The Shift
Summary
John Billingsley is well known toStar Trek : Enterprisefans as Dr. Phlox , and he asterisk in the new sci - fi movie , The Shift . A multiversal adaptation of The Book of Job , The Shiftstars Kristoffer Polaha and Neal McDonough , who plays a Devil - comparable figure called The Benefactor .
InThe Shift , John Billingsley plays Russo , who owns a theater in the totalitarian alternate macrocosm that Kevin ( Polaha ) is banish to by The Benefactor . Russo ’s field bear a portal that lets Kevin see into other cosmos , and he uses it to find Molly , his wife from his world whom Kevin strive to reunite with .
Star Trek : Enterprise introduced unexampled faces to the prequel serial limit a one C before the upshot of Star Trek : The Original Series .
Screen Ranthad the pleasure to chat in - depth with John Billingsley aboutThe Shift , how fan sensing ofStar Trek : Enterprisehas changed , if Dr. Phlox can give back to Star Trek on Paramount+ , and the two kindly causes Billingsley is part of , the Hollywood Food Coalition and the Pancreatic Cancer Action connection .
John Billingsley Talks The Shift & Star Trek
Screen Rant : We ’re gon na verbalize a picayune bit aboutStar Trek , but we ’re really here to speak about your new movie , The Shift .
John Billingsley : My new movie . I like the audio of that .
I really enjoyed it . At first , I was n’t trusted about an adaption about the Book of Job , but I thought was really well done .
John Billingsley : I opine this is always the challenge when you ’ve got a complicated twisty sci - fi movie , that when all is enunciate and done , and you start out show it to people , the focal point groups get pulled between ' does n’t make sense ' and ' needs to be fast . ' I believe they decided that they had to worry more about propulsion sometimes than clarity . So there are bits and pieces that I recall from the script that had to go that might have made it a little easy to follow constituent of it . But that ’s the trade - off , I think . I mean , you ca n’t watch a Christopher Nolan movie half the meter [ without go ] ' Wait , what ? What ’s find ? ' So I had two reactions as I was see it : I thought the performance were terrific . And I loved the bozo who play the lead . I think he did a marvelous Book of Job . And I was also like , ' What ? ' I ’m not clear what happened and I read the playscript . What ’s going on there ? Like , why is there that guy rope who ’s crossing the bridgework and everybody ’s lined up , and he gets shoot in the back ? What was that about ? So some of the cuts , I retrieve , might have clarify that .
Kristoffer Polaha is really magnetic . I view him inA Biltmore Christmas , the movie he did with Jonathan Frakes for Hallmark with Robert Picardo . That was really fun . And I thought he and Neal McDonough were great together .
John Billingsley : I did , too . And I thought [ Elizabeth Tabish ] , who played his wife , was wonderful . And I really think what made the movie work is that you have to conceive that this is one of those love personal matters for the ages and that they ’re meant to be together . And in the modest amount of screen time they have to establish the intensity of that bond , I thought they did a really lovely job . They hold on a sentience of bodily fluid about it , it was playful , it was warm . You really conceive this is a guy rope who would dedicate his full life to try and figure out how to get back to his married woman .
Star Trek: Enterprise acts as a prequel to Star Trek: The Original Series, detailing the voyages of the original crew of the Starship Enterprise in the 22nd century, a hundred years before Captain Kirk commanded the ship. Enterprise was the sixth series in the Star Trek franchise overall, and the final series before a twelve-year hiatus until the premiere of Star Trek: Discovery in 2017. The series stars Scott Bakula as Captain Jonathan Archer, with an ensemble cast that includes John Billingsley, Jolene Blalock, Dominic Keating, Anthony Montgomery, Linda Park, and Connor Trinneer.
Absolutely . So what drew you into singing ontoThe Shift ?
John Billingsley : Well , much as I wish that I was the kind of thespian who would just be fielding go right , go away and center , that ai n’t my realism . So one , it was an offer , which does n’t come around all that much . Two , they were willing to pay me a not jejune amount of money . It fit my schedule , and I liked the part , and I like the hand . I ’m an atheist . As soon as I hear it was a film that was religiously inflected , I thought , well , this may not be for me . But I , like you , think as a retelling of the Book of Job story , it did n’t tip so intemperately on the theological to make it unpersuasive to an audience such as myself . And I thought the sci - fi hook was really arresting , I have it off the idea that there is a world full of alternate yous . And then you’re able to find a means to look on them and kind of see what the other yous are up to . I thought that the musical theme that I could kind of open that window into a universe was kind of challenging .
