Sadtimes

One of my old spacesuits is being auctioned off on eBay. I’m not sure why, but it makes me feel a little sad.
I’m sitting here, about to write a little entry about it, when my phone rings. It’s a friend of mine, asking me if I’m going to the Star Trek X screening.
“Yeah, on Wednesday,” I tell him.
“No, it’s tonight,” he tells me.
“Tonight? At Paramount?”
“No, it’s in Westwood, tonight,” he tells me, “I just talked with Marina about it.”
Oh no.
That feeling I have gotten so many times before, when I was the only cast member not asked up on stage at the 25th anniversary party, when I was the only cast member not recognized at the screening of “All Good Things…” begins to well up. I feel a little sick.
He wouldn’t do this to me, right? Not now, not after the conversations we had when I was working on the movie, not since the phone call informing me of the cut. This must be a mistake. Past is the past, right? We’re cool now. There is no way he’d exclude me from this.
But he did.
He did it to me again.
I want to cry.
I tell my friend that I have to go, and hang up the phone.
I sit there alone and cold in the kitchen. I can hear Ryan watching Sabrina The Teenage Witch in the living room.
I can’t believe this is happening to me. When Rick told me that my scenes were cut, he assured me that I’d still be invited to the premiere, and that he’d see me there. I was excited to see all my friends again, and share in those moments with them. Be a part of what will really be the final mission.
It turns out that the screening I was invited to will be at Paramount on Wednesday, and pretty much anyone who works at Paramount can attend. It’s not the premiere, and none of the cast are going. There’s really nothing special about it.
I seriously, desperately hope that this was just an oversight. I desperately hope that this is totally out of Rick’s hands, and that he’ll tell me that he’s sorry if it ever comes up. I desperately hope this isn’t personal. I want so badly to believe that it isn’t. It sucks to be overlooked, but it sucks less than if I’d been intentionally not invited.
It sure fits a pattern though, huh?
I just — I don’t know what to do. I don’t even know how to feel anymore.
But I’ll go with hurt for now.
Really, really fucking hurt.

533 thoughts on “Sadtimes”

Wil…
I wasn’t the biggest Wesley fan on the show, but I didn’t hate the character either. Your contributions to the series cannot be ignored.
On the bright side… I’ve met Marina. I know I don’t know her 0.0005% as well as you do, but you and I both know she doesn’t have an evil bone in her body, and I’m sure that goes for Levar and a lot of the others too.
I have no doubt that’s how the rest of the cast feel. Those were your friends. Producers are evil people. The world knows that. Look what they did with Enterprise. Blech.
You are so much more a celebrity than I will ever be. You so have it “made” so much more than I ever will have.
I don’t know how to feel about that.
But I’ll go with envious for now.
Really, really fucking envious.
😉

hey man,
I feel your pain. I hope you’re writing a book about Star Trek because all this makes for some juicy reading.
Your best revenge would be massive success. Good luck.

That makes me really sad, and angry. I know what it’s like to be left out, and I don’t know why they would do that to you. I hope you feel better.

IF it helps… I wrote Paramount Studios about the snub.

Wil:
I went to see Nemesis in Honolulu on opening night. It was the early evening show, and I was sitting in a room full of Klingons and the inexplicable Jedi Knight. Anyway, the point is, everyone in the theater was a FAN…and as far as I can tell, people laughed, gasped and chuckled throughout the movie, but no one cheered…EXCEPT ONCE.
…the wedding scene. Someone spoke out loud in the theater “Hey – It’s Wesley!” and all of Star Fleet started cheering.
And that was the only time I heard cheers from Nemesis. Decent movie, I guess. Picard looked sort of like Spider Jerusalem driving the dune buggy thing though.

Well You call the cast of TNG your friends.. im sorry but what type of friends dont check to make sure one of their own are going to be at an important event like a premire..
i think you got shit on bad.. but hey. remeber Wil What goes around comes around and Ricky’s number is up!!!
*PS Call me if you need some help kicking his ass!

If they cut you from the movie there’s no sense in inviting you to the actor’s premiere, especially if the press will be there to take photos and shit. So don’t let it bother you, for Christsakes, and move on with your life.
The cast members might not even be your friends. They’re former co-workers, don’t expect so much from them.

One word: Rick is a b…., well you know what! I know that’s, you know, more than one word but you get the picture right? One pissed off sister is the picture!

