While Alice Eve is a newcomer to the cast of "Star Trek into Darkness" along with Benedict Cumberbatch, her character has deep roots. "She's dug, dug in there," said Eve about the role of Dr. Carol Marcus, originally played by Bibi Besch in the 1982 film "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan."
"Dr. Marcus is a weapons specialist with a PhD," Eve continued. "She's incredibly intelligent and highly qualified. In the canon, she has Kirk's baby. In ‘Wrath of Khan,' she is the mother of his grown son," Eve told Yahoo! Movies while promoting Neil LaBute's "Some Velvet Morning" opposite Stanley Tucci at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival.
Incredibly intelligent and highly qualified also describes Eve. Not to mention that the 31-year-old Londoner's the kind of stunning icy blond that would have made Alfred Hitchcock do a double take. The Oxford University grad has stood out in movies that didn't always match her talents but showed her potential, like "Men in Black 3" and "The Raven." Her breakout role was as Jay Baruchel's sweetie in the aptly titled "She's Out of My League."
Eve did her homework to play Marcus: "I watched all the 'Star Trek' TV shows. My favorite episode was 'Charlie X,'" she said, referring to a first-season episode that first aired in 1966. "I also watched all the movies -- Patrick Stewart's and William Shatner's." About her director J. J. Abrams, she said, "J. J. is up there with the great minds."
While the actress has skirted on the fringe of fame so far, considering her hot scenes as Captain Kirk's love interest opposite Chris Pine, she's about to become a fan-boy obsession for the next thirty years. How does that strike her?
"I wasn't planning on it," Eve laughs. "Let's hope I'm alive in thirty years! Think of Carrie Fisher as the wonderful Princess Leia and the gold bikini. I'm sure it will be a positive thing. I have fun at Comic-Con. I went to Oxford and studied literature, which is very detail oriented. There's always something to be detail-oriented about. Besides, I'm only one part of a big story."
And the other story on her mind at Tribeca is the LaBute two-hander "Some Velvet Morning," an extended discussion between Fred and Velvet, a married man and his much-younger mistress. LaBute, who will have a new TV series called "Full Circle" partnered with DirecTV, shot the indie drama over ten days in Park Slope, Brooklyn.
Of co-star Tucci, Eve gushed: "I'd just seen 'Margin Call,' I'd seen 'The Hunger Games.' Stanley has a massively small ego and ease of approach. He brings huge depth to every role."
Without revealing the movie's plot twist, Eve explained, "Velvet's a damaged soul who has been in a relationship with Fred in the past. One morning, he comes knocking at the door and they enter into a dialog of two souls. It's a dissection of a love relationship. Love is like war: easy to start and hard to finish."
Eve continued: "Fred's married: we touch on marital infidelity sexual deviance, misplaced jealousy, misplaced egos, and power struggles. Neil LaBute lifts the lid on taboos. That's what Neil does. He readdresses the gender gap. I believe it's a bit of a misnomer that men and women are not equal. There is a difference between sexes. We give birth and men don't. There's an inherent difference that doesn't allow for equality, a fundamental difference in our paths. There is an inequality in pay in the Western world, and the horrific rape of a five-year-old girl in Delhi yesterday, but in the day-to-day society, I don't feel less than men."
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And, as for the gender balance alongside Captain Kirk on the Enterprise space, Eve said: "It's a democratic, egalitarian workplace that's only as patriarchal as the women let it be. Men are just stronger in a world where physical strength counts so maybe sometimes they win the day. But women are always pressing the buttons metaphorically and literally."
"Some Velvet Morning" premieres at the Tribeca Film Festival on Sunday, with additional screening on Monday and Tuesday. "Star Trek Into Darkness" opens nationwide on May 17.