I care your whole moving-picture show theater readiness , and reminded me a little minute ofA Clockwork Orange , but not torture to watch over that blind and see other universes .
John Billingsley : It ’s nerveless , yeah . Some of those bit got chopped a niggling bit . So I ’m not quite certain the apparatus was all clear , what [ the theater ] is . There was a mention , for instance , that I know did n’t make it into the motion picture , that my theatrical role is beginning to get the idea that this is all a frame-up , that the devil wants people to come in and see the alternating interpretation of themselves in this dark , miserable , shtty human beings so that we all will only think that life is only sour , shtty and hapless . I lose that beat in the storytelling .
The theatre itself , which I think is a really cool story , is an older Masonic Temple in Birmingham , Alabama , and one that was devoted to serve the needs of the African - American community . So it was where Martin Luther King met when he and the Freedom Riders were plan on how to plow some of the Birmingham - centric civil right actions . In the basement , you could find out the pond table where Martin Luther King played puddle while he was relaxing in between meetings . That was fabulous . Just the nature of being in an old historic building like that with all those connection was very cool . I also develop bronchitis so that was a drawback . It was as moth-eaten a set as you ’ll ever meet .
Oh man . Well , that is very , very cool , except for the bronchitis . Were you given any backstory about your lineament , Russo ? Who he might be in other universes ? Or did you make it up yourself ?
John Billingsley : That ’s an interesting question that I never thought of . Who is he in other population ? He seems to me like the heroin monger who does n’t take heroin . I do n’t get the belief that he is specially well-fixed looking into that vena portae . I do n’t think he desire to see . I think his attitude towards other people is , ' I ’ll add it , but a lues venerea on it . ' And in that signified , I think one of the great tragedies of this cat ’s life , and in all likelihood the calamity of this human race , is that there are a lot of people who are stuck in a character that they urgently wish they did not have to be stuck in any longer . In my own backstory , he and his married woman had a lovely movie theater back in the day , and they show up revivification , and it was great . And then after she fail , and after the cataclysm occurs on this world , he ’s left doing this , which he hates , but he has no way out .
Oh , that ’s interesting . Has there been any talk of a sequel ? Would you sign on for another ?
John Billingsley : I ’d jubilantly do another . No , there has not been any lecture of a sequel . You could certainly see the nature of the estimate that there are a gajillion opportunity for any one person to bop around in prison term and space , sure enough as a jumping - off decimal point . I , personally , would n’t be as keen on putting poor Kris through the wringer again . Job Again ! Job 2 ! That seems unfair to poor Job .
Well , it materialize a lot to motion picture Hero . Bruce Willis got attacked by terrorist multiple times on Christmas .
John Billingsley : And that ’s why I could never go back and watch Die Hard 2 . It ’s like , has n’t he get enough ? His feet have n’t healed , for God ’s sake .
I ’d love to speak a little minute aboutEnterprise . I still prefer to call itEnterprise .
Star Trek: Enterprise acts as a prequel to Star Trek: The Original Series, detailing the voyages of the original crew of the Starship Enterprise in the 22nd century, a hundred years before Captain Kirk commanded the ship. Enterprise was the sixth series in the Star Trek franchise overall, and the final series before a twelve-year hiatus until the premiere of Star Trek: Discovery in 2017. The series stars Scott Bakula as Captain Jonathan Archer, with an ensemble cast that includes John Billingsley, Jolene Blalock, Dominic Keating, Anthony Montgomery, Linda Park, and Connor Trinneer.
John Billingsley : I used to call it The Show That Killed the Franchise . But fortunately , the franchise regenerate itself . And now it ’s found a newfangled dwelling in the streaming earth so people are n’t quite as catty about it as they were when it was originally on the air . We were not a popular show during the twenty-four hour period .
I really did love the show . I was one of those people who was on board since the beginning . I mean , I mat like the show could have been mettlesome .
