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Golden Globe-winning director-writer-producer discusses the opinions he encountered from the original cast of Star Trek. (1:59)
 

Full interview. (22:29)
 

Tavis: J.J. Abrams is one of the most sought-after writers, producers and directors in Hollywood with a slew of popular projects including "Lost," "Felicity," Alias," and most recently on Fox, "Fringe." Next week, "Fringe" wraps up its critically acclaimed first season. More on that in a moment.

In theaters now, though, you can catch what promises to be one of the biggest films of this year, "Star Trek." The movie is, of course, based on the iconic TV series created by Gene Roddenberry. Here now a scene from "Star Trek."

[Clip]

Tavis: J.J., nice to see you.

J.J. Abrams: Thanks. Nice to be here.

Tavis: How you been, man?

Abrams: Very well. You?

Tavis: I'm doing well. Dumb question. I know how well you're doing (laughter). You're doing really well.

Abrams: Quite right.

Tavis: Glad to have you here.

Abrams: It's an honor to be here.

Tavis: Let me go right at this. This is now, as I look at your litany of projects, the second time that you've taken on an iconic series. "Mission Impossible," "Star Trek," that you turned into movies. Is there ever any trepidation on your part when you set out to do this?

Because you have to know that some of the stars of these series ain't gonna be happy with what you put on the screen because you're taking your own creative license to tell a different kind of a story.

Abrams: Right.

Tavis: Before we came on the air, I was talking about "Wild, Wild West." I remember Robert Conrad was livid with Will Smith and Klein and the folk who did that. He didn't like "Wild, Wild West." What do you think about that when you get into these projects, if at all?

Abrams: Well, first of all, you know, with something like "Star Trek," there's this fan base that's just, you know -

Tavis: - massive (laughter).

Abrams: Massive and rabid and vocal and passionate, and they're my first concern, quite frankly, because they're the ones who I'm making the movie for. As well as, you know, for "Star Trek," I tried to make it for a broader audience because I was never a fan of "Star Trek" to begin with.

But in terms of the actors, you want to respect them. So the first person we met with when we had the story for "Star Trek" was William Shatner. We sat down with him, we just walked through it, we needed to get his blessing because this is, you know, one of the two real fathers of "Star Trek."

We met with him and it was tricky because his character died in one of the movies. So we wanted him to be involved in the film, but his character was dead, so it was a real tricky thing. He was like he wanted to be involved, it was clear, but he also respected that we have this issue. Anyway, so we met with him, then we met with Leonard Nimoy who we wanted to have in the film who we were lucky enough to get.

Tavis: What do you make then - one question and we'll get on past this. Everybody pretty much knows this now - what do you make of what Shatner had to say since that first meeting about his - how might I put this - his dismay that he was not asked to be in the film?

Abrams: Well, the thing is, Mr. Shatner is an incredibly funny guy and he's a real showman. I think a lot of it was sort of, you know, using it through blusters from having fun with it. We've spoken a number of times and sort of laughed about it.

But, you know, the truth is, we really wanted him in the movie and every version of a story we came up with felt like a gimmick. So it just wasn't fair to him and it wouldn't be fair to the audience. It just wasn't gonna work.

Tavis: So I want to talk - I want to ask you questions when you got to the film specifically without giving too much of it away, obviously, because you want people to go see this thing, as I'm sure they will. No worry about that.

Abrams: I hope so.

Tavis: What's the story line that you're wrestling with here?

Abrams: Well, because, like I said, I was not a fan of "Star Trek" to begin with, so the idea of doing a "Star Trek" movie was not like an immediate obvious move, but I was asked if I wanted to be involved as a producer.

I thought, well, that's kind of a cool opportunity to sort of take a franchise and story I was never completely sucked into and make it something that would appeal to me. And working with the writers and my producing partners in trying to figure out what the story would be, I kind of found myself falling in love with it a little bit.

When I read the script, I was like, "Oh, my God. This movie has everything I love about movies." You know, it's funny, it's got great characters, it's got an exciting story. It's intimate and emotional; it's got huge scope, just everything. I thought this is crazy. Maybe a non-fan should direct the movie so the non-fans will go see it.

