BEVERLY HILLS, Calif., Dec. 18, 1999 — Are Buzz Lightyear and Capt. Peter Quincy Taggart the same character?
Maybe. Buzz is the star of an action-toy line, while Taggart is the star of the sci-fi series Galaxy Quest. They both have adventuresome sayings: “To infinity and beyond!” for Buzz, while Taggart shouts “Never give up, never surrender!” And they’re both played by Tim Allen.
Quite a change for the comic actor, who’s been focusing on a movie career since his highly successful ABC series Home Improvement ended last year. His first films since the show’s end have been Toy Story 2 and now Galaxy Quest, a DreamWorks comedy-adventure released Christmas Day that follows a group of sci-fi actors who become unlikely heroes.
But why, Allen is asked, did he go from voicing one vain astronaut to playing…
“…Another vain astronaut?” Allen finishes. “They just can’t think of another character [for me]. I noticed that Buzz and Capt. Taggart are similar in their delusions about who they are. Buzz is a bit more innocent; in this movie, I know what a loser I am, and I’m just pretending to be something because I don’t like who I am.”
Twenty years after their series Galaxy Quest was canceled, the cast still gather (in costume) at Trekkie-like conventions and warehouse openings. When a group of otherworldly aliens, called Thermians, bring the group to outer space, they find that the entire Thermian civilization has been patterned after their episodes, which they mistakenly believe are “historical documents.” Not realizing they’re actors, the alien race (led by Enrico Colantoni of NBC’s Just Shoot Me) beg them to defeat their bullying enemy, Sarris (Robin Sachs).
Director Dean Parisot (“Home Fries”) found himself with a cast matchup of unlikely proportions. Theatrically trained British actor Alan Rickman — who plays the embittered theatrically trained Spock-like character — shares the screen with comical cutups Daryl Mitchell (NBC’s “Veronica’s Closet”) and Tony Shalhoub (NBC’s “Stark Raving Mad”). The biggest clash of acting genres, however, is Allen‘s pairing — and little romance — with “Alien” action star Sigourney Weaver, who found the film’s idea irresistible.
“I guess I did it for more selfish reasons, which was I really liked Tim Allen,” Weaver said. “I really wanted to play a romantic comedy with him. I really love our love story in this movie, it’s so sort-of lame. … The script is so original and so funny, and yet’s it’s about something more than the people in it. It has this ‘Wizard of Oz’ comedy about losers who try to save people.”
The film also allowed Weaver, a recent Golden Globe nominee for “A Map of the World,” to be someone completely different — a Farrah-haired blond babe named Gwen (whose TV character is named Tawny), which Weaver says was her added touch.
“I read the script and said, ‘This character is blond,’ ” Weaver said. “She repeats the computer, and what other reason for her to be there than to be ornamental as well? [It’s] an homage to all the great blondes we had on TV in those days. I think there’s a secret blonde in all of us — the gullible one.”
But letting her inner blonde out left Weaver acting a little unusual. “The cast seemed to think that I asked strange questions when I was a blonde, and succumbed to the suggestion of my costume and my hair. And they were probably right.”
Fans of Weaver‘s Ripley persona from the “Alien” films will be surprised at her transformation, particularly those who align the actress too much with her character.
“I would say that there are people who think I’m like Ripley, tough and strong — and of course I’m not at all. I’m much closer to Gwen,” Weaver said.
Allen, for his part, says he can’t quite get away from his “Home Improvement” character. He was once approached during a flight by the pilot, who wanted to ask him about putting fluid in the cockpit window. “I thought, ‘Shouldn’t you be flying the plane?'” Allen said.
But the difficulty of separating Weaver and Allen from their screen personas wound up strikng an unlikely chord with the film.
“I told the director that this could be a lot about obsessed fans on a sublevel,” Allen said. “And he said, ‘That’s what I’m thinking.’ ”