John Billingsley : Exactly . Yeah , I ’ll tell you a fib because that was my feeling too . As for what the frame-up was , I mean , and so many voice in the television industry kind of pour into your ear - ' We need this , we want that ' , ' We do n’t need this , we do n’t want that ' - there was an early episode – I thought the premise of we ’re frightened … nobody wants to utilize a conveyor is great . I have intercourse that idea . I like we ’d get going further with it . There was an episode early on when I would kind of have a petty capitulum to the earth to kind of find out what the scripts were because I was n’t always used , and I wanted to cherry - pick and go find other gigs if I was gon na be off for a week . So I take the first draught of an episode and a crewman … They do n’t wish to use a conveyor , but they did this once . A crewman comes back in his question is where his ass should be . It ’s like , I love that . So by the time it gets to the final script , the one we terminate up shooting , he ’s beamed back [ and ] there ’s a twig sticking out of his capitulum . Oh dear . The medico will just cut back that off . And I think that crystallized what I thought the error was of the show , to your gunpoint , that it did n’t really trust the threat of this journey . I leech people . I have it away the fact that my character was somebody who actually was just light of being a witch doctor . Bubble house of cards , labor and trouble . And then comparatively soon it was the usual hypo spray . You have Crab ? You ’re cured ! Which I thought was one of the things that I like the show had kind of been able to steer by from .
Yeah , I did feel like they list very , very to a great extent into the honest-to-god , comforting recipe , and prove to make it very cheeseparing toTNGas potential . And it really hurt the original premise , which is that this was a tough frontier ship . And you were out there all alone . And you really should n’t have made it back .
John Billingsley : precisely . I have a go at it . I had exactly the same intuitive feeling . I think , in a way of life , now the challenge has been meet , and successfully . In a streaming world , you have a lot more latitude than you did on meshwork television . And there are multiple loop of Trek . So the individual shows can take sealed risks that maybe we could n’t . As the only show [ at the time ] representing Star Trek , there were too many citizenry who were basically on some level saying ' You ca n’t go too far away from the formula . ' I mean , I always liked Robert Altman movies . To me , I would have loved it if it had been like overlapping dialogue . If there had been a sense of , I signify , in a clusterf*ck position , when everybody ’s scared , to me , the approximation is suddenly the hierarchy and the protocol gets overwrite by people … I want more [ contention , people talking over each other ] too .
Enterprise is blank . It was a unclouded show , as Star Trek always is unobjectionable . The episode that are great on Star Trek , to me , still always do something really wonderful . They figure out how to present a conundrum that is usually take root in ethical motive and science , and explore it from a variety of different viewpoints while prepare sure that you have a tight - moving story with some tension . When we pulled that off , we were good . When we did n’t quite , when episodes felt like there was n’t really a hook . I call back we were sometimes pretty categorical .
As you said , for a lot of yr , Enterprisewas known as The Show That Killed the Franchise . But now , people have come around to it . A lot of sports fan in the last few years are now on add-in withEnterprise . You are now lovingly remember legacy characters .
John Billingsley : How about that ? I know . And I think , in part , that ’s because we did n’t kill the franchise . So some of the estrangement that impound was , " Oh , look , we pass you the keys to dad ’s railroad car and your crumble the fender . " Now that people have a way of attend back at it with nostalgia , it ’s another in a long rail line of Star Trek shows . It has its strengths and its weaknesses , but there ’s not as much perfervid energy impound . I remember too soon on , this was after 9/11 when we premiered . And apparently , that was , both pro and bunko , a originative influence on the growth of our show . But there were people picket at the Paramount passel a couple of workweek after 9/11 . And I drive up thinking , ' Oh , dear , what ] does Paramount have to do with 9/11 ? What it was going on ? ' And become out they were picking about the theme song . ' We hate the Enterprise theme strain ! We hate the Enterprise melodic theme song ! ' One , it made me really appreciate how passionate rooter can be . And two , I thought , ' Oh , there are things about this show that are not well get . ' And still to this Clarence Shepard Day Jr. , people are most likely to say they detest the topic song and they hated the finis . I care the paper song , I ’m with them on the finale .
I personally coverEnterpriseatScreen Rant , and I ’m always preach I ’m always urge for you guy to come back into the new appearance . Are you waiting for a call to return as Dr. Phlox ?
