Clifton Collins Jr.: 'That's J.J, I'm at Paramount, and This is Star Trek. Holy Sh*t.'

It's entirely conceivable that you could enter a multiplex today and have a Clifton Collins Jr. marathon. Start things off on a sweet and low-key note with his role as Amy Adams' one-armed love interest in Sunshine Cleaning, kick them up a notch with his turn as a psychopathic gangster in Crank 2: High Voltage, and then end it with a galactic bang, watching him kick some Starfleet ass as Romulan heavy Ayel in the blockbuster Star Trek reboot. The versatile and hotly in-demand actor has lots more coming up -- including a ballsplosive turn in Mike Judge's Extract -- but he managed to carve out some time from his schedule to tell Movieline about how he never lets it get to his head.

Hey!

How are ya?

Doing fine, how are you?

Pretty fuckin' sweet, man.

Tell me about your month.

My month's been pretty wild, obviously with all the Star Trek hoopla. And then the stuff with Sunshine Cleaning was sweet. And even Crank 2, even though it didn't make the numbers we wanted, certainly was a fun time.

You've been in a shitload of stuff this summer.

And I got several more coming out.

Well, congratulations!

Thank you, brother. I appreciate that.

You're one of those amazing character actors who just gets totally gets lost in your roles. Was that always the plan? How do you feel about being that kind of performer?

I actually love it. Definitely the respect and admiration of my peers is certainly flattering. I'm a fourth generation entertainer. My great-grandfather was a contract player for John Wayne. And he couldn't even read or write -- he started performing when he was seven. He did all the roles that were available to him, and played the people he grew up with. Poor people, and cowboys and stuff. But for me, when I took his name on [Collins changed his name to Clifton Gonzales-Gonzales in the late '80s], I started to find this consistency in the roles I was being offered. They wanted to make me be this Latino guy. And it was like, I'm so much more than this. My worlds were Mexican, and black, and Filipino, and white, and all these different groups growing up. I was being this way naturally, just with my friends, being all these different people.

You frequently transform yourself physically for parts. How did you lose that arm in Sunshine Cleaning?

Very painful. There was two different ways that we did that. One was a green sleeve that they made for me, and the other one was actually painful. I asked the wardrobe department to get me a very strong belt, or a rope if my shirt wasn't tucked in, and tied it around my waist securely. And I'd literally just put my arm behind my back and lock my shoulder blade, and just tie it really tight. I tried to bury the pain so it wouldn't show on my face.

Becoming a Romulan was a little different. They did some experimentation with the makeup. The first day was maybe six hours, and when we were finally done, I saw myself in the mirror, and it really scared me. I just wanted to go out and start killing people!

Describe what if felt like the first time you and your Romulan buddies came out in full makeup and wardrobe on the set of Star Trek.

Well, honestly, J.J. offered me the role, he called me at home, and I said, "Awesome. That's great. I'm really excited to work with you again."

You had worked together on Alias.

Right. And he wrote that character for me based on Frankie Flowers in Traffic. So, I get there, and I wasn't a Trekkie, and it's basically the first scene in the movie where I come in on the Romulan ship. So when [J.J.] told me to look down the barrel of the camera, and to announce something to the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise, the grandeur of everything -- what it meant to J.J., what it meant to Paramount Studios, what it meant to the gigantic fanbase of Trekkies across the world -- the grandeur of it all hit me at that very moment, and I felt like I was 17 on my very first commercial, nervous as all hell. Like, I had to stop. I had to say, 'J.J., I really need to take five seconds. I'm totally cool, but I need to breathe a little.' My heart was racing.

Was everyone else the same way?

I don't know and I was too embarrassed to ask.

It seems like a lot of the cast was experiencing something similar, from what I've been reading in interviews.

Well, yeah, because they weren't Trekkies for the most part. When he said what needed to be done in front of the camera, I started remembering, "Hey -- wait a minute. That's right! Because on every episode of Star Trek, somebody comes on the monitor and tells them what the hell's going on. That's what I'm doing! Hey -- that's J.J. I'm at Paramount, and this is Star Trek. Hooooly shit."

Was it all shot on the Paramount lot in Hollywood?

Yeah, Paramount and outer space.

No wonder it cost so much. Was the premiere the first time you'd seen it?

The second time. I generally go to a screening and won't want to sit through it a second time, not because I hate watching myself, but more like, okay, cool, let's move on to the next one. I like to smell the roses, not really wallow in them. But this one was so much fun I did sit through it the second time. I might actually go again to see it in IMAX in a week or two.

Have you heard about the great IMAX uprising?

No!

Basically, if you go the Burbank AMC, it's a regular sized screen that they've licensed the word IMAX to.

Shut the fuck up. That's wrong.

So Aziz Ansari started a blog campaign to bring down the IMAX-scamming man.

Yeah, that's not fair at all. I'll go to the one at Universal City because they have a real IMAX screen. I want the IMAX "experience!" If I found that out, I'd walk out. I'd be mad. I'd find a real IMAX theater.

I'll add your voice to the uprising!

Please do.

You mentioned your part in Traffic earlier. When I think of the first two roles when I first really took notice of you, it was that, and Capote. They're both basically gay criminal psychopaths.

Oh yeah!

I guess you never made the connection before?

I forget the movies I'm in until I look at posters around my room. So what about them?

I found both roles really affecting. I wonder if you could just talk about those characters?

It's funny that they're both gay killers. [Laughs.] It's not the typical gay character. It's not the Nathan Lane type. So what do you want to talk about those? I'd love to share.

Well, part of it was exactly that. That you were putting gay images up on the screen that were not the typical gay images.

And I will do the same thing for the Latino image! [Laughs.]

So no gang-banger roles?

Whatever the stereotype is, yeah. Actually, I like playing a Latino criminal. I know enough of them.

So what's next?

Extract, Mike Judge's new movie. I'm pretty excited about it. I've never been more excited about getting my balls blown off.

Both get blown off?

Yeah! First of all, it was just such a joy. I mean, this is the guy that created Beavis and Butthead and King of the Hill, and all this stuff. And when you sit and hang out with him and he's talking to you, you can't help but see the different characters. He's just that guy. And he's just a humble, humble guy. Just fun to be with. He's become a personal friend -- we talk all the time and hang out, and make each other laugh.

I think the scariest day for me was when the wardrobe lady came up knocking on my door and said, "Clifton, can you fit into these size 31s?" And I looked at her kind of crazy, and I thought, "Well, yeah I could fit in them, but I wear 32s, why you wanna give me the 31s?" "Well, these were the one's the stuntman was wearing, and these are the ones that have the squib that blows your ball off." And I said, "Well, that's great. They're for the stuntman. That's why he was testing them." She's like, "Yeah, but you're going to do it." And then Mike came in and was like, "You don't need to do it. You don't need to put those pants on. No way, no how." I said, "You're Mike Judge dude, and thanks for being sweet and kind like that, but I'll do it." But I was thinking the test may have already been compromised. The waistline was an inch smaller -- my balls may have been bigger than the stuntman's!

Mike and I collaborated on some dope stuff, though. The happiest moment for me was when I suggested something I was going to do, and he told me to go for it. And I did it, and heard him clap and say, "That was just genius." And I was like, "Did I just hear Mike Judge say something I did was genius? That's fuckin' sweet. I'm so fucking blessed to be in this business."♦