonable for production to go on hold for months until she isn’t pregnant.
Not to worry, Bob Orci’s got things covered – returning to where he started his career with…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJIDexKHbrY
It is unfair but that is Hollywood. Certain actors always gets the perks and they spend more on them than others, not just the women. You are in a movie with Will Smith, he is going to get treated better than you no matter who you are. Men get treated poorly in general when it comes to pregnancy. Women get time off, guys usually have to fight for it. It is a messed up system. To be fair though, I guess it is hard to live off of $96 million dollars these days. Love how the ones who make the money are first to complain – kind of takes the sting out of what they are saying. http://en.mediamass.net/people/zoe-saldana/highest-paid.html
Yea, no kidding. When you’re one of the highest paid acresses I’m sure you can choose to drop out of a project if you feel you’re being treated poorly.
What an obnoxious couple. Good luck getting work in a few years after badmouthing studios.
Yeah, she thinks she’s untouchable right now.. This is why she is so brazenly badmouthing the industry.
Just wait, Pauly Shore thought the same thing in the late ’90s…
If I never see her again it will be too soon. Seriously never cared for her in any role but especially thought she in no way embodied the amazing Nichelle Nichols as Uhura.
It makes perfect sense for studios to freak out when a star gets pregnant and a production schedule is already set and prepaid. Everyone in the production has committed to a project at a certain time and the money has been spent, and then a star gets pregnant. That’s millions of dollars on the line, plus by postponing production, everyone else can’t find another gig in the mean time and don’t get paid anything. How are all the production hands supposed to support themselves and their families? Saldana is the one being selfish by thinking everyone should wait for her, not get paid, and the studio loses millions. If you get pregnant, then bow out gracefully and let another actress take the role so production can proceed as already scheduled and paid for. Get over your solipsism, it’s not all about you!
Keep your bigoted bullshit to yourself, this has nothing to do with her being Uhura. She’s right about this.
Losing a role (or anything else) due to pregnancy isn’t cool no matter what stage of salary or wealth you’re at. Can you people looks past your hate of the new movies to see the truth of what she’s saying, or are you all going to be so full of it?
Kiss my ass, moron. Saldana’s got a good point, and this is all that you can say?
No, I agree that it is unfair, I said that to begin with. However you are hired for a role and if you can’t do that, what do you want them to do? Are they going to put an entire production on hold for one person or are they going to replace them and continue. They do this all the time with male actors too – something changes, the actor is now not available and they replace them to it doesn’t cost them a fortune. That isn’t being unfair to women, that is business. But it is funny – she has made that much money yet is complaining about losing work and having to pay for a nanny. She isn’t the actress doing bit parts, trying to earn a living. She isn’t the female lead on a show who is making less than the male lead. There are a lot of actresses like that who don’t make the kind of money she makes. She has gotten paid very well for a so-so career. Hard to feel sympathy for her when she could quit acting now and never have to work again for the rest of her life and no one would notice. Nice to complain that the system is unfair when you are on the winning side of it.
I never said she didn’t but as for you…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UIPFwxPmFc
And this brings me to my next point, kids….
Don’t do crack.
Get a grip, psycho.
She isn’t complaining about having to pay the money. She is pointing out a double standard, that it is unfair that studios will give expensive perks to male stars and not give female stars the same consideration — especially pregnant female stars. For every Angelina Jolie that they’ll get a body double for in an advanced stage of pregnancy, there are a hundred other actresses in ANY stage of pregnancy that just get told, “Whoa! No preggers in this dojo! Don’t let the door hit you in the baby bump on the way out.”
Are you serious? Both trek and avatar where she is in got their filming schedule changed over and over. In trek they even fired the director and writer, ckearly it’s not such a big deal like you make it seems it is. They are also quite bad with math too! Because Zoe gave birth way before any of her projects were scheduled to begin! they didn’t need to panic. And anyway, studious modify their filming schedule all the time when actirs or directors need it but you aren’t telling them to step aside if they are not available.