Heyas.
I went to see Nemesis and me and my roommate were all like, “Hey! It’s Wil! Yay Wesley! w00t!” at the dinner scene.
It wasn’t right of them to not invite you to the premiere. This Rick guy sounds like a class A numero uno jerk. I preferred the Gene years of Star Trek and TNG than anything else.
Good luck to you, and I’m behind you 500%!

I never understood why people hated your charactor. I never understood why they wrote you off with the wierd traveler thing. I cant for the life of me understand why they havnt brought you back. I’m not a Trek geek …I have a mild interest in the shows and movies but not inviting you to be apart of something you gave your childhood to is just fucking wrong. Dont sweat this shit your a great actor and will get some big roles and then the weasly fuckers will be all too happy to have you back. When they do smile alot and take a greasy dump in the front seat of thier cars when no one is looking.

Don’t worry dude, except for Patrick Stewart and Marina Sirtis, all the rest of the cast is really starting to exceed the ol’ turbolift max cap, if you know what I mean. Entirely unrelated to the dissing, but might make you feel better.
Seriously, my girlfriend was one of the people who shouted out, “It’s Wesley!” at the wedding scene, and then moped around for the rest of the movie ’cause you weren’t in any of it. Take care

Loved your cameo in the movie. Was one of the only bright spots wil. In other news I am trying to get them to invite you to Starfest herein Denver. By the way Rick Berman is not the answer for Star Trek. It quickly losing its appeal to me and thats scary. This movie could have been so good and it was just cheese.
Ben

Godammit! I went to the freaking thing looking forward to seeing you and it was ONE shot of you sitting next to Gates at the head table.
Who else could have done this BUT Berman? Cripes, I wouldn’t spit on him if he were dying of thirst.
Peace

I remember reading your reaction to getting cut but I must have denied it was true. I watched the film last night and was one of those “Yeah! Wes!” shouters in the wedding scene then one of those “Hey, where’d he go! Guys, do ya see him yet? When’s he comin back?” anxious whisperers for the rest of the film. Stupid movie politics. You rock and we all know it. Cheers.

I went and saw the new movie. I was very disapointed. The only reason I agreed to go see it is becuase one of my friends read the script and said you where in it. So the movie started I almost missed you camio in the beging. I kept hoping through the whole movie that you would show up and when your character didn’t it left me very disapointed and upset. No Wesley. One of my friends suggested a glimer of hope that maybe they would add it or make it a part of the dvd. One can only hope.

Nemesis rules, with or without Wesley and Guinan (I’m surprised they even bothered to have her there, she had 1 line! WHOOPI GOLDBERG HAD 1 LINE! How much you think they blew on that?). Would have been nice to see you speak too. Oh well. Maybe the next one… *prays*.

I see it this way. You ar least got a chance to appear in many episodes of what will (if it isn’t already) become an imortilized part of American culture. You have contributed and got to be a part of something that is bigger than life. Most of us will never get the chance to have one-hundredth of the opportunities that you have. Be satisfied that you got as far as you did.
Tomorrow morning I will wake up and go 20 miles out to sea in single digit weather at 3AM. There will be no autographs, no action figures, no fan websites… I feel bad that you got hosed but at least you got a chance in the first place despite of the end results. Screw Berman.
Would you rather be stuffed into the movie much as Nichelle Nichols or Gates McFadden have been? Faces added not to advance the story but for the sake of pandering to a fan base and capitalizing on name recognition? Those two thankfully were thrown a bone when the directors chair was filled with a cast member but other than that they were assigned the roles of turning buttons or taking tricorder readings. They characters were wasted.
Be happy that what you have done had substance. You will be remembered for your contributions to the series not as someone who grasped on to his character to further his acting career.
Take pride in what you have been blessed with. I saw you on the Screen Savers and was happy to see your endeavors in other directions. Pursue them and enjoy them. You appear to be a very intelligent individual. Use it.
Best wishes.

A basic medical analogy applies: If it hurts, don’t do it – just move along. The next time Paramount asks you to do anything, tell them to get stuffed.

