December 2002

TV Zone 

It's hard [not] to notice that Lt. Reed is the only British character in a strongly American series. Steven Eramo met with actor Dominic Keating to talk about Enterprise's old new frontier.  

THE CREW OF THE Enterprise NX-01 had no idea what awaited them when they warped off into the cosmos on their first mission to the Klingon home world. As tactical/armory officer, Lt. Malcolm Reed was responsible for maintaining the ship's defenses.  He spent his first few months in space fine-tuning the targeting scanners for the photon torpedoes and getting the phase cannons to work. Not one to pass up an adventure, the lieutenant has also had his fair share of close encounters with some friendly and not-so-friendly aliens. So the past twelve months or so have been anything but dull for him.  
 
Like his TV alter ego, Dominic Keating did not know quite what to expect when he signed on to play the very British Reed on the latest Star Trek spin-off Enterprise.  According to the actor, his first year in the Trek universe had plenty of ups and very few downs. "I couldn't be more pleased," enthuses Keating. "I'll admit, though, that initially I was a bit concerned that the Initial thrust of the show seemed to be the triumvirate of Captain Archer [Scott Bakula], T'Pol [Jolene Blalock] and Trip [Connor Trinneer]. At one point I was going to phone [Enterprise co-creator and executive producer] Brannon Braga and ask him, 'Hey, what's up?' I didn't want to become the guy that only said, 'Hull plating is down 25%, Captain,' in the best British accent that I could muster.

"In retrospect I'm so glad I didn't make that call and act a bit like a headless chicken if you will because suddenly things began to change. Around the corner came stories such as Shuttlepod One and Sleeping Dogs. It became clear to me that Malcolm was going to have a distinct role to play in the telling of this ensemble story. I also didn't expect my character to become the 'action man' of the piece. As a child I was always good at playing cowboys and Indians in the backyard. I loved to run around and hunker down behind a wall and pretend to be fired upon," laughs the actor.  "Now all these years later I'm getting to do it all over again but in outer space. I'm over the moon - no pun intended - about that.

"I was at a Trek convention in Las Vegas recently and Brannon was also there. We spent an evening sitting and chatting quite casually for the first time. He and I discussed the fact that in some ways Malcolm Reed is one of the most enigmatic and versatile characters on the show. He's the least prone too two-dimensionally and the viewers seem able to accept any sort of contradiction in his character flaws. As a result, the writers can go any way with Malcolm and I like that. At one turn he's charming and coy and the next he's bad tempered and irritable. Then there are times that he's all by the book and no-nonsense and yet he can also be a jokester with a very dry sense of humour. I think Malcolm has great prospects in the years to come."

Like many actors, Keating is his own worst critic when it concerns his craft. That said, is there anything he would have done differently when it came to playing Malcolm Reed in Enterprise's first year?  "Well, there was that one look I gave Hoshi [Linda Park] in the pilot. I thought I was being charming and sexy and I just looked camp and ridiculous. I'll never do that lip movement again," he jokes. "I've never done 26 episodes of something back-to-back and then seen it weekly. I mean, I do watch the episodes and I watch them with a fine-tooth comb. I weed out what does and doesn't work. There are some things you do that seem fine at the time but, in fact, actually end up telegraphing something else. You don't want to get too highfalutin insofar as, 'What's my motivation? Where's my obstruction? Where am I going with
this?' If something doesn't feel right you have to be aware of it and tell yourself, 'That doesn't work, kid?' 

"This is also my first time playing a part where I've begun to allow who Dominic is into Malcolm," continues the actor. "I've never trusted myself to do that before.  When you read a three-line character breakdown at the beginning of your audition process you kind of get locked into that description. With Malcolm it was, 'Shy around women, button-down, by the book, typical Brit.'. Descriptions such as these very much denote how you're going to play your character, but only if you let them. For the first time I've been able to flesh Malcolm out and play him at odds with himself. For example, if I as Dominic thought a moment in a scene had a tinge of humour to it and felt it was appropriate to laugh at then I'd let Malcolm laugh. This is where that murky land of who's Malcolm Reed and who's Dominic Keating becomes the finished product.
 
"I know there have been times when Rick Berman [co-creator and executive producer] has said to me, 'That's too much, Dominic'. There was a nightclub scene in the Risa episode [Two Days and Two Nights] where I was too loose. We ended up doing another take and I had to tone things down slightly. Because Malcolm was on holiday I thought, 'He can let his hair down a bit'.  Unfortunately, I stretched things a little too thin and you could see his cellulite," chuckles Keating. "You have to be careful not to do that."
 
MOST REGULAR Enterprise
viewers will agree that the actor's first season tour de force is the aforementioned episode Shuttlepod One. In it, Malcolm and Commander (Trip) Tucker are returning to the Enterprise after a mission when their shuttlepod is damaged.  They manage to reach their rendezvous point where they discover that the Enterprise has apparently been destroyed in a collision with an asteroid. The two officers suddenly find themselves marooned in space with only a few days of air left.  