Boooo No one cares about your opinion. Nichelle Nichols herself thought she was a perfect Uhura and Nimoy too was even jealous of Zachary Quinto. Also guess what? She’s a successful actress and she is in 3 big franchises
I don’t get it, she had her babies back in november and none of her projects was supposed to get filmed back then. Avatar and trek especially can’t complain because they are a mess anyway when it comes to respecting the original schedule. I mean, really? Avatar will probably be made when Zoe twins are five. Trek? When these babies were born they still had no script, no creative team and no director. I feel Zoe’s baby bump would be the least of their problems! They could always make Uhura pregnant too it made sense, she has a significant other in the movies why not? I’m sure Nimoy would have loved it if they made it so that this Spock has a son.
I get her point. She can afford a nanny but so can actors afford the luxuries they demand and get so I can’t see the big fuss here. A nanny is far less expensive than a private get or yatch like actors ask all the time. It’s sexism. Chris Pratt is less famous than her but he could demand and easily get 20 airplane tickets for his family so why can’t Zoe ask for a nanny to take care of her kids while she’s working?
She said the issue got resolved so I guess the guys behind these productions understood it was silly and that her request wasn’t unreasonable. I applaud her for the honesty because I think that all the actresses have similar issues but they pretend hollywood loves them unconditionally and aren’t treated differently compared to men.
Evidently, you’ve never worked on a film production, even a minor one. There are so many moving parts to monitor that every little hiccup can cost tons of money to assuage. If you get pregnant, then congratulations! But have the decency and empathy to bow out of an upcoming project if they’re unable to work around a visibly pregnant actress on-screen. It sounds more like Saldana is very difficult to work with, which means less productions will want to work with her in the future. I don’t think she’s a big enough draw that anyone would miss her from Avatar (she’s barely recognizable behind all the CGI) or Trek. Only in Guardians does she have any real impact, and with all the makeup, she could be replaced here too and the film would still do a big box office. Saldana should realize the Hollywood star system isn’t what it used to be and doesn’t drive ticket sales like in the past.
She’s still the actor from the new trek cast that has a bigger career right now and more visibility and popularity than most of them, but I bet you won’t complain when they’ll have to work their filming schedule around Chris Pine’s currently filming another movie.
Stop derailing the point. She wasn’t even pregnant when her movies were supposed to film probably their only issue was that she wouldn’t be as slim as she was before the pregnancy (of course, people like Pegg can get fat and look like a red haired old monkey and no one cares) You don’t like her but she makes a valid point.
You are the one who should also realize that she is on demand the way male actors are because SHE can otherwise her manager wouldn’t be able to make her get what she asked.
As for her being difficult to work with: says who? You? Directors and co-star of her keep saying she is one of the nicest people on set. Want to not what difficult means? Ask the staff behind the scenes about how huge divas the male actors are! It’s good that paramount said no to a Shatner cameo, that man’ego is huge and he’d make it all a hell for the director (anyone who worked with him says that)
You call her whiny because she asks for a nanny for her kids and yet, it’s ok for actors less known than her (the dudes in her franchises)to ask for assistants, private gets and yatchs? Shut up and stop being ridiculous.
The only reason you’re saying that is because you don’t like her as Uhura; I almost was with you until you said that.
Stop with the straw men, almost none of the points you make address anything I posted. If you get pregnant, then don’t expect the film world to stop and wait for you to come back. If a male actor gets injured in a skiing accident, then he shouldn’t expect the film world to stop and wait for him. I see to remember a Trek character saying, “the needs of the many outweigh the needs of one.” Saldana and other solipsists (male or female) should take note.
Just rereading the article, Saldana is all about “I” and “me,” with no empathy for all the other people working on these film projects. It’s sickening that someone could defend such stupendous selfishness.
Oh get over it. You trying way too hard now. It’s sickening that someone can twist a valid point about sexisn in hollywood to this extent just because they hate the actress. Ridiculous concern trolling and rethoric.
Another one with the straw man; I never said or intimated that I hate Saldana. I had a neutral opinion of her before this news item. What I hate are selfish people who have little or no empathy for others, and believe the world should revolve around them and their particular situation.
