Spock (alternate reality)/Appendices/Background information

Spock was mostly played by Zachary Quinto. As a child, he was played by Jacob Kogan. In a deleted scene, an infant Spock was played by Jenna Vaughn.
In the script of , Spock was referred to as a "very courageous Vulcan." 
Sean Gerace, a researcher on the film Star Trek who also appeared in the movie, turned the producers' attention to Jacob Kogan. (audio commentary for Star Trek, Star Trek (Special Edition/Three disc Blu-ray))
Placing faith in Bad Robot Productions, Zachary Quinto publicly pursued the role, aware there was a risk he wouldn't be cast in the part. () "Zach has always known somewhere in his heart that he was going to play this role," remarked casting director April Webster. () She further said, "This is something that he's always wanted to play. I guess when you have intention that strong, it sort of became inevitable in this case." Even before casting for the film began, rumors were rife that Quinto would be selected to play Spock. (SciFiNow, issue 27, p. 033)
April Webster and fellow casting director Alyssa Weisberg saw a couple of male actors for the part but Zachary Quinto was one of the first who they recorded auditioning. He was auditioned shortly after Webster began working on the film herself, his performances observed by not only her but also by a casting director friend of hers named Mark Scott. () Quinto's auditions were taped for producer and director J.J. Abrams, with the realization that the actor's schedule on Heroes would have to be worked around. (SciFiNow, issue 27, p. 033) "We didn't put that many [actors] on [tape] because truly, once Zachary Quinto did it, we knew he was Spock," Webster recalled. His physical appearance was a huge part of what made Quinto an appealing option for the casting department, who found him to have a striking resemblance to how original Spock actor Leonard Nimoy looked in his own youth. ()
While J.J. Abrams was considering Zachary Quinto for the role, Leonard Nimoy himself had some limited involvement in the casting. He later explained, "J.J. [...] sent me some footage of Zachary's previous work. I immediately saw the value. He looked to me to be believable, but probably more importantly, he showed great intelligence as an actor, and a great internal life, which I think is terribly important for the Spock character. I called J.J. immediately and said 'I think you've found a wonderful choice." (Star Trek Magazine Souvenir Special, pp. 67-68)
Despite his degree of physical similarity to Leonard Nimoy, auditioning Zachary Quinto for the role nevertheless involved multiple iterations of his performance. "We had poor Zach do it 12 different ways – we didn't know what we were looking for, really. We didn't know if they wanted the controlled Spock, or the Spock where we see his Human side," stated Webster. "We played with it a million ways and just showed J.J. everything." () Thus, attempting to adopt the character of Spock at first proved somewhat challenging for Quinto. "That's a very tough part [for] anyone to play," Webster mused. "Even if you look like them, it's a hard part for someone to play. How do you play someone caught between these two personalities? Or caught between these two realities of having been shamed his whole life for being half human, and having that aspect of himself in control all of the time? I think that Zachary really found a fine line there for us. In the end, his casting was a no-brainer." Indeed, Quinto was, according to Webster, cast "almost right away." He subsequently opined that one element which helped him attain the role was that he personally related to the duality inherent in the character. "I think that there are many experiences that I've had," remarked the actor, "that informed this iteration of the character and where he is in this journey." (SciFiNow, issue 27, pp. 032 & 033)
Zachary Quinto signed up to play Spock before having read the script for Star Trek. Once he read the screenplay, he was satisfied that he had made the right choice, later stating, "The complexity of the story, the deeply rooted internal conflict, the vulnerability that Spock comes up against in this film was really compelling to me as an actor [....] One thing really leads to another in a great way for my character." ()
The reserved emotionality of the character continued to be vital to Zachary Quinto, throughout the making of the movie, and was also important to Jacob Kogan. The latter actor mused about the role, "Pretty much, if you're playing a part that is trying to keep their emotions in, then thats the emotion you're trying to convey [.....] I feel like it's not exactly showing your emotions but showing your motives and if Spock's motive is to hide his emotions, then that's what he's showing." Quinto similarly commented, "For me as the actor playing the character, there was so much that had to be contained throughout Spock's journey." ()
Because Leonard Nimoy has earlobes whereas Zachary Quinto doesn't, lobes were intentionally sculpted into Quinto's prosthetic ears for his appearance as Spock, in order to match Nimoy's ears. () Quinto's ear prosthetics encompassed most of both his ears. A prototype clay sculpture of Quinto with Vulcan ears, though without hair, was also created by Proteus FX make-up effects supervisor Barney Burman, who was credited with designing and creating the film's aliens. (Cinefex, No. 118, pp. 47 & 52) Make-up artist David Snyder applied Spock make-ups with Joel Harlow's make-up crew on the film Star Trek. (Cinefex, No. 134, p. 77) Quinto's first make-up screen test as Spock was in and included his own hair but a pair of prosthetic ears. (/Three disc Blu-ray documentary featurette "To Boldly Go")
To further enhance Zachary Quinto's appearance as Spock, Makeup Department Head Mindy Hall shaved Quinto's eyebrows and replaced them with hair that she used to create more sharply angled eyebrows, after which Hair Department Head Terrell Baliel added a custom wig. (Cinefex, No. 118, p. 47) Upon preparing for the filming of , Quinto described the requirement of having his eyebrows shaved for the role as "definitely the most tedious part of playing Spock." He went on to say, "The first time, it took three weeks for them to come back in a way that I didn't have to wear my glasses every day to hide them. It was probably two months before they were really thick and bushy again." On the other hand, Quinto did value the make-up and hair required for the part, generally. "The hair and make-up process is incredibly important for a character like Spock, who is so inextricably identified by his aesthetic," said Quinto. "It informs a tremendous amount of his cultural identity. The process took about two hours, and around halfway through that time I felt a shift within myself – a kind of emergence that would bring the character to life for the remainder of the day." (Star Trek - The Art of the Film, p. 63)