500 and some comments, well, here’s one more. I almost didn’t click on the comment section since I am on a dial up, but I did anyway.
I’ve worked in tv for 19yrs, OK most of it was working as a tech at a PBS station, and that hardly counts, but it was steady work until kinda recently when I got laid off due to budget cuts. And I have been looking for work and being a bit picky about what work I want to take full time, and freelancing, etc. And I just now realized that all the agnst I am going through about job interviews and presenting myself to people who are hiring is such a totally miserable experience and ACTORS do it all the time! And they never stop doing it! WOW! How do you do it? It really is hard to keep things in perspective, that work is “what you do,” not “who you are.” But it is a big part of who we are, no matter how hard we try to rationalize it.
I’ve been catching up here on your website since I stumbled across it since your guest hosting appearance on TSS the other night. And all I have to say is, when your book comes out, I’ll be buying it, whatever TV show you’ll be a part of I want to watch it, whenever I see you will be in a new movie, I’m going to see it on the big screen, and I certainly hope you keep auditioning, and working, and audtioning and working ….. because there are a lot of folks out there like me who are just now realizing how much you have to offer and are really interested in seeing/hearing/reading more.
You have a lot of talent and I really enjoy your writing. Keep at it, Wil…. and good luck!

Hi Wil,
First time posting, but I’ve been reading for a few months (Now that I know this site exists)
I just wanted to say that you (And ST:TNG) were a big part of my growing up and what I think the Dic…err Rick is doing to you and has done to your career is unfair and somewhat petty. I hope he gets Karma for Christmas (By Karma, I mean the movie Ishtar)
-Bill

Wil,
I bet you’ll think I’m mad, but I actually like Wes Crusher. I think it’s really evil of Rick Berman to write you off and cut you from ‘Nemesis’, then not even get you to the proper premiere. I hope your TNG castmates are gonna kick his butt if/when they find out what he did!
Wes was just as good as the other members of the bridge crew, and it really killed me to know he had to leave (haven’t seen that episode, still on Season 3/4), especially as I like to imagine I’m there on Enterprise, being friends with all the characters.
Star Trek: TNG is (in my opinion) one of the best T.V. programs ever, and Wes is my favorite character. When I watch TNG, I cry if someone’s dead or assumed dead, and I sometimes yell at the T.V. to tell the crew what I know but they don’t (eg. “DATA’S ALIVE FOR GOODNESS SAKE!” during ‘The Most Toys’, which I watched last Tuesday).
Hope you have loads of better days – hold your head high and don’t let it get you down too much. That Rick Berman’s just stupid in that he can’t see your true talent!
-Mandy

Fuck.
That’s about the only word that comes to mind… well the only word that dosen’t involve killing someone. If we’ll all lucky the SOB will die a very painfull death very soon. To do what he did… that’s just a kick in somewhere lower than the chest.
Good Luck Wil, ignore that mother fucker, he isn’t worth it.

DICK BERMAN

Thank God they cut out your part. That would probably have been the one part of the movie that would have tipped the scales from being mostly entertaing (only 70%) to “please slit my wrists” (20%). I’m sorry, but the boy wonder gig of Wesley Crusher got real old real fast. Not only was it not realistic, but all the horrendous amounts of favortism being showed to Wesley Crusher degraded the professionalism of the other characters.
And how were they supposed to bring you back? “Oh, my traveller buddy kicked me to the curb, so here I am. Here, let me pull myself out of time and beat the bad guys in the first 10 minutes of the movie.”?
Seriously, why would you want to go when they’d cut out your parts, anyways? Listen, they cut your parts because fans didn’t like Wesley Crusher. It doesn’t reflect of you as a person, and doesn’t necessarliy reflect on your acting abilities. If acting means that much to you, make a name for yourself on your own, like Harrison Ford and David Hasselhoff did. If you can do it, great. If not, then you should appreciate the oppurtinity you had, however short, of being a part of the Star Trek legacy, something many Trek fans can only dream about and never hope to have in their entire lives.
Move on, Grasshopper.

Wil wanted to hang with his friends at the premiere. He understood cutting out his part from the theatrical release but he was told he’d be invited. Berman going back on his word is so not classy. Simple thing. Last hurrah. Bleh. 🙁
In the beginning, your character was precocious and annoying, but you matured and became a flawed but generally admirable character. As an actor, you’ve always been a class act. Thanks and hope to see you propser again soon.

Wil,
I’m a very late comer to your site. Just bought the Nemesis DVD, and was looking for you in the rest of that film, and been trying to catch up with news here…
What’s his name can go jump off a cliff… maybe one of your fans will help him…
Remember this… you got to kiss Ashley Judd…
holy cow it sucks to be left out… but you know what? you’re young. ambitious. talented. hard working. Berman doesn’t have any of those qualities…
Good luck to you and your family, Wil. You’re gonna be just fine….