That picture with her twins watching her on tv is sweet, cute babies! Must take some good timing for them to get a picture of both of them looking too 😉
It’s very disappointing to see the negative response her interview got here in the comments section because her point is valid, she said nothing wrong and if you had a wife or girlfriend dealing with similar issues perhaps you’d understand that the double standard she is talking about is real. And you guys call yourself star trek fans? Roddenberry would feel ashamed on your behalf because, you know, I’m sure Uhura wouldn’t have to deal with such sexism and misogyny if she had a kid on the enterprise, not in Gene’s vision.
She can pay for a nanny, but I don’t see why studios would deny her something for her kids while her male co-stars can ask for much more expensive perks that aren’t an absolute necessity for them. Zoe will also be out promoting the movies which takes extra time beyond filming so paying for a nanny who will watch her kids is not an unreasonable, neither selfish, request. They make billions thank to the actors playing these roles too, how much does even cost a nanny? Since she got that included in her contract eventually, I think the studios got it as well.
As for writing her out, Marvel didn’t fire miss Johanson when she got pregnant and I hope Zoe isn’t a victim of both sexism and racism here so I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt and speculate that, maybe, some producer was worried about her health with 3 franchises and a twin pregnancy. Either way, while not protagonists (saved for Avatar) I don’t think any of her roles are replaceable. Trek would lose without her/uhura who is their female lead and one of the most iconic characters after Spock. Not to mention she is the only female character of a cast that has too many guys already. I also find her relationship with Spock is one of the most iconic and important plots in these movies and dropping that would be disappointing, not to mention redundant: can’t make Spock lose someone he cares about in every movie. Nimoy liked this plot twist, let this Spock be happy for a change.
The Spock/Uhura romance was one of the worst new twists in JJ Trek. It made zero sense for Spock to have a romance with a human when he was always shown as so devoted to Vulcan culture and tradition. This especially rings true for biracial children (Spock being half-Vulcan, half-Human) who often strive to be more “royal than the king” on one side’s ways. They gutted Spock’s character with this ridiculous twist.
As for Uhura being an iconic character… well they all are! They’ve been in pop culture lore for 50 years! I agree the cast is too male heavy, which is another reason why they shouldn’t have bothered with this rehash of the original series. How about a new cast of characters and new stories?
As for the nanny issue… she makes millions of dollars and can’t afford a nanny? C’mon, give me a break! Regular people struggle with child care issues every day and she has the nerve to complain about it when she makes so much money? Do male actors get ridiculous perks? I’m sure they do, which is also stupid. Just pay them their salary and they can do what they want with it. And if the actors/actresses demur, then hire someone else. The Hollywood star system is dead as the actors/actresses rarely drive ticket sales anymore. Just look at Jonny Depp’s recent string of failed movies, and he was considered one of the most bankable actors in Hollywood.
Saldana is being called out here by some of us because she is whining about a small rich-person issue as she makes millions. She can solve this “problem” with a simple wave of her checkbook. Most women would only wish to have her rich-person problems. Stop justifying selfishness and solipsism! Those were two things Gene was definitely against.
Ih man someone’s wrong on the internet! I dunno what’s your gripe with her here but half of the comments in this page are yours, can you let it go already with your hatred for miss Saldana? We get it, you don’t need to keep coming back here to reply to an article several days old.
As fir the fictional characters, well Spock’s own parents were a human/vulcan couple and honestly, I always found it a waste that his character was never further explored in his human/vulcan heritage. If you accept he can have friendship with Kirk abd Mccoy, then he can have his own subplot separated from that in form of a romantic relationship too otherwise it might be contraddictory for you to accept one and him having feelings for the guys, but deem him having feelings for a woman OOC (ironically, in these movies he’s, at times, more in character with his girlfriend than with Kirk anyway but that’s a topic for another day..) If you think he must be only vulcan, you don’t get the point of his character and if, after all these years and many installements in the trek franchise, you think vulcans have no feelings you don’t understand them.