"Oddly enough, the filming of Shuttlepod One wound up crossing with Sleeping Dogs because Les Landau, who directed Dogs, was taken ill," recalls Keating. "As a result, director David Livingston was called in right away to start shooting Shuttlepod One. We did four or five days on that episode and then Les was well enough to come back to work. So we filmed the last day of Dogs right in the middle of Shuttlepod One, which was a little weird. We actually shot the scenes for Shuttlepod One pretty much in order, which is very unusual, and we were well into a rhythm. It was somewhat of a rude awakening for me to suddenly be pulled out for a day, dressed in another costume, and put back on the Klingon battle cruiser with Jolene and Linda to finish up Dogs.

"I remember filming the last scene of Shuttlepod One in sickbay and not wanting it to end. I was sad. It was a good energy to have, though, as it lent itself nicely to the scene. It had been a wonderful week and my best experience to date in front of a camera. I think it's a terrific piece of hour-long TV I really love working with Connor.  He's a very generous and talented actor and we have a good rapport on and off-screen.  Rick Berman was so excited when he saw the rough cut of the episode that he came down to the set to pat Connor and me on our backs. He told us, 'Of all the shows I've ever produced this is the one I'm most proud of. That's weighty praise, indeed."   

At the time of this interview (early September) Keating and the rest of the Enterprise cast and crew were well into filming the show's second season. One of the first stories to be shot was called Minefield. It features Malcolm Reed, who finds himself pinned under a deep-space mine on the hull of the Enterprise.  

"Finally Malcolm and the captain are seen in close proximity with one another," says the actor. "If there was one disappointment I had about the first season it's that I didn't get to do an awful lot with Scott. I certainly never got to sit at Captain Archer's mess table, and God that bothered me. Even Anthony Montgomery's character of Mayweather sat there. Come on, he's just an ensign, Malcolm's a lieutenant. We take these things very seriously," he jokes.  

"Scott and I spent 16 hours a day for five days in EV [environmental] suits for the filming of Minefield, which is no mean feat I'll tell you. Poor Scott threw his back out and we both lost 10 pounds. It was one hell of a week. However, it was terrific working with Scott. It's quite a gargantuan episode. Not wishing to sort of taint it in any way but in some respects it was Shuttlepod One revisited only with Malcolm and Archer.  One big difference was it had a ticking clock. I can honestly say that week’s 'guest star' was the biggest prop I’ve ever worked with," laughs Keating.

IN AN IDEAL world, the actor would love to be doing episodes such as Minefield and Shuttlepod One every other week. However, he realizes this is not possible given the inherent structure of series TV and, in particular, Enterprise. "Early on I thought that Enterprise was going to be ER only in space," he says. "The ship would be the emergency room and you'd have these seven doctors who were spacemen all having interesting story lines with each other. And there would be new patients - the aliens - coming in each week. That's difficult to do, though. I also know that Trek has an established format and they're not about to throw that out the window.  

"I've heard through the grapevine that ideas for new episodes have been mooted and debated at production level meetings.  And the word will come back that, 'Yes, great idea. Too bad it's Shuttlepod One.  We've been there, done that.' You can't do it again for whatever reason within the confines of this series. I suppose in more reality-based shows like a medical or police dramas that Human relationships do kind of go round and round in circles and some scenes do seem like one another. However, I guess it just doesn't ring true with Sci-Fi.  That said, I think the people in charge of Enterprise have done a fine job of presenting a Sci-Fi adventure epic and introducing a cast of characters that the viewers can get to know and, hopefully, come to care about."

Like most actors associated with a Star Trek series, Keating has made a point of going to conventions and meeting the fans.  "I'm actually the convention king on our programme," he laughs. "I've been to 12 or 13 already. Just recently, though, I've taken a bit of a  backseat from them. I thought, 'OK, that's enough for now'. It takes a lot out of you I've got to say. You're up at 5 in the morning, get on a 6 o'clock flight, fly for four or five hours, do your hour on stage, sign autographs, pose for pictures, and then you're back on a plane to Los Angeles. By the time you get home you're like, 'I'm knackered'. However, it's tremendous fun meeting and talking with the fans. I remember the first con I did was quite nerve-racking but I've since gotten into a stride, and quite frankly you can't shut me up now. The biggest one I've done so far was in Germany where six thousand people turned up. I walked out on that stage and it was like being in a boy band. I felt like a member of N'Sync for the day. It was extraordinary."

IT WAS TWO YEARS ago when TV Zone first met up with Keating.  He was in the middle of filming his first episode of The Immortal in which he portrayed the wickedly handsome and decidedly evil demon Mallos, the Lord of Darkness. In many ways this was the start of the Leicester lad's new career in America.

