I remember seeing Galaxy Quest in theaters with my folks. We were more of a Star Wars family than a Star Trek family, but despite Galaxy Quest’s clear parallel to the Star Trek universe and fandom, we latched on. It became an instant family favorite. We ended up buying the VHS when it came out — which we still have, and which I just replaced as a Christmas gift for my dad this past Christmas with a DVD (We are a low-tech family.)
Naturally, when I saw the lineup for SF Sketchfest, I jumped. Another chance to see Galaxy Quest in theaters? AND Tony Shalhoub and Kevin Pollak will be talking before the screening? My inner nerd girl and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel fanatic shrieked in delight.
Kevin Pollak came out, riffing with the audience for a bit before bringing Tony Shalhoub to the stage. Pollak is a native San Franciscan whose performance and comedy roots are deep in this city. I’ve known him from his work in film and television (primarily, That Thing You Do! and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel), but have never seen him perform stand-up, or even just talk as himself. Despite only having a short amount of time onstage to himself, we all learned lots about Pollak’s family history, his roots with the SF Sketchfest, his work on Maisel and his friendship with Shalhoub. Pollak was clearly tickled to share these stories with us, and everyone in the audience just ate it up.
Shalhoub emerged, and the crowd went wild. He almost seemed surprised to receive such a warm welcome. Finally seated, Shalhoub shared stories about his time working on Galaxy Quest, based on Pollak’s questions and prompts. The two discussed at length the magic of the movie, and how it was a film about relationships, as opposed to a movie having fun with fandoms and nerdy interests. Because the film focused on the breakdown in communication between each character, Galaxy Quest became a movie rooted in genuine human interest and emotion. The film’s silliness is rooted in the truth of each character and relationship.
By far the most fascinating discovery during Tony Shalhoub’s discussion, however, was learning about his meetings with the director before taking on his part. His character was supposed to be Asian, and he didn’t want to pull a Scarlett Johansson or end up like Mickey Rooney in Breakfast at Tiffany’s. He explained that he compromised to play an actor playing Asian, which led to the director suggesting he watch Kung Fu with David Carradine. Supposedly, Carradine was stoned the entire time during Kung Fu, so Shalhoub made most of his character decisions based on that performance. The bag of snacks and chill vibes his character in Galaxy Quest portrayed is all thanks to David Carradine being completely high in Kung Fu.
Naturally, Shalhoub had other stories from making the film. We learned that he had attended Yale at the same time as Sigourney Weaver’s husband, so he had actually known her for years before making the film. He told us about grabbing lunch off set with Alan Rickman to have a glass of wine, and how he told Sam Rockwell that this movie would make him blow up, after his years of phenomenal indie performances. He talked about how warm and positive the filming experience was — something that was always very clear to me as a viewer, but I never knew if it were true, or just good acting. There was only time for two questions from the audience, but it didn’t matter; we were all happy to be there, in Tony’s glow, in Kevin’s warmth, sharing this love for one of the most clever comedic films made in the past thirty years.
The film, of course, shined through after all these years. But the experience of sharing it with everyone in the theater again, laughing at jokes that now make way more sense, and applauding when fan favorites like Alan Rickman and Rainn Wilson and Justin Long and, naturally, Tony Shalhoub appeared, made it new for me again. I’ve never attended a con in costume; really I’ve only ever attended to go with whatever boyfriend I was dating at the time. I was interested in all of these science fiction worlds and fandoms and storylines and characters that I’ve seen over and over again, but I didn’t share that connection as the other fans did. But in the Castro Theater, for three hours on a windy January afternoon, I finally got to make that connection with fans of Galaxy Quest and Tony Shalhoub.