Old trek fans won’t find spock/uhura against canon because they remember that there are hints in early episodes suggesting that there was some mutual attraction b/w them and, truthfully tptb themselves once admitted they were planning to make them an item but racism in the 60s made it not possible at the time. Which was confirmed by Nichols in this quote:
“I decided then from the character that I read [Spock] that I wanted to be very much like that character but in a feminine way. And Gene said, and I was sharing this with George [Takei] the other day, when I told him that I thought of Spock as my mentor. Because if you remember Uhura was the only one he was able to teach the Vulcan lyre to and she sang and spooffed on Spock. Now, you could have never had a love scene in 63 between Uhura and Spock but there were several hints and [back to Roddenberry] Gene was one in the kind of beginning to follow that and he wanted to do episodes if we had gone past the third year”
Leonard Nimoy himself had said, several times, that the relationship in the reboot was his favorite thing in the reinvented Spock
“(TrekMovie: Once you mentioned that he (Zachary Quinto) did something that blew you away. I am curious now that I have seen the film, what was it that you went ‘oh that is really interesting’?)
Leonard Nimoy: His relationship with Uhura, he played something that I was quite touched by. So did she for that matter. They both were terribly available for each other. ”
” Zachary’s choices in his performance often surprised me, in a very positive way. “I would never have thought to do that, and I think that’s a wonderful idea!” (..)And, these two [Zachary, Zoe] I think are wonderful together. It’s such a passionate and compassionate performance by Zoe that I was just so pleased to be a part of this movie, with all of you good people. “
I’m sure, though, that your humble opinion is far more important, valid and ‘right’ than that of the original actors who played these characters for decades under Roddenberry’s guidance. 😉
are you trolling?
do you realize the the mediamass site is satirical? ( http://en.mediamass.net/blog/mediamass-project ) and every article posted there is false? I can’t believe you can’t TELL the article is satire!!! The stuff they say is so blatantly over the top false. Zoe Saldana net worth 200 millions? LOL
Zoe’s net worth is $14 millions ( http://www.celebritynetworth.com/richest-celebrities/actors/zoe-saldana-net-worth/ ) which is a LOT less than the average actor in hollywood that has a smaller and less successful career than her and isn’t in 3 big franchises.
IF you want to educate people about the inner workings of ‘Hollywood’ perhaps you should try to backup your opinions using reliable sites with realistic informations. But then, if you did that you’d then discover that what you are saying here is uneducated bullshit because it’s a simple proved fact that hollywood’s sexism is real and actresses earn way less money than actors, regardless how big their IMDB’s page is and how popular they are.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/dorothypomerantz/2014/07/21/robert-downey-jr-once-again-tops-forbes-list-of-top-earning-actors/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/dorothypomerantz/2014/08/04/sandra-bullock-tops-forbes-list-of-highest-earning-actresses-with-51m/
yeah, poor men do have to recover from giving birth…
the struggle is real..
that’s some kind of delusional comment you’re making here overall… talk about being out of touch and tone deaf.
and the irony of you saying that Zoe complains too much all the while you’re whining about stuff you know nothing about and that doesn’t even touch you personally. You don’t even get her point (you only see $) , you’re just complaining that ‘rich people shouldn’t complain’. Correction: you’re complaining that rich WOMEN shouldn’t complain about the sexism they constantly face in their job.
hilarious they call her career ‘so-so’ in the same breath they believe her networth is 200 millions a year and she’s “The Highest-Paid Actress in the World” *SMDH*
For simply pointing out Saldana’s comments in the interview were self-evidently selfish and solipsistic, you think I must hate her. Really? I would stop commenting if posters like yourself would stop constructing straw man arguments and issuing ad hominem attacks on me as a hater, racist and sexist. The problem is your cognitive dissonance can’t let you see reality.
