CHRISTOPHER LIAM MOORE (Actor)
Christopher Liam Moore is a founding member of the Cornerstone Theater Company.
He and I met through our mutual friend, Amy Brenneman, about seven years ago. Within hours we were doing facial masks, wearing our matching
eyeglasses and watching television together. Chris is an amazing actor.
He still performs with Cornerstone, which is currently in residence in
Los Angeles, and has launched his television career with a featured role
in THE CHEROKEE KID, an HBO film starring Sinbad. However, his finest acting
was as my blind date in ANITA LIBERTY, the short film which premiered on the
Independent Film Channel on February 14, 1997. He practically stole the movie
out from under me. Practically.
CHRISTOPHER LIAM MOORE: Hello?
click to see a larger image (19K JPEG)
SOUND OF PHONE RINGING
ANITA LIBERTY: Hello!
Hello!
Hello!
Hello!
Is this Christopher Liam Moore, actor? (LAUGHS)
Right now, I'm very deeply in character.
(LAUGHS) You are?
So, it's very hard for me to have a conversation.
Um, okay. Come on. I have to get through this.
You know what is so great about you as an interviewer?
(LAUGHS) What?
That you really put the person that you're interviewing at ease.
(LAUGHS)
You really make them feel very special by saying things like,
"Come on, I have to get through this."
(LAUGHS)
It just makes me really want to open up to you. So, okay, let's go ahead.
All right. What I am interested in is the Star Trek Voyager thing you just booked.
Uh-huh.
(DOORBELL RINGS)
Oh, someone's at my door.
Oh, okay.
Hold on.
(CHRIS GETS THE DOOR, WHILE ANITA WAITS. PATIENTLY.)
Hey.
Who was that?
A new script for Voyager.
Did you plan that just now? Was that like a friend of yours at the door? (LAUGHS)
(LAUGHS)
Did you just stage that?
No. (LAUGHS) They send me a new script every day.
Really?
I live ten minutes from the studio. They messenger a new script over and nothing has changed.
What's your character's name?
Uh...Veer. V-E-E-R.
Oh!
(LAUGHS) You said that like it was Cordelia or something...like, oh, I know that role!
Well, no...but Veer...like "veer off course."
Veer off course?
Because you betray your mentor, at the end.
Right.
I think there's something there.
That's true. It could be.
Do you get reprimanded at the end, or...
Do I get reprimanded? (LAUGHS) I get taken away.
Oh, you do?
I get taken away. Yeah.
Tell me about the audition. Did you just try to play it honestly and normally and...
For this?
Yeah.
Well, yeah, but I honestly didn't know what to do, because I knew it was a reptile.
Well, what did you wear, first of all?
Um, uh, just clothes.
Like your plaid shirt and corduroys or what?
Jeans and sneakers.
Did you wear green because you thought it might be suggestive of a reptile?
No. I did not wear green. I've stopped trying to dress for auditions.
Because you're too cool for that?
No, I just don't know that it makes a difference.
Yeah.
I was in an audition the other day and every guy in there was in a suit and tie and looked
nerdy and...
(LAUGHS)
...so I said, you know, what? I'm not going to do that.
You also didn't get the part.
Maybe that's why! (LAUGHS)
(LAUGHS) I mean, nothing is proven by that story...
(LAUGHS)
...at all! (LAUGHS)
Except my own incompetence.
(LAUGHS) Or a defiance of convention.
Right. Exactly. Which leads to no work.
Yeah. But you have booked something really, really good.
I have booked something which I'm excited about. Yes.
Yeah. So you're excited because you get to be on the Bridge.
I get to be on the Bridge and...
And Sick Bay...
And Sick Bay, and I have my own spaceship and...
Do you drive the space ship?
I do. I drive the space ship.
You fly it. (LAUGHS)
I don't know...I don't know...do you fly a space ship?
I'm just saying, Chris...this thing starts on Wednesday?
Yeah.
These are questions I think you need to answer for yourself. (LAUGHS)
Well, I went in today to have another fitting for my costume, which is very padded...
Huh...really?
...and so I have no butt in the costume. I have a very big stomach and legs and no butt.