Tavis: And maybe that should be me (laughter).

Abrams: And maybe me. That's right (laughter). I knew if I had a chance, if I didn't take advantage of it, I'd regret it. So the story at the core is really a story of two brothers. It's, you know, Kirk and Spock, these two characters who are both broken in their own way. They're both kind of aimless. They're unformed in a way.

The adventure of "Star Trek" is really about these characters ultimately coming together and the whole family of the Enterprise, which is a wonderful and, you know, diverse and funny and complicated group of characters.

Tavis: Without giving away the Enterprise, pardon the pun (laughter), tell me what you can tell me about how the character of Kirk has been tweaked in this film.

Abrams: Well, the thing is, you know, I could never get under the skin of that character. I could never understand what makes him tick and why do I care about him.

We came up with this story device that basically shifts everything so that the world of our "Star Trek" is not exactly the world of the "Star Trek" the fans are familiar with, meaning we don't have that problem of a typical prequel where you think, "Well, I know he lives because I saw the other thing." So we have our own sort of time line, but in doing so, it gives Kirk a wonderful problem which is he loses his father and, in doing so, he becomes rather aimless.

So when you meet him, you might know, "Oh, it's Captain Kirk, right?" But he's no captain. He's like this punk. He's a kid in a bar picking up a girl, getting into fights, has nothing to lose. He's just got no direction. He's lost. To me, one of the most interesting journeys of the film is how that guy goes from punk in a bar to captain of a ship.

Tavis: Spock?

Abrams: Well, Spock is to me, you know, maybe the secret of the movie which is that this is a guy - I must have known this, but I'd forgotten. The character Spock is half human and half Vulcan, meaning, you know, everyone thinks, "Oh, Spock, pointy ears, logical," but logic for Vulcans, those characters, is a choice. It's not this kind of, you know, biological imperative.

So the idea that this guy is half human - he's sort of this guy who doesn't know how to reconcile his humanity with his logical side, and that to me was an interesting story kind of no matter where it takes place.

Tavis: And lastly, there are more characters in this, but just the three I want to ask about, Dr. McCoy?

Abrams: Well, you know, in the kind of tripdic, the sort of these three characters, McCoy is in a way maybe the most critical. He's sort of the glue between the two of them. He is this funny, you know, irascible, angry, I think, sarcastic character of this doctor who is from Kentucky in the original show.

The actor, Karl Urban, who came in from New Zealand is like the stud from, you know, the "Lord of the Rings" movies and he's the bad guy in the Bourne film. I thought, you know, how is this guy gonna - he came in and literally channeled this character. It was insane how much this guy was this character. So we got really lucky with the casting.

Tavis: I am in the same space that you're in, occupy the same space, in that I have not been a Trekkie. I've not been a "Star Trek" fan in my lifetime, so you and I are alike in that regard. Help me understand, because you obviously have immersed yourself in a way in this that I have not. Help me understand what we missed, what we missed, about why this series turned on so many people.

Abrams: Well, I think that it's a lot of things. I don't know about you, but for me, I was missing the emotional way in. I was missing who were these characters before they're a captain or a first officer. Why do I really care?

Also, it always felt somewhat phony to me, mostly because they didn't have resources to do it right. So for some reason, it always just felt like a kind of campy show about characters that couldn't really - I wasn't really Kirk, I wasn't really Spock. I didn't connect with them in a way.

You know, I loved "The Twilight Zone." That show was for me my favorite show. What I attempted to do in this movie is give audience who had never seen the show, never cared about "Star Trek," a way in to love and care about these characters regardless of the adventure and the spectacle. So that to me was the theme that was missing in the show.

Tavis: Beyond "Star Trek," have you been a sci-fi fan throughout your life or not so much?