Nimoy can think whatever he wants about the Spock/Uhura romance, but for many fans (including on this site’s forum), it rang false and betrayed the character. Nimoy is also coming at the character from a long 40+ year arc of character development, whereas the prime-universe Spock of Starfleet Academy youth would not accept a human female for romance. The young Spock would never countenance this romance as it goes against his youthful embrace of everything Vulcan. The friendship he forms with Kirk and McCoy was over the course of many years. After all that, maybe he could form a romance with a human, but young Spock at Starfleet Academy? No way. Also you don’t seem to understand that a friendship is very different from a romance (i.e. it’s much deeper and personal). Your own quotes from the actors betray your position as they indicate a potential romance after the third season, while the timeline of the JJ movies is well before even the first season. It makes no sense.
And, by the way, your “thumbs up” sock puppets are just pathetic.
aren’t we a bit egocentric here? I just left a comment in the article, I didn’t even reply to one of yours. YOU are the one who is replying to my comment
First world problems!
Many fans, including on this site’s forum (where most of the threads about the romance had a positive response . Just google “spock uhura” site:www.trekbbs.com ), agree with him instead and don’t share your opinion. So what?
The characters from JJ Abrams movies are into another reality where they have made different experiences making them different (it’s the goal) and it’s not like you KNOW the entirely of tos Spock’s story and what he did when he was younger either, not enough to make the assumptions you make. Have you ever read Nimoy’s books? Suffice to say that Roddenberry never thought that Spock was a monk. Dc Fontana (one of the original writers) wrote a novel about Pike’s era Spock that you might find interesting, too.
There is really nothing in tos suggesting that it’s truly impossible for Spock to have a relationship.
Said the one who is getting upvotes by one nickname as soon as he makes a comment. It seems you really love to be the pot calling the kettle black. Talk about pathetic.
You know… that’s how these newfangled internet discussion boards work: you post a comment, I post a comment, you post a comment, I post a comment, etc. If you don’t want me to write more comments then stop writing weakly reasoned and unsupported assertions that I will call you on out on, or stop commenting back.
The actors portraying a character are not the final, or even most compelling, authority on the character. You do know there are these people called writers who actually write the lines for the actors? You do know there are showrunners who plan and plot out character story lines? You do know there is something called a show bible? You do know there are critics (literary or cinema) who critique character threads and development oftentimes at odds with what the actors thought? While logically it is impossible to say that a young Spock romance with Uhura is impossible; all the canon evidence points to it being highly unlikely. If anything, it’s more likely he’d end up with Nurse Chapel, and Uhura would be with Kirk. Or even a Kirk and Spock romance would feel more plausible than Spock and Uhura. JJ Trek presented this romance for no other reason that to shake things up and bump Uhura into a first-line character. Instead it made Trek into some kind of Melrose Place in space. Their romance is puerile with zero emotional undercurrent or believability. No thanks. It made Spock a much less interesting character and took away the characteristics that set him apart from the human crew. What a shame a Trek fan can’t see such a shortcoming in JJ Trek.
Obviously you’re pretty touchy about the sock puppets issue since you just tacitly copped to it. I’m not even a registered user on this site, and only lurk and comment as a guest, so no socks here.
She is one of the top ones now, and as I said, they just hate her because her Uhura has trumped Nichelle’s.
Trumped? No, she comes off as a one-dimensional whiny ***, constantly hen-pecking her Vulcan boyfriend.
Her character may claim to have a talented tongue but she’ll never top this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwxLPR6sU3A
Just butting in to say you are being really ridiculous and super hypocrytical. I don’t even know where to start with all the fail here and the fact you constantly accuse others of doing everything you are doing (including sockpuppeting to give yourself upvotes. Funny thing is no one would have noticed if you weren’t so immature and projected your insecurities) the nerve you have!
I also find it laughable you are essentially saying that the opinion of the original actors, Roddenberry and the writers (who were not against the romance for Spock) matters less than your own opinion: how condenscending and presumptuous.