Oh my God! (LAUGHS)
I had gone in last week to have my upper jaw cast, so they could make a prosthetic. I have these prosthetic teeth (LAUGHS). And I'm so glad that I went and just played with them, because they're kind of hard to speak around. They're big. They're like my upper teeth. I think my bottom teeth are just going to be blacked out.
(LAUGHS)
It's literally like four...big...huge...ugly teeth.
Are we going to recognize this as you?
You will not recognize me at all. You'll recognize the voice, but you know, my eyes have orange contact lenses and I have this huge like head thing on and...
Is it a big head?
It's a big head. It's a big head.
Yeah.
From what I could tell...
Yeah.
...it's a pretty big head.
Are there veins?
There aren't veins, but there's a big bone-like protuberance thing that comes out of the back and...
A bone?
It's just kind of disgusting. It looks, you know, it looks reptilian.
Does it?
(LAUGHS) Yeah.
Reptiles don't have bone protuberances though.
Well, you know, maybe not the reptiles you know.
(LAUGHS) Let me ask you more about the audition. So you just played it for the reality, you said your lines...
I didn't try to do any reptilian or alien-like things. And I just assumed that would be okay.
And it was!
Did they give you any adjustments?
Nope. It was a typical audition with a big room, big table, six producers at the table and a lone chair out in the middle of the room for me to sit on or not sit on and a casting director just reading with me.
Wow! Were you just excited to get the audition?
Yeah, I was totally excited.
Would it be like me getting a part on Beverly Hills 90210?
Exactly. So I went in and did it and was like whatever and then they brought me back the next day, and the casting director was actually really cool because he came out into the waiting room and came over to me and said, "I'm going to bring you in last," so I think he wanted me to get the part.
Oh.
And I went in again and did the same exact thing as I did the first time.
You didn't give them any more colors? Because you're supposed to give more colors on the callback. That's what I hear anyway.
Who told you that?
(SIGHS) No one told me that directly but I got called back for something I auditioned for and when I didn't get the part, they said it was because I hadn't given any more colors.
(SIGHS) Yeah. Well, you know, I don't worry about colors.
Why?
Because when I act...
Yeah?
...I paint with all the colors of the wind.
(LAUGHS) Oh, you do?
Yeah. I'm just like Pocahontas.
Really?
Yeah. Do you believe me?
Yeah. She's hot.
(LAUGHS) She's hot. She's a hot babe!
She's a babe. So you had one callback.
Yeah, and then I went to work out and was thinking, oh, you know, whatever. I blew it. I
should have tried something. I should have given them more colors.
Right. I know.
I checked my machine after I worked out and my agent said, "We have an offer from Star Trek. "
You must have just been so happy.
I was so psyched. Totally psyched. Because I'm not an insane Star Trek person, but I
watch the show.
You watch Voyager.
I watch Voyager and what is really cool about it is you're entering this whole universe...
Yeah.
There will be trivia questions about me in years to come. Well, not about me, but about the alien.
About Veer.
Yeah, about Veer.
How long is it going to take you in make-up? Did they tell you?
They didn't tell me. The wardrobe people told me that because it's a big head thing, those are a lot easier to do because they're just one piece. So it will probably be two hours. Maybe three.
And you're not gonna to be able to wear your own contacts?
They're hoping to make the special contacts in my prescription and then I'll just wear them over my own contacts, which I tried with the eye doctor and it was fine. But the best part is that there's a contact lens technician on the set, which is really cool.
That's their whole job?
That's their whole job, because I have only three fingers and so I can't really be popping the lenses in and out.
No. It's a five finger job.
It's a five finger job and clearly these creatures don't have contact lenses.
No, if they did, they would cover up those orange eye balls.
Right.
Do you have scenes with the major characters?
I do. Me and the other alien guy are on the Voyager, but we're invisible to everybody else.
Oh, geez. All right.
You know, but we can see them.
So you're going to have to walk in front of them..
(LAUGHS)
...and wave your hands...(LAUGHS)
...and make faces. (LAUGHS)
Yeah. (LAUGHS) You can't see me!
Yeah, we totally do that.