"I'd just done a film with Burt Reynolds, Rod Steiger and Tom Berenger called The Hollywood Sign," says the actor. "Sadly, it never was released here.  Apparently, it was a big hit in Holland because the director [Sonke Wortmann] was a Dutch fellow. Right after that I was cast in The Immortal and went up to Vancouver to shoot the first few episodes with Lorzeno Lamas [Raphael 'Rafe' Cain] and the beautiful Kira Clavell [Vashista].  

"It was around this time I began to realize that suddenly I was working more regularly than ever before since coming to the States. While I was going back and forth from Los Angeles to Vancouver to do The Immortal I got a call from Zalman King. He cast me in his new erotic/comedic romp ChromiumBlue.com in which I play a bisexual ghost, can you believe it? Hey, I'm versatile if nothing else. I went from the Lord of Darkness to the Queen of Camp and now the King of the Armoury Room on Enterprise.  I don't think even Robert De Niro can boast that litany," laughs Keating.

"Never in a million years, though, did I think I'd end up on a seven-year Sci-Fi series like Enterprise, but now that I have it's fantastic, I'm definitely of an age where I'm old enough to appreciate it and young enough to still enjoy it, you know? I'm so grateful to whatever higher power saw fit to bestow this upon me because I realize how fleeting such things can be. If they didn't like one little thing I did in the network audition I might not have gotten this job. Sometimes it makes me shiver when I think how fortunate I truly am." 

© Visual Imagination Limited 2002

December 2002

Southwest Airlines Spirit Magazine

Brit. actor Dominic Keating tells what it's like zooming at warp speed from failed cocktail waiter to playing weapons lieutenant Malcolm Reed on Enterprise, the latest incarnation of Star Trek.

Just two years ago, a frustrated Dominic Keating, who had emigrated from England in the early 1990s with the single-minded goal of making it big as an actor, was on the verge of "throwing in the towel" -- like untold thousands before him.

After too many near-misses, his decision to split was spurred by his failure to land a guest-starring spot on Star Trek: Voyager after he thought he'd aced the audition. Austin, Texas, and a change of career beckoned. Then came a call from Star Trek's executive producer Rick Berman, who wanted to see Keating again. He'd been saving the actor for a role in the franchise's 5th series in 35 years, Enterprise.

Keating, who was living in a $400-a-month apartment at the time, recalls the moment his life changed: Berman asked him, "Are you free for the next 7 years?" In an instant, the now-thirtysomething Keating went from earnest wannabe to TV star with a long-term contract in hand.

Enterprise, which is seen in more than a dozen countries worldwide, made its U.S. debut in September 2001 with boffo ratings for UPN and critics suggesting that it had re-energized the aging franchise. As Weapons Lieutenant Malcolm Reed, Keating is one of a seven-person ensemble cast (led by Scott Bakula as Capt. Jonathan Archer). And though Keating isn't involved, the new film "Nemesis" opens in theaters this month to further stoke interest in the current show.

Keating has participated in a dozen sci-fi conventions around this country and in Europe. In Germany, 7,000 screaming fans made him feel like he was "headlining in a boy band." A multicity Australian tour beckons in 2003.

His tale is an Everyman story, about a hard-working, average guy whose cards came up trumps. Keating tells "Spirit" how he beat the odds.

Spirit: Your face is now seen by millions of people around the world, but what has your first professional job?

Keating: I made my professional performing debut in a "two-man" drag act at the Cabaret Club in Bournemouth, England. When this good Catholic boy finally plucked up the courage to tell his mum what he was doing to get his union card -- dancing nightly in a pair of black Lycra shorts with the bum cut out in red piping -- she sent me a good luck card, saving "Let's hope your bottom gets you to the top!"

Spirit: What did you really thank would happen when you got to Hollywood?

Keating: I thought I'd be famous in a year <laughs>. I used to sit near the Hollywood sign, looking out across LA, and I had conversations with this town about what I was going to do here. But a year before landing Star Trek, I was watching daytime TV, scratching by backside, and waiting for that call. I also quit because I thought I'd missed the boat.

Spirit: What was your first job in Hollywood?

Keating: A sexy cable series called "Love Street." I gatecrashed the audition. I played a pop star who was down on his luck, but through the love of a good woman with ample assets, his creative juices, so to speak, are rekindled. When I first read the script, it was -- very smart car, great costumes, fabulous house, pop-star makes love by a fireplace, makes more love in the swimming pool. And it was very Al Pacino, if I say so myself. But I'm afraid with time out for commercials, it came down to just 20 minutes and a soft-focus lens. It's probably the worst job I've done since I've been here.

Spirit: What did you find was the key to hanging in there?