Abrams: You know, I like science fiction typically that was sort of reality-based where it was like, you know, like I said, "The Twilight Zone" or, you know, movies like Michael Crichton's stuff, "Westworld" or "Jurassic Park." I loved those. I loved movies, you know, where like it's a real life situation. You relate to a character and then something insane happens.

Like David Cronenberg movies often had situations where, you know, you related to the characters. It felt real. It was a sort of scientific, you know, foundation for something absolutely insane and all of a sudden - it's not like a space travel movie. That was not the obvious thing for me to jump on board to do.

Tavis: To your earlier point, J.J., because - this is my saying this and not you, although you may feel similarly - you're the hottest thing in Hollywood right now where this writing and directing and producing thing is concerned. To your earlier point, how do you decide what's right for you to produce versus what's right for you to direct or, for that matter, produce and direct?

Abrams: The truth is that the only thing that I try to do and I've been very lucky to get a shot to do it is work on stuff that I love. You know, I don't judge like, "Oh, that's something that I want to do, but it's not interesting enough for me to direct." To me, it's like if I want to see it, then that's the criteria for me.

So it works out like I would have loved to have directed this "Cloverfield" movie they did, this monster movie. I didn't have the time, given the "Star Trek" prep and stuff, so one of my best friends and I think a far more talented director directed the movie, Matt Reeves.

I'm happy to collaborate with anyone and, the fact is, that's the most fun part of the whole thing is the collaboration. So I don't care what the job is. When I'm on the set, whether it's your show or a movie or anything, I look at every job on the set and I think I want that job (laughter); every job. I love it.

So I don't really look at it as, "Oh, I'm writing or I'm producing." Because when you're producing, you work with the writers and the directors a lot anyway. When you're writing, you know, you're inevitably collaborating, so it's always just to be cog in that machine is the joy.

Tavis: I accept that. Are there story lines, though, that you think that you are emotionally, professionally - you pick a word - better equipped to pull out as a director than other things you might pass on?

Abrams: Well, when I did the "Mission Impossible" movie, I realized I was following, you know, I was doing the third of the series. The first two had been directed by incredibly accomplished and stylized directors. They were directors who had a real look. John Woo, you know, you look at any frame of his movies, "Oh, John Woo." You know, De Palma has a complete style.

I have no idea what the hell my style is. I have no idea. I realize I'm doing a movie, you know. Do I create a style? I thought, "That's gonna be the worst." So I had to just approach it from, you know - seriously, I had to serve the story and that was literally my goal. What does that moment, what does that character need, and I am serving that like that is my master.

I got to make sure that I am doing whatever it needs because otherwise I have no - you know, there can't be an imposed sense of an aesthetic without it being distracting, I think. So what I try to do is listen to what the character needs and whatever it needs, I will do that. You know what I mean?

Tavis: What makes a story line sing for you? I can only imagine now because of the success you've had, you're getting stuff thrown at you from all sorts of places. Whether it's serious or funny or reverent, what makes the story line sing to your ears?

Abrams: What I love is a character who is somehow broken in some way, a character where there's some piece missing. It can be, you know, a relationship in their life. It can be a loss that they've endured. It can be something that, you know, a disappointment. It can be something like a secret that they've got. It could be anything.

But to me, the way in is never the spectacle. The way in is always the character. Now sometimes I'll have an idea for something that is like from the outside in like, oh, a monster movie shot with a video camera, like that was the inspiration for "Cloverfield," but that wasn't the reason to make the movie. That was sort of like kind of a gimmick.

Then you think, "Okay, what's the way in and who are the characters?" So for me, the thing that always gets me, the thing that makes the story sing, is just that connection to a character who I relate to because I feel like, you know, we all have that piece missing in some way. So that's the thing that I end up - you know, that's my handle.

Tavis: "Fringe" is wrapping up its premier season. You been happy with the first season?

Abrams: I have. To me, the show's gotten better and better. It's a crazy show. I mean, it's one of those things that's actually filled the goals that the other two creators and I had when we went into it, which was let's do a series that would not only engage people in a character emotional way, but scare the hell out of them, and do something that's just weird.