When he first played Spock, Zachary Quinto was attempting to learn lots about the physicality of the character. (Star Trek Magazine Movie Special 2016, p. 35) His and Kogan's performances as Spock were not influenced by each other, with neither of them seeing the other's acting until after the film Star Trek was produced. Quinto instead took inspiration from Leonard Nimoy's past portrayal of the character. They "spent a great deal of time getting to know each other and talking before I started shooting," Quinto explained, "and in all that time, I was also doing my own stuff. Leonard and I watched two Spock-centric episodes together – was one of them – and we talked about the character and the experience of shooting them. Most of my work was done on my own – a lot of research and reading – or with Leonard before we started shooting. While we were shooting the movie, I would watch old episodes of the show in my trailer when I was hanging out in there, just to keep me rooted in the specificity and uniqueness of the world [....] When I saw [the film], it made so much sense that my version of Spock would evolve into [Nimoy's]." () Nimoy himself offered, "When Zachary and I met for the first time, he had already done a lot of research on his own. He had a good sense of what it was all about. We did spend quite a bit of time together, but it was more getting to know each other, than any specifics like how to do the Vulcan grip. It was really something terribly important: an understanding of the internal life of this character. What of mine came to the character, and what of his could come to the character." (Star Trek Magazine Souvenir Special, p. 69)
Leonard Nimoy was ultimately very impressed with how Zachary Quinto assumed the role of Spock in the film Star Trek. "I found Zachary Quinto did things with the character that had never occurred to me, which I found quite delicious," Nimoy enthused. "I think he really has found a way to expand the character while at the same time, if you can understand what I'm trying to say, being true to the character. He has found ways to enrich the character. He's wonderful and I'm really proud of what he has done." (Star Trek Magazine Souvenir Special, p. 69) Nimoy also reckoned about Quinto, "I think he could have a great career as Spock: if he wants it, it's there for him." ()
In Star Trek Into Darkness, Spock witnessing the death of Kirk is a reversal of Kirk's reaction to Spock's death in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, without the sense of being a milestone in a long-held relationship. "Our [Kirk and Spock] haven't known each other that long, so in our movie, that moment is a revelation for Spock that Kirk is his friend," said Roberto Orci. "It's the beginning of Spock recognizing, 'Oh my god, this guy is my friend, and just as I figured it out, I lose him.'" 
To return as Spock, Zachary Quinto again had to don Vulcan ear prosthetics for Star Trek Into Darkness. "And a breath of acetone was enough to blend the appliance to Zachary's ear," noted make-up department head David LeRoy Anderson. To ensure correct alignments when applying the character's Vulcan eyebrows, Anderson made everyday use of a clear plastic vacuform template, a mask which covered the area immediately around Quinto's eyes. The eyebrows, even if they were heightened by merely an incremental degree more than usual, could easily make Quinto's Spock appear angry. Consequently, the film's makeup team regularly used a small hole in the mask, positioned at the temples, to mark a registration dot on the actor's skin. "Zach tweezed away portions of his real eyebrows under my supervision," stated Anderson. "We applied hairs one by one, gluing them in place, and then added a tiny bit of green-blue eye shadow." (Cinefex, No. 134, p. 77)
While co-writing , Simon Pegg found that writing Spock's dialogue, which he termed "Spockese", was very fun but also challenging. (Star Trek Magazine Movie Special 2016, p. 74)
Star Trek Beyond Director Justin Lin once noted that, before he arrived to direct Beyond, "Zack had already crafted an amazing Spock with Leonard [Nimoy]." (SFX, issue 276, p. 49) However, appearing in Star Trek Beyond still presented a challenge to Quinto, as regards portraying Spock's preference for logical thinking combined with his underlying emotions. "Emotionally, he has definitely evolved since the last time we saw him, but I think he's a little more settled in his human/Vulcan disparity [....] The trick [with playing the role] is to cultivate an inner life that's deep enough to draw in the audience, and make them understand that there's so much more going on than meets the eye. Also, my version of this character has always been a little bit more in that grey zone, between the Vulcan and the human sensibility. That continues in this movie, too," Quinto related. "My version of Spock has always been a little bit more human than maybe you would expect him to be, because he's really trying to figure out these two aspects of himself. It's an interesting challenge – certainly a unique one [....] With a role like this, there's such a familiarity now. I felt like I was able to drop into this world and explore it as the script allows. It becomes more and more a part of me every time I do it [....] Now I understand it in a different way [than when first portraying the character], but it's still a process." (Star Trek Magazine Movie Special 2016, pp. 34 & 35)
While being generally uncertain about which direction he would want to take Spock in the fourth film, Zachary Quinto has suggested, "I could be interested in exploring more of his personal life, maybe, and getting into some explorations of what that looks like." (Star Trek Magazine Movie Special 2016, p. 36)