Keating: Well if I had to do it again, I'd have taken therapy earlier <laughs>. The way I see it, you can have enormous talent and even a lot of luck, but I reckon hard work and tenacity win the day. I've supported my craft by doing everything -- thieving, begging, the usual stuff. I've been a fence builder, courier, cocktail waiter. At one point, I think I'd been fired from just about every bar on the Kings Road in Chelsea. I couldn't hold down those jobs. When I think of it, I've been fired from every job that wasn't an acting job.

Spirit: What advice would you give to aspiring actors?

Keating: I would never tell a child of mine to be an actor. It's just too hard, man, I'd never advise anybody to act or do anything, quite frankly, that's creative for a living. But if they can't stop themselves, then it was right for them to do it. When I decided to be an actor, I was so unemployable in any other field that I really had nowhere else to turn. For me, it's my outlet. If it wasn't for acting, I'd probably be dead.

My one gripe about the business is that very often it doesn't matter how good an actor you are. I've had to take that on the chin -- not to say that I'm the best actor, but I'm not a bad one. But it doesn't matter. So much of it is determined by how you look, physically <laughs>. I just wish I'd been better looking.

Spirit: What have you learned about dealing with Hollywood?

Keating: Rejection is the name of the game, and it's never easy. You gotta knock on a lot of doors. Contacts are invaluable. Agents -- can't live with 'em, can't work without 'em. Getting a good one is like pulling teeth, mate. It really is a catch-22. Yet, this town is built upon perception. You really need people to talk you up. I want to nail every audition I go to, don't get me wrong. But maybe I'm a little more pragmatic now about why I don't.

Spirit: What else would we not necessarily know about acting?

Keating: *Hurry up and wait* is the operative phrase in Hollywood. When they want you on set to do a scene, they want it now. But you've waited 3-1/2 hours and now you're caught in the loo with your trousers down, and suddenly now you gotta be ready for your close-up.

Spirit: But you're not complaining?

Keating: The actual acting is a lot easier than you think. I've learned that camera acting is a lot different than stage acting. Twenty-six episodes [in the 1st season alone] back-to-back, have allowed me to have more of a friendship with this black box [camera] that follows you around. Before, I was very anxious and very self-conscious because it brought out all sorts of self-esteem issues. But now I'm learning to work that camera, like the way I had an instinct how to do it in a live venue.

Spirit: Tell us about Trekkies, conventions, and why aren't there seat restraints on Star Trek bridges?

Keating: Why? It's a TV show. That's what I tell a lot of the fans. *It's a TV show.*
Actually, the serious ones call themselves Trekkers. Anyway, I love 'em, mate. God bless 'em. Without them, none of this is possible. My first convention was pretty surreal. But they give me a chance to give back, if you will, for all that they're giving me.

The lucky thing for an actor getting a gig on the latest version of Star Trek is that you are guaranteed this fan base that wants to like it. So if you don't mess it up too badly, the fans are going to want you. I'm a bit of an Irish-Catholic and there's that part of me that wants to work for the money, so I do the conventions, sign the photos, and extend my hand, because they want to meet us. So why not give 'em what they want?

Spirit: Do you actually like science fiction?

Keating: As a kid, happiness was sitting in front of the TV with Scooby Doo and Star Trek. It was quite erotic, actually. Captain Kirk and chiffon ladies every week. That and the cover of "Cosmopolitan" were my early forays into [sex]. I loved Kirk because of the sexy chiffon and that two-fold scream of his [demonstrates]. Hands to the ears, pause then head thrown back.

Spirit: What's the secret to Star Trek's longevity?

Keating: It's got humor, drama, interesting characters, cool locations, and a little bit of the cat suit -- the sexy stuff. I read in the "Hollywood Reporter" that Star Trek was the most searched for TV classic on the Internet last year. Five different franchise series in 35 years -- it's a worldwide phenomenon, a monster.

Spirit:What are your general thoughts about television?

Keating: Cor, blimey! The opium of the masses. All my life I've sat in front of a television, and I'm trying not to have the TV on carte blanche now.

Spirit: What's the best and worst about working on a hit TV show?

Keating: The best? We've got a seven-year contract. I get to work every day. The money gives you freedom. I stepped up to a home in the Hollywood Hills with a pool and a killer view. Actually, just driving through those legendary Paramount gates, having the security guy nod at you, is special. There is no "worst" thing. Yeah, you might be there 16 hours a day, but you get a lovely trailer, and the food and phone calls are free. There's nothing to complain about.

Spirit: What'd you do with your first pay check?

Keating: The check I got for doing the pilot was the largest I've ever received for acting [nearly $36,000], so I photographed it with a digital camera and it's in my computer for all time. I didn't spend it; I hoarded it.

Spirit: What's your favorite line from the show so far?

Keating: It was spoken in the pilot, when my character introduced phaser pistols with two settings -- stun and kill. And I say, deadpan: "It would be best not to confuse them."

End
by Ashley Jude Collie