Connor Trinneer: Japan’s Mr. Wonderful  Susan Yee 1/2003

Cigarette ads don’t win many popularity contests these days but they have given us many of America’s most memorable commercial images: Joe Camel shooting pool, the Virginia Slims sophisticate, and the epitome of America’s Wild West (who died of cancer, regretting his having promoted “coffin nails”), the Marlboro Man.

Japan, too, has its equivalent figures, one of the most famous being “Mr. Wonderful,” the symbol of Japan Tobacco’s “Ah, Delight” campaign. This mysterious Magritte-like figure in a bowler hat had impeccable smoking etiquette and was always considerate of the non-smokers around him. He enjoyed a host of magical, dream-like moments, such as savoring the scent of a rose in a railway compartment, or watching as a butterfly took shelter from the rain with him and a beautiful woman. 

Mr. Wonderful starred in numerous television commercials from 1998 to 2001, appearing in countless newspaper and magazine ads with ethereal slogans such as “Anata ga ureshii to, watashi wa tanoshii” (“When you are glad, I am having fun”).

Although the blond, blue-eyed protagonist’s face is known throughout Japan, few people realize that Mr. Wonderful is an American actor named Connor Trinneer, currently starring in the Star Trek episodic Enterprise on the UPN television network. He plays Lieutenant Charles “Trip” Tucker III, an intelligent and passionate man of action who has caught a lot of attention from fans for his steamy scenes with female aliens from around the galaxy.

Recently, Trinneer consented to let me interview him over lunch in his trailer on the Enterprise set. He was still in his “Starfleet uniform,” but he had pulled it down from his shoulders and tied the flopping arms around his waist. His black sleeveless T-shirt exposed huge, powerful arms, which lacked only an anchor tattoo to complete this virile picture.

Climbing into the cramped trailer-I felt like we were perpetually ducking-the first thing that hit me was the sweet scent of incense. After I peeked around to see how “the other side” lives (pretty much the same as the rest of us except maybe cleaner), we seated ourselves at a small table. It was cluttered with books about how to find peace, scripts that had been tossed aside, a sink heaped full of bottled waters and a black & white photo of a woman, probably his girlfriend Ariana, flipping us off.

Having grown up in Walla Walla, Washington, Trinneer entered the acting world while on a football scholarship at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma.

“Discovering acting was probably the single most explosive moment of my life,” he exclaimed. “Frankly, I got into school and they wanted me to play football, so I did. After a couple years of that, I was finding myself unhappy doing that. It wasn't fun anymore. It was like a job. So a friend of mine, we were visiting a friend of his, who was a girl... she was cute,” he smiles to himself. “She was in the theater department, and I think I was mentioning that I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life, which is like the eternal question for your twenties, sometimes later. So she said, ‘Audition for a play.’

“I’d never auditioned before in my life. I went home and studied up with my mom-my parents had done some plays together in high school. Then I went to my first audition and I got in there and I started doing it, somehow it just felt...right. When I walked out of there,  I screamed, I yelled! It sounds pretty cheesy when you describe it, but it was truly like every nerve in my body went 'Whoa! What is this?’ I had found what I wanted to do... I quit football the next day...”

He laughs. “I didn't get the part, but that didn't discourage me at all. I dove head long into it, then went to graduate school, got classically trained... and here I am.”

Trinneer’s road to success was a short one as far as the acting world goes. Most actors don’t become “overnight sensations” until they’ve worked hard for 10 years or more. But after double majoring in Theater and Theater (“I took so many classes I didn't have to take, just because I wanted to...”), he graduated from PLU and, with the encouragement of his undergrad mentor, William Becvar, applied to the National Theater Institute in Missouri and was accepted. After graduating with a MFA in Acting and Directing, he moved to New York for a year and a half, but there was something missing in the intense city life.

"I love New York, I love to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there. I mean, I grew up on the Columbia River, I grew up 15 miles from Mt. Saint Helens. Not just having those things around, I think I had a problem with it."

While in New York, however, he was cast in a Club Med commercial which earned a Gold Medal in the Cannes Commercial Festival, the equivalent of the renowned Cannes Film Festival. Based on this, he won the role in the Japan Tobacco campaign.

"Most of the big ad agencies in the country, and the big directors, they go to Cannes, and from that I probably got 5 or 6 jobs prior to the Japan Tobacco thing happening from people simply saying, 'We want that guy, we want that Club Med guy.' And the director of the JT Delight campaign [Keith Rhodes] said the same thing, 'We want that guy.'"