(LAUGHS) Okay
Then they actually capture me because they detect we're there and they capture me and then I have a scene with the captain and with the doctor. And there's a fight...I actually get in a fight...I shoot a dart out of my arm.
Come on!
It's for real.
Come on!
Okay, here is the direction in the script.
Okay.
"Veer panics, moves quickly to one side for cover, he raises his arm as he goes and a biodart is fired out of a small, scaly orifice on his forearm."
(LAUGHS)
Chakote fires his phaser at Veer, the beam hits him and he goes down.
Oh!
Yeah.
That's going to be fun. You get hit by a phaser, I mean this is historical. It's weird.
(LAUGHS) Isn't it weird?
Yeah.
My agent was really funny though. He's really excited because it's a guest star and the whole thing, but he was saying to me well, I don't know if it's going to be anything we can use on your reel (LAUGHS)...
I know.
I'm going to be completely unrecognizable.
Yeah.
I'm just a complete alien.
It makes you wonder what celebrities have been aliens.
Exactly. Exactly.
You know, like maybe Susan Sarandon did a guest spot just for some extra cash.
And Tim Robbins. That's how they met.
Yeah.
Before, you know, that other movie.
All right, let's talk more about you.
Okay. Go ahead. What do you want to know?
I don't know. Do you want to talk about relationship stuff?
Do you want to talk about getting married? Getting wed? Getting united.
Yeah. Let's talk about that.
I don't have any questions.
Well, what am I supposed to say? 
Are you happy? What are you going to wear?
I don't know what I'm wearing. We haven't thought about that.
I guess we'll probably wear suits.
But you're not wearing matching suits.
What do you mean, matching suits?
Well, I don't know, I picture you guys in matching suits. Matching white linen suits.
No, that's so gross.
I'm sorry!
That's like so Noel Coward, do you know what I mean?
Yeah, well, you guys are theater guys.
(LAUGHS) You guys are theater guys and you're British.
You know, he has a black suit, I have a navy suit and we'll just wear those suits.
That's nice.
Yeah, you know and we don't want it to be too formal.
So, is it frustrating that this wedding or this union is not going to be honored legally?
Oh, yeah, unbelievably frustrating.
So it's going to be a spiritual ceremony.
Yeah, well, it's spiritual, but as we've talked about it ,we realized that we also definitely want it to have some kind of political element, because obviously 99% of the people who are going to be there will be very aware that it's not a legally binding thing.
(LAUGHS) Who's the 1%?
Who's the 1%? Uh, that would be you.
(LAUGHS) Yeah, that would be me. Cool...you guys get a tax break!
No, but we'll have something in the ceremony about challenging people on their assumptions.
Are you going to invite the press?
Yes, it's going to be a big press presence there.
It's going to be a protest.
Yes. Absolutely. Yes.
I mean it is just unbelievable that essentially the one sort of cool thing that you can get from the government by getting married is a break on your taxes.
Exactly.
Right.
And you know there was the whole thing in New York City with the apartment.
Right.
With apartments being just taken away from people...
Right. It is mind blowing.
The logic behind people not wanting to encourage gay unions is mind blowing. The logic just turns in on itself because people say, "Well, you know, gay people, they're so promiscuous." Shouldn't they be encouraging gay people to...you know, I don't know what they want, I mean besides wanting gay people to disappear from the face of the earth.
I mean just...who cares? I mean, marry who you want, you know what I mean?
Yeah, I don't get it.
I just don't get it.
If you're two adults..what's the deal?
I don't know.
What's the deal? And then it just becomes so insane when you start talking about foster parenting and adoption...
Right.
...and just, you know, completely ridiculous...
Right.
...that Governor Wilson...our beloved Governor Wilson out here...has proposed these
new changes for the state fostering parenting and adoption agency that married heterosexual couples be given preference and they would not allow same sex couples to adopt. It was just really interesting because everything we read from people who actually worked in these agencies for the state were basically saying, "Well, you know, we're going to kind of ignore those regulations because we realize that what's important is that the kids are placed in a loving environment and it's so insane to not ask the people who actually have the best interest of the kids in mind. It's all comes down to blind prejudice and hatred, which has no logic, you know.
No.
It's just homophobia and it is it's own ugly, ugly beast.
I know.