I remember being a kid and watching "The Twilight Zone" and just being, you know - it killed me when the episodes would end because I just wanted another one. This was before DVDs and the ability to watch another one.

I really felt like we've gotten the chances to take the feeling of those David Cronenberg movies and, you know, certainly "The X-Files" and "Altered States," movies that I loved growing up, and applied them to a TV show.

Tavis: Let me put you on the spot here.

Abrams: Uh-oh.

Tavis: You referenced "The Twilight Zone" a couple of times in this conversation. Now beyond that - and it doesn't have to be TV-related or movie-related - take me back into the backstory of your life and tell me about a couple of things that are important for us understanding how you got to where you are right now.

How did you become the J.J. Abrams that we know you to be? I mean, we all have these defining moments in our lives that lead us to where we are. I don't want to color the question any more than that deliberately, but tell me a couple things about your backstory that will help us understand how you got to where you are.

Abrams: Well, you know, there is no sort of obvious story to tell. I mean, I was, you know, raised in Los Angeles and my grandfather was an amazing guy. He had this electronic company and he would always show me how stuff worked. He'd take everything apart and just show me, you know, how the radio worked, how the telephone worked, how the TV worked. It was one of those things that, you know, I took -

Tavis: - could he put it back together?

Abrams: Never (laughter).

Tavis: (Laughter) Okay. Just curious (laughter).

Abrams: Our house was just littered with stuff.

Tavis: I'm sorry for interrupting. I was just curious. I have a friend who does that too. He can take anything apart. Just don't ask him to put it back together.

Abrams: No, he actually had the skills. He would bring home like a motor and a battery and a switch and we would wire it and solder it together and he'd show me why and how it worked and stuff. You know, I sort of took it for granted because I thought, well, that's my experience.

I think looking back at it, part of what was interesting was that it was sort of the demystification of how things work. Not just assuming, oh, it's a phone, so it's just a magic phone. You know, God makes a phone and it just works. I have no idea. You know what I mean? Oh, the radio? Radios exist. It's like no, no, no. They're put together. There are pieces that, when you understand how they work together, make a radio. That was hugely informative.

My father used to sell commercial time for CBS and, when we moved to Los Angeles, he got a job as an assistant to a producer on a TV movie. He started working, you know, on that and then became associate producer, then a producer, then executive producer of TV movies, and he has produced dozens and dozens of TV movies.

So I grew up in the business and, although he was never necessarily incredibly encouraging of my wanting to be in the business because he knows how unlikely it is that it works, you know, for a lot of people, I was hooked.

It was my grandfather who took me to the Universal Studios tour back in the day when it was really just a studio tour and not an amusement park. I remember seeing how movies got made and it was like it was that demystification that felt incredibly familiar to me that was so intriguing. I thought, "Wow, you can tell stories. You know, can make things look like. . ."

One of my first memories was seeing an airplane that they had. It was hanging upside down on some strings. They were talking about how, when they would shoot it like this with like smoke as clouds, they shot it upside down so, when it was projected, you wouldn't see strings hanging and it would look like it was just flying.

Of course, I went home and my dad, I knew, had a Super 8 camera. So I took the camera and I took a little model. I just started doing that kind of stuff myself and it just became an obsession. I was never good in sports. I was never chosen for teams. I was always sort of the kid who was sort of - and it's that cycle where the less you're chosen, the less you play, the worse you are, the less you're chosen, the less you play (laughter).

So I would go in my room. You know, instead of being out on the field, I'd go in my room and, you know, I'd start making the movie or I'd ask my sister to let me take a mold of her head so I could like make a fake one and then blow it up. You know what I mean? I was just always doing stuff like that, normal stuff. That was sort of how I found my, you know, my joy came from creating little Super 8 movies.

Tavis: Let me fast forward now to where your career is now and ask another strange question. If we were assessing - and thankfully we don't have to because those of us who are fans of your work get a chance to experience a lot more in the years to come - if we were assessing your career right now, your body of work, what's missing?

