One Star Trek actor doesn't think he'd be a very good director

Several Star Trek actors have directed episodes of their Star Trek series while some have even gone on to be well-known as directors in the industry—Jonathan Frakes, Roxann Dawson, and Robert Duncan McNeill, to name a few. But not everyone is cut out for directing, and that's something that Colm Meaney, who played Chief Miles O'Brien on both Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, has no interest in anyway.

In an interview back in the 1990s that was included in Star Trek All Good Things: A Next Generation Companion, Meaney admited that he had no aspirations of getting behind the camera. Along with that, he was quite frank about saying he didn't think he'd be very good at it.

"I won't be directing anything anytime soon. I don't know that I'd be very good at it, and I don't see the point of trying when I don't have any kind of unique, visionary brain towards it."

- Colm Meaney

Meany is quite content at being an actor, and he was even okay that he wasn't the lead on Deep Space Nine every week because he was allowed to get away to do other things which helped keep things interesting.

"I don't want to be the lead every week, just as I don't want to not be the lead every week. Also, the fact that the producers here have let me get away so often to do other things kind of keeps my head in it. Since I came onto Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, I haven't actually been here for an entire season straight through. That's helped."

- Colm Meaney

True to his word, Meaney has not turned his attention toward directing. He has, however, kept up a steady pace of acting gigs that even included working with a future Star Trek actor, Anson Mount, in the post-Civil War drama, Hell on Wheels. Gone was the upbeat and generous Chief O'Brien, though, as Meaney portrayed the seedy character of Thomas "Doc" Durant, the man who was so easy to hate, proving that he might not be any good at directing, but we know he's an excellent actor.