‘Brilliant Minds’ Star Zachary Quinto on Hopes for ‘Star Trek 4,’ Being in Therapy for 20 Years and Campaigning for Kamala Harris in Pennsylvania

Zachary Quinto has played “a lot of dark characters” in his career.

So when he was offered the starring role in “Brilliant Minds” he jumped at it because the series “really comes from a place of light.”

In the NBC medical drama, he plays Dr. Oliver Wolf, an eccentric neurologist treating patients with rare mental health conditions at a Bronx hospital. It is inspired by the late Dr. Oliver Sacks, the neurologist and writer portrayed by Robin Williams in 1990’s “Awakenings.”

“I think it’s so important, now more than ever, for people to be looking toward and leaning into the light. Because I think we’re really seeing in ways that we haven’t yet even been able to completely comprehend that what we’re really in the middle of is this battle between light and dark, expanded consciousness and limited consciousness, seeing the idea of evolution and what’s possible — as opposed to holding on to old constructs, old paradigms and past ideas of how things should be in the binary way of yes, no, right, wrong, black, white,” Quinto says on this week’s episode of the “Just for Variety” podcast.

“The reality is that as a human race, as a civilization, we don’t have the luxury of existing within those constructs any longer. Things are shifting beneath our feet in a way that we don’t yet understand. We see it politically, we see it technologically.”

He may only be playing a doctor on TV, but Quinto sees himself in his television alter-ego. “I think Oliver Wolf is a character who’s done a lot of work on himself, and done a lot of deep diving, and deep excavating of his own psyche,” Quinto explains. “I like to think that’s true of me as a person. It’s something that really drives me in my life. Therapy, and meditation, and expanding consciousness.”

How has looking inward changed Quinto?

“My big shift has been really being motivated by the concept of non-attachment,” he says. “My big shift has been really about being in the moment that I’m in, and understanding that is exactly where I need to be right now. And what’s happened in the past, and what’s going to happen in the future is nothing that I can control, and it’s nothing that I can influence. To be here now in this moment, and to hold everything in my life with as loose a grip as possible has been the biggest shift that I’ve experienced in my life.”

He adds, “it’s a result of a lot of work. I’ve worked on myself a lot. I’ve been in therapy for over 20 years. I have a really devoted meditation practice. I’ve really leaned into tools that have helped me. And it’s not been easy. And there were many years in my life where I would ask myself, “Why am I doing this? What is the point?”

Like Quinto is and Sacks was, Dr. Wolf is openly gay.

“The fact that I am an openly gay actor, playing a gay character, the lead, the face of a primetime network medical drama, in the tradition of many incredible shows that have come before ours, it warrants recognition, in terms of how much progress we’ve made over the years,” Quinto says. “Even since you and I have known each other in the context of what we do for a living, things have changed, and irrevocably so. I think there’s something deeply valuable about acknowledging that. And also, at the same time, acknowledging that we still have so much more progress to make, and commit to, and fight for. How can we continue to evolve, and stop the evolution from being so rooted in conflict?”

Speaking a conflict, our talk eventually turns to politics. Quinto plans travel to his native Pennsylvania to campaign for Kamala Harris with Gov. Josh Shapiro. Politics is in his blood. His maternal great-grandfather was a Pittsburgh city councilman and his grandfather was a Democratic U.S. congressman.

“We have to see that the messages that are coming out of this flawed, and broken two-party system, they need to change,” Quinto says. “They need to shift. And there are two candidates before us right now, one of whom understands that much more than the other. And I’ve been really asking myself, how can I find compassion for the candidate and his supporters who represent a very different point of view than I have? How can I find softness and compassion for them? And how can we all see beyond the limitations of that way of thinking, and hopefully move forward into the uncertain future with more connection, and more togetherness, and less divisiveness, and less hatred on both sides?”

He admits it’s “hard” to find that compassion. “But I have found compassion for how painful it must be to be stuck in a way of thinking that makes you feel like you have to dictate how other people live their lives,” Quinto says. “That must be a very painful place to be, to not actually understand yourself, or love yourself enough to realize that your way of being, and living, and thinking doesn’t necessarily in any way have to influence someone else’s, and that we actually can create space for everyone to live, and think, and feel the way that they do.”

He says of the vice president, “I think there’s a tremendous momentum. I think she was born to do a job that no one should have to inherit at this moment, but she’s doing it with grace, and intelligence, and I’ve been very impressed by the way that she has stepped into this role that she didn’t necessarily expect herself to be in. I have a deep admiration, and a deep respect for how she’s navigated this path so far… I know that the future I want to see is with her as the president of the United States, and I’ll do anything I can to support that.

READ: Zachary Quinto Casts Leonard Nimoy’s Widow Susan on Medical Drama ‘Brilliant Minds’ as an 80-Year-old Nymphomaniac (EXCLUSIVE)

On a lighter note, Quinto, as he always does, expresses hope that he’ll get to play Spock again in another “Star Trek” movie. “The great thing is ‘Star Trek’ is a limitless universe. Look at all the television shows, look at all the stories, look at all the characters and timelines. Anything is possible,” he says. “That’s the joy of the franchise. That’s why it’s lasted for 55, 60 years. I’m open to it. I would love it. I would absolutely love it.”

No matter where or when.

“There’s no cutoff,” Quinto says. “The original cast did movies for decades, well into their 50s, 60s. The stories might be different. We might not be running as fast on the other planets, but I think anything’s possible, and I think there’s nothing more fulfilling as an artist then to come back to something after time has passed, and cultivate a relationship with it from a completely different perspective, and a completely new point of view.”

You can listen to the full interview with Quinto on “Just for Variety” wherever you find your favorite podcasts.

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