Abrams: Well, that's a great question. You know, obviously I try not to look at my own stuff. In that way, I'm always just kind of doing the job and I try not to sort of look at it from the outside in, but you are, you do, so that's a good question. I think that the answer -

Tavis: - I only ask because I think that - it's my own assessment. You ain't got to agree with it - if I can understand what's in the context of my body of work because we're all judged by our body of work hopefully and not just by one particular piece of it, if I can understand what's missing in this, it might help me understand what I want to do next.

Abrams: That's a great way to look at it.

Tavis: How to make a complete picture here. Okay, I've done this, I've got that mastered. I can do this in my sleep now. I haven't done this, I haven't done this. Trying to figure out what's the next big thing, the next great thing, that I can accomplish. That's the reason I was asking, trying to figure out what's missing.

Abrams: It's funny because, you know, before I met my wife, I was in this place where I was, you know, writing scripts for producers and sort of doing their work and their bidding. I felt like it was entertaining, it was interesting, but it was unsatisfying. I think it's no coincidence that, you know, when I met my wife, she sort of reminded me, you know, do what you love. It was just one of those things.

You know, it's one of the reasons when you meet the person you're gonna be with forever, it's because they bring the best out in you. I hope and try to do that with her, but she did it in a way that was profound. I remember very soon after that, I wrote this pilot, this script, called "Felicity" and it was about this young woman who goes to college and it was a very -

Tavis: - what's it called again?

Abrams: "Felicity." Oh, my God. You just set me up.

Tavis: (Laughter) Yeah.

Abrams: Tavis. It was a very kind of, you know, an uncommercial kind of idea, but it was a very sort of, you know, simple one and it went back to this story that I just wanted to tell. But I'd been kind of so caught up in the business that I hadn't remembered to do the thing that actually mattered. So that was the beginning. You know, we got the show picked up and we got to make the show and it was the beginning of an "Oh, yeah. Go back to that."

It wasn't necessarily this strategy of create your own destiny, but you can deconstruct it like that and you can say, “Well, that's kind of what you did. You had an idea, you executed it and then you told people what it was gonna be instead of it being told to you.” That was really for me the thing.

So the answer to your question in terms of now, I would say, is having been given this amazing opportunity by Tom Cruise who directed the "Mission Impossible" film, which I still can't believe he gave me, and then having done the "Star Trek" movie, the last thing I ever planned on was, you know, directing two films that were sequels to TV shows. Nothing against it.

I'm not precious about where ideas come from and I'm grateful for the opportunity, but I would love to do a movie that was not based on a TV show sequel. It would be an original thing and I think it doesn't have to be without some weirdness. You know, typically I tend to be drawn to stuff that's got a little bit of a left turn or, you know, unexpected thing.

Tavis: What's the challenge? Maybe you haven't figured this out yet. Let me ask you anyway. What's the challenge as you become this iconic figure in this business to staying focused and staying committed to doing what you love versus what they ask you to do or want you to do or pay you to do? How do you stay focused on doing what you love? Your wife gives great advice. How do you stay focused on that as your career continues to just rise?

Abrams: Well, I do feel that connection, you know, with family is probably the key to everything. Whether it's literally, you know, spouse and kids or it's friends, you know, parents, whatever it is, it's like the people who truly matter. I mean, my friends are the same friends I had since I was, you know, 13, 14, 15 years old. My best friend, Greg, since kindergarten, he's in most everything I do.

I feel like the core group of people that don't know you because of what you do, but know you because of who you are, like those are the people that you need to keep good company and you need to make sure that you don't listen to the noise because the noise is deafening and the noise is distracting.

I think we're all, you know, seduced by it sometimes and it's really important to enjoy it, have fun with the experience, but try as much as you can to, you know, not believe any press you get and just focus. That's really why the people you love the most are the most important.

Tavis: Great place to end the conversation. J.J. has done and is doing some great work. The latest is "Star Trek," as if I need to tell you that. J.J., nice to have you on. I look forward to doing this again and many times over the years.

Abrams: Thank you so much. Appreciate it.

Tavis: Glad to have you here.