Trinneer filmed 6 commercials and numerous newspaper and magazine ads from 1998 to 2001. The ad campaign was hugely successful in Japan, yet he’s remained a relatively anonymous figure here in the U.S.

"If you've seen the commercial, it's really hard to tell who I am.  I’ve got this hat on, and I don't know if this show [Enterprise] shows in Japan... I just don't think anyone would ever make the connection." A mischievous grin spreads across his face. "In fact, sometimes I'm walking down Melrose where  a lot of Japanese tourists do their shopping while they're here, I'm walking by a group of Japanese people and I'm thinking...or hoping, 'Did anyone recognize me?'

But they never do and I don't expect them to, but that would kind of tickle me [laughs]."

Although the commercials were shown in Japan, they were actually filmed by South African crews in South Africa and Europe. (Keith Rhodes is South African.) That didn't mean Trinneer didn't get a chance to get to know his Japanese clients.

"There were always 12-18 people who were there who were Japanese clients...I got to be pretty good friends-to a point it was all business friendships-but I got to be pretty close to the people I spent most of my time with. We'd laugh and laugh and laugh and they'd tell me stories and I'd tell them stories. Honest to God, we'd spend a lot of time at dinner trying to make each other laugh.”

One thing that struck Trinneer was the impeccable protocol he noted in Japanese business society.

“The whole hierarchy around positions of power, it's really obvious in Japanese business,” he said. “There was always somebody responsible for basically inviting all of us to sit there.” He points to an imaginary seat in front of us. “There was a specific place that everyone was supposed to sit at based upon, I guess, your importance to the group. That was fascinating to me. You didn’t all just pile in, sit down and eat dinner. It was a personal limitation that I had never experienced before. ‘Would you like to sit here?’ Nobody ever said, ‘Naw, I’ll sit over there.’ That was interesting. Then you'd get used to it. “

Surprisingly, despite his close association to Japan through his involvement with the JT Delight campaign, he never got a chance to visit the country.

“I really wanted to go, I desperately wanted to go, I still want to go... I love so much about it. I love the art. There's a real concerted effort toward beauty in everything. The calligraphy is beautiful, the paintings are beautiful, and the traditional dress is beautiful, all in a very, very different way than ours is...I want to see what is Tokyo, I want to see what is the natural landscape, the natural beauty. I want to see Mount Fuji. If we went I would climb Mt. Fuji in a heartbeat! And honestly,” he smiles shyly, “I’d like to see myself on a billboard, stand in front of a billboard and have my picture taken. That would be fun, that would be a hoot.”

Travel has gotten a little more difficult for Trinneer these days because of his heavy work schedule on Enterprise. But it is something that he doesn’t at all mind making time for.

“I am having the best time. I really feel fortunate I got the part that I got. I think that the part that I play is pretty close to who I am in terms of sensibilities and that sort of thing. I don't know if I believe in fate or not-but I got the best one that I have been given an opportunity for. If this is all I get, in terms of tossing my hat in the ring, I’ll be okay with that.”

One thing that the Star Trek world is well-known for is its legions of devout, off-beat fans. It must be difficult to live up the expectations of such a group, but Trinneer takes it all in stride.

“It’s been sort of a surreal experience, not because of the people I’m meeting but because of walking onto a stage and having 3000 people stand up and applaud for you. It’s a hell of a feeling, but it’s also surreal. People who have come up to me have really been respectful. [They say], ‘l like your show, I like what you do.’ No one has come up to me and said, ‘You suuuck.’ The only time it’s ever been uncomfortable," he continues, "is when someone has been drinking or something. They’ll call me ‘Trip,’ and I say, ‘I’m Connor. Nice to meet you.’ And they are like, ‘No, no, you’re Trip.’ You just have to find your way to graciously bow out.”

Trinneer has very little time to pursue other projects, such as his work at the Circle X, a theater founded by graduate school friends which he still actively supports, but he hopes to spread his wings to other aspects of the entertainment industry.

“I would love to put the directing hat on - I’d love to get the opportunity here on this show [Enterprise] to maybe learn a little bit about directing. I’m not an actor who wants to direct, I’m an actor who wants to act, but I’d also like to learn how to direct in case a project that I develop or somebody develops comes up that I’d like to have a part in creating.

“Something about me is that I trust--if I’m interested in something--that I’ll open myself up to it and explore it. If it’s worthwhile, I’ll keep going. If it’s not, I don’t do it anymore. I like to keep the options open for anything.”

We can’t wait to see where he goes from here.