Jeffrey Combs Blog

JC: You know. Hey! In a Gelson's I saw DeForest Kelly, I did the same thing. I went, "There's fucking DeForest Kelley! One of my favorites! Man there he is!" But I'm not going to walk up to him, and uh. I think at that point I had done maybe one or two Deep Space Nines. What am I gonna, "Hi, uh, err, M-Mr. Kelley. You know I'm on Star Trek, too!"

[laughter]

JC: It just seemed so, like, no.

MODERATOR 3: I have sort of an esoteric question.

JC: Okay.

M3: This is going back to, you know. When you watch the original shows, are there any characters that you would have wanted to play? Whether regular characters or, you know, guest stars.

JC: That's really a good question. Like, who do I relate to?

M3: Yeah.

JC: In those shows?

M3: Who do you think you, who do you think you could have--

JC: Who would I have been cast in? Well, I shudder at that idea because I don't know if I would have been cast with any of them. But maybe Bones.

M1: Yeah

JC: Maybe. And I have to tell you, I sort of had an opportunity to sort of exude that kind of demeanor when years later I was a series regular on Transformers Prime. Because I played Ratchet, and Ratchet was the medic, and he was irascible but lovable.

M3: Yeah

JC: And that, and I think that's how I got the job. Because I didn't really know anything about Transformers when I auditioned for it. Okay, I didn't. But I made a choice, it was very, very DeForest Kelley. And it's kind of irritated but lovable, and you know he cared, but he had an edge. So in a way--

M3: He's gonna save your life but he's not going to be happy about it

MODERATOR 2: America's space dad

JC: And he can be annoyed with your bothering him, but he's also, you know, kind of happy that you're paying attention to him. You know this kind of duality that great characters have.