The one written by you or Roddenberry? Because in the one by Roddenberry, Spock could give to ‘Kirk the ladies man’ a run for his money back at the academy and Uhura’s song about him was the original description of his character. No kidding. In the same bible it’s also written that Spock was the character Uhura was close to on the ship and they tried to set up something between them (first episodes) but, those were the 60s and racism wasn’t exactly a ‘fantasy’ especially back then so they gave up and we only have some subtext. Why not making it canon now that they can? God forbids a reboot is doing what it’s supposed to do, after all reboots are carbon copy of the old thing changes are nit allowed. No one is touching your precious tos dvds and changing history, if the thought of him romancing Uhura is so disgusting and unacceptable to you you can always rejoice watching the trek from the 60s where women, especially colored, ain’t no shit.
What’s even your point? I’m sorry (not) but this is stupid, you keep pretending your opinions are fact all the while disqualifying the facts that others bring up to counter argument what you are saying. You’d have more fun talking to yourself at this point.
Why does she have to sing to be as good as Nichelle Nichols on TOS? That’s bullshit coming from you, and you know it.
Well, I’m just butting in here to say you are completely absurd. The Spock and Uhura romance made no sense in the latest movies. Spock is supposed to be suppressing his emotions. That was the whole basis of his character’s character, and now he’s at his emotions’ whim? You are an idiot, and you don’t understand Spock’s character at all.
“You are an idiot, and you don’t understand Spock’s character at all.”
yeah, but the opinion of ‘idiots’ like me is still shared by the writers, and the actor who had played the character for many years (and who contributed creating him) and, it seems, its original creator as well.
‘idiots’ like you, instead, only have their own presumption, entitlement and biased opinion and they get, of course, super butthurt (your insult speaks for itself) everytime someone mentions that your interpretation isn’t a fact because maybe, according to the facts, YOU don’t understand Spock’s character (neither trek), at all.
So your insult doesn’t offend me, I can even have compassion and understand your bitterness and immaturity.
It’s funny because, actually, Zoe Saldana is a good singer (and a dancer). Irony is that Nichelle Nichols herself thinks the new Uhura is a more well rounded character than hers but some people really like to pretend tos was perfection and that they aren’t butthurt over the fact that we aren’t in the 60s anymore so, you know, Uhura doesn’t have to be an underdeveloped background character and sexism can’t make it so everything revolves around the male characters only.
They prefer Nichelle’s Uhura because they didn’t see her as a threat and resent Saldana’s Uhura because she ‘doesn’t stay in her place’ as it ‘should be’.
The emotional basket case Spock in the new movies is not the Spock we have known since the 1960s. It’s a destruction of the character, and any long-time Trek fan would agree. Same goes for the new Scotty, but you probably like that’s he’s now a clown. Actually, it’s hard to believe anyone could be this blind or stupid, so you must be a troll or insane.
You’ve nailed it, sir, and I agree, 1000%!
What the Uhura character did to manipulate her Vulcan boyfriend into serving aboard the Enterprise in nuTrek 1 was completely unprofessional. Even worse was her hushing her commanding officer in the middle of a critical away mission so that she could continue to nag her Vulcan boyfriend in nuTrek 2. McCoy as CMO aboard the Enterprise is in a unique position as he is not subject to the chain of command in the same way other officers are. He even has the ability to place the captain on report and has much more leeway when it comes to criticizing command officers. You can’t compare his position to hers. However, I will admit that in the real world there would be no place for anyone poking fun at Spock’s ancestry but this is something both the creative team and audience have accepted as an opportunity for comic relief.
people will go to any length to justify their obvious double standards and hypocrisy when they get called out on that. Your comment is an example of it: you are basically now saying that Mccoy is what? Above and more important than both the captain and his first officer because he’s the ship doctor? So he’s entlitled to be unprofessional? Give me a break. Mccoy is just insubordinate with Kirk because he is his friend and with Spock because he’s racist and personally dislikes him. No such rule of chain of command says he can do that because he’s the doc. It has ZERO to do with his role (if anything, being racist with non human people on a ship with aliens is even more unprofessional for a doctor who is supposed to be impartial) and everything to do with HIM letting his personal opinions and relationships influence him at work. Kirk also is VERY unprofessional and insubordinate (arguing with Spock in front of Pike in both movies?) so many times I lost the count. If you accept the dudes being not professional and them not respecting Spock’s culture and nagging him about it just because you think it’s funny it’s fine, but complaining about Uhura’s fewer examples of non pristine professional behavior with Spock is hypocritical and sexist. Expecting her to be more professional than a bunch of men (including her boyfriend) who basically aren’t 90% of the time is ridiculous.