Parenthetically , one of the thing that I ’ve been doing for the last few age , because I do a circumstances of charity oeuvre , I offer for an organization called the Hollywood Food Coalition . We do something yell TrekTalks every class , on January 13 , which is a digital fundraising telethon . We have eight time of day of panels with unlike node . And it has been a keen way for me to get to fulfill and be intimate , some of the folks in these newfangled iteration of Star Trek , and such marvelous , gifted actors on these show . The franchise is in good hands right now .
allow ’s get more into the Hollywood Food Coalition , which is such an crucial causa .
John Billingsley : The Hollywood Food Coalition is an organization that I ’m passing attached to . I was the board chair for a number of year and help to produce it from a small soup kitchen to a now-$6 - million organization that also partake and rescues 3 million pounds of food a year with multiple constituencies . A lot of what we try and do , not only in helping people who are poverty-stricken in Los Angeles , is greet solid food deserts and what systemic solutions are that allow more food and more resources to travel broadly across a lot of different sphere of penury . I could go on and on about this organization . It ’s very devout to my heart . We ’ve been doing this for a long time . Not only do we do a hot multicourse meal every day to all comers , but the intellectual nourishment we rescue we share with existing small not - for - profits to buttressing and augment their meal programs . So it really is about coalition construction , which is something very dear to my substance . And what I also love about Star Trek , why I do an event , TrekTalks , that is pitch to bring in Star Trek celebrities together . And why I ’m also working with various scientist in the scientific community to sample and bridge the gulf between the sci - fi fans , the scientist , and celebrities so that we can all kind of work together more effectively to kick upstairs money and awareness . It ’s such a great community .
You ’re also part ofTeam Trek at PanCan , fight pancreatic cancer . I lecture to Jonathan Frakes about PanCAn this twelvemonth , and I talked to Armin Shimerman . I ’m plan to take the air with you Guy in April . I ’d get it on to hear your perspective on PanCan .
John Billingsley : Well , my female parent die of pancreatic cancer at the age of 70 , in 1990 . And from diagnosis to death , two month . This was a clock time when there was not a lot of awareness , which is what , in my opinion , the real virtuousness of this push is . If you captivate it early enough , if you are cognizant that there are certain symptoms , particularly if you ’ve had any sort of history of pancreatic cancer in your family that might be declarative , and you get to the doctor , the survival charge per unit has increased middling dramatically in large part because of the efforts of this organization . People now get to the MD faster and doc know what to expect for loyal . My female parent , when she move to the doctor , she was complaining of various issues including back nuisance and tummy yield for calendar month . By the time she got to the Doctor of the Church , as far as he was concerned , pancreatic Crab , kiss of death , see you later .
So the nature of what this wonderful organization has fought to do is to raise awareness amongst the potential patient role , amongst the aesculapian community of interests , while also supporting medical inquiry that is allowing for the form of discussion and medical interventions that were not viable when my female parent was alive . Jonathan ’s brother died of pancreatic cancer . [ Armin Shimerman ’s married woman ] Kitty [ Swink ] is a pancreatic cancer subsister of 20 years . And then recently , Juan Carlos Coto , whose pal Manny Coto was a writer and showrunner for Enterprise . Manny pass away lately to pancreatic cancer after , I think , a two - year battle . And now he ’s part of TeamTrek as well . We take the air in the outpouring . PurpleStride is the walk , which takes place in 60 cities around the commonwealth . Pancreatic Cancer Action internet is the website . If you go there , and you follow the links to PurpleStride , you will find TeamTrek I am on raising money to help support the governing body . I ’m so proud to be part of it .
About The Shift
After a tense encounter with a mysterious unknown call The Benefactor who has nonnatural great power , a military personnel gets banished to a parallel Earth where he campaign to get back to the woman he loves .
The Shiftis currently playing in choice field .
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Star Trek : Enterprise represent as a prequel to Star Trek : The Original Series , detailing the voyages of the original crew of the Starship Enterprise in the twenty-second century , a hundred age before Captain Kirk commanded the ship . Enterprise was the sixth series in the Star Trek franchise overall , and the net series before a twelve - year hiatus until the premiere of Star Trek : Discovery in 2017 . The series asterisk Scott Bakula as Captain Jonathan Archer , with an ensemble cast that includes John Billingsley , Jolene Blalock , Dominic Keating , Anthony Montgomery , Linda Park , and Connor Trinneer .
