Zachary Quinto was at the TCA (Television Critics Association) press tour today to promote his new NBC limited series, The Slap. In the series, Quinto plays a man who slaps someone else’s misbehaving child, causing a chain reaction of events to occur in the neighborhood, among an impressive cast that also includes Uma Thurman, Thandie Newton, Peter Sarsgaard, Brian Cox and Melissa George.

During a chat with press, Quinto was asked about the status of the next Star Trek film, which has a new director in Justin Lin. As it turns out, Quinto revealed he hasn’t even spoken to Lin yet. Quinto also talked briefly about Hitman: Agent 47 , his varied career and his aspirations behind the camera, as his production company increases its output.

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I have no idea. I haven’t met him yet, I haven’t talked to him yet. My mind isn’t there yet but I’m excited to know that they have someone they’re excited about and I’m sure they wouldn’t choose anyone less than stellar so I’m excited.No, I’m focusing on other things until I know exactly when and where and what we’re doing.Thanks. I really make declarations about what I want to do based on what I’ve done. So for me it was like, the opportunity to do Heroes on NBC and have this very archetypal, villainous, supernatural world and character was a great thing and it sent me on this kind of trajectory that was reinforced to a certain degree by playing Spock Then I started saying I want to get away from the genre landscape so I started to cultivate opportunities like I Am Michael. And then American Horror Story brought me back to that a little bit. So it’s an ebb and a flow for me. Harry is arguably the villain [of The Slap] but in a very human way. So for me it was about getting into a world that was not elevated or supernatural or science fiction. This is a very human world and so now that I’ve had the opportunity to do this, I feel a sense of closure on this villainous aspect of my persona which I’ve lent to these characters that have made a significant impact on my career and the audience of these shows and these films. So I’m really looking forward to a future of varied opportunities and some lighter fare.We shot that movie primarily in Berlin which is arguably my favorite city in the world. So the fact that I got to work on something that was really dynamic and exciting and also be in this place that was really unique and inspiring to me was probably the coolest part of that experience.Absolutely yeah. We have a number of things we’re involved in right now and it’s just finding the right homes for them. We did this series called the Chair which is a documentary series that aired on Starz this year. That was my company’s show. That’s not fictional, narrative storytelling but it was our primary move into TV thus far and think it whet our appetite to be a little bit more involved in narrative structure.I do, Yeah.No, nothing specific. I’m reading scripts now that I’m looking at with an eye as a director so I’m trying to find the right project. I have to figure out what I have to say. I have ideas and I’m working on it.

Eric Goldman is Executive Editor of IGN TV. You can follow him on Twitter at @EricIGN , IGN at ericgoldman-ign and Facebook at Facebook.com/TheEricGoldman