And stop with the revisionism. She didn’t manipulate Spock. The scene makes a point she earned the enterprise and almost didn’t get there because of her relationship with Spock (unlike kirk who got on the best ship ONLY thank to his friendship with Mccoy and the latter abusing his position to sneak him aboard the ship for no other reason than ~it’s ma frand~ – let me guess, you don’t have a problem with that, right? Comic relief 😉 ) If anyone was not professional in that scene it was Spock because he changed her ship ONLY because they were dating and he was scared about appearances of favoritism. He knew she had earned her post on the enterprise and admitted that his choice had NOTHING to do with her skills as an officer and everything to do with his feels. He overcompensated and she had every right to call him out on that and he realized his mistake when she makes a logical argument. The fact you rewrite it as her being the problerm instead of calling out HIS unprofessional behavior doesn’t surprise me one bit. Boys be boys am rite? Yet, my interpretation is the one supported by the script, novelization and writers: Spock made a mistake not her.
As for arguing with Spock, that’s no worse than Kirk arguing with him all the time in front of the crew of his commanding officer but you ain’t complasining about that. Plus, Spock was a willing partecipant and it seems to me that Kirk even agreed with her. Perhaps she too has “leeway when it comes to criticizing command officers” for Kirk and Spock and neitheir them or Mccoy or Scotty (he isn’t professional either) have the ‘exclusive’. At least Uhura calls Kirk ‘captain’ and sir, didn’t hear her calling him ‘Jim’ on the bridge just because she is his friend too.
Tl dr: you can’t have the cake and eat it too. Your argument is hypocritical if you make up excuses for the male characters doing much worse. If something is unprofessional it is for your faves too.
But obviously, not ‘any’ or every long-time trek fan agrees with you. What you gonna do about that? Moot point is moot.
Here’s my good action of the day though: giving to an angry fanboy the orgasmic satisfaction of getting the last comment/word. I won’t reply to you again, Scout’s word of honor 😉
You apparently have not watched much besides nuTrek if you are unaware that McCoy is not part of the standard chain of command. I agree that the characters of Kirk and Spock as depicted in these movies are also far from professional which is why many have derisively described the new movies as “Angry Teens in Space”. The sad thing is these people are now far from teens and have no excuse for their behaviour. Star Trek used to inspire people to apply and better themselves and used to give people hope in a better tomorrow – something JJ Abrams & Co. apparently “never got about Star Trek”. I only hope future installments will be more in keeping with the best of Star Trek’s legacy.
Let you finish here but since when where the tos characters ever professional and ‘by the book’ all the time? Seriously. If that was a reality show about the nasa, Kirk probably wouldn’t be allowed to have both his friends on the bridge all the time.
You guys overrate tos which actually was a product of its time and very flawed itself. And so was Roddenberry, who was no saint.
Me being a longtime trek fan isn’t the reason why I call your excuse and ‘stretch’ to justify Mccoy’s lack of professionality in both treks bullshit. Simple logic is enough reason to see that your excuse for the double standard is poor. You make it seems it’s his role to be unprofessional and xenophobic but it’s not. That’s him being unprofessional for personal bias it has nothing to do with ‘standard chain of command’ .
And Spock can steal a shuttlecraft to help a scarred friend in a wheelchair get to a place where he can live life in a early version of a Holodeck with his equally disfigured girlfriend, as well as lose his self control after being hit by spores, but that’s not bad, though.
Please spare me with your bullshit; you just want Uhura to be as servile as she was on the TV show (and in thew two current fan productions) but they makers of the movies won’t let that happen, so you’re pissed. Tough shit for you, learn and deal, or don’t see them anymore.