- 5 months ago
'Star Trek: Strange New World' cast members Rebecca Romijn, Ethan Peck, Paul Wesley, Christina Chong and Jess Bush join Executive Producers Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers join the Comic-Con Variety Studio Presented by Google TV. They talk puppets, dancing and the other themes visited in the final season. Rebecca Romijn also teases working on 'Avengers: Doomsday.'
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00:00Rebecca, I do have to ask, since I have you here and I write for Variety, have you shot any of Avengers Doomsday yet?
00:06Yes.
00:21Yeah, you got it.
00:22Okay, thanks.
00:23You guys ready?
00:24Yep.
00:24Okay.
00:26Hey, guys.
00:27Welcome to the Variety Studio.
00:28Hello.
00:28Hi, Jarvis.
00:29Hi.
00:31That's not going to make any sense to people watching.
00:35So you guys just screened what I believe is like next week's episode, which is a big murder mystery.
00:41And I want to start with Paul, because you dove headfirst into like all of the William Shatnerism that you could possibly fit into it.
00:50How did you build that?
00:51Like what were you doing to find your inner Shatner?
00:54Well, it was that, but with a twist, right?
00:57It was the character is, you know, an actor in 1960s Hollywood who's, you know, totally sort of, you know, has a huge ego.
01:08He's its own.
01:09His name is Maxwell Saint.
01:10Are you walking it back?
01:12Huh?
01:12You're walking it back.
01:12No, I'm not walking it back.
01:13I'm just saying it was a combination of a fictional character named Maxwell Saint.
01:18And then I wanted to throw in some Shatnerisms for the, you know, for the people.
01:24A wink to the audience.
01:25But I also kind of created my own twist on it.
01:27So it's this, it's sort of like a combination of both Maxwell Saint and a little bit of a nod to, of course, TOS.
01:34I think you called it Shatnering before, which I loved.
01:36Shatnering.
01:36Yeah.
01:37Shatnerisms.
01:38It's a new verb.
01:39Yeah.
01:40To shat.
01:40Adjective.
01:41Shatnerism.
01:41How did you judge just how long of a pause to be taking?
01:44Jonathan Frakes and I, the director, Jonathan Frakes and I, we did, you know, a series of takes and I would call, I would sort of, you know, run off set and be like, was that too much?
01:55Was that too much?
01:56He said, no, go, give me more, give me more.
01:57And we did a bunch of different, you know, sort of, you know, variations.
02:01And then these two, Akiva and Henry, picked the ones that they liked the best.
02:05And I didn't get any calls that it was, you know, too much.
02:08No reshoots?
02:09Yeah, no reshoots.
02:10It was delightful.
02:11What is the Frakes experience?
02:13He's, you know, he's a sunbeam.
02:15He's a sunbeam.
02:16It's amazing.
02:17He's doing it forever.
02:18So what is the Frakes experience?
02:19I mean, he's very good at, like, you know, he wants to be in on the action, like, to the point where he's hiding behind plants in the shop.
02:26Yeah.
02:27And whispering directions to us.
02:29You know, he's in our eye.
02:30Like, he's just, he lights up everyone's day when you walk into work.
02:33It's like, working with Frakes is just a complete joy.
02:35He's singing.
02:36He's also, like, wonderfully self-deprecating.
02:41And not in a sense that he's, like, tearing himself down, but he's just like, I don't know, what do you think?
02:44Like, what do you want to hear?
02:46It's very collaborative.
02:47Forget about what I said.
02:48That was silly.
02:49Yeah, he's got very, very good ideas.
02:50And he also, because he's an actor, he loves to be right there on set with the actors and not necessarily over in Video Village.
02:56And he likes to start the day in the hair-makeup trailer, because that's what he's always done as an actor.
03:00He's, like, he just wants to be with the actors.
03:02Yeah.
03:03He's just a, he's a total sunbeam.
03:04Yeah, and this episode was very, sort of, heavy on, kind of, like, bringing our own spin on what we were doing.
03:10So he wanted us to improv.
03:11He wanted us to have fun, you know.
03:13It was, like, the blooper reel at the end of the, a lot, some of it was scripted, but a lot of it was just, like, us having fun on the day with Frakes, you know.
03:19Yeah, me too.
03:20Yeah, yeah.
03:29This episode also brings Spock and La'Anne's relationship to a new level.
03:36Ethan and Christina, what was your first reaction to that storyline?
03:40I was shocked.
03:42Yeah, I was very surprised.
03:43I was like, what?
03:43They're putting La'Anne and Spock together?
03:45Like, yeah, because, like, obviously, I thought this would continue.
03:50I know.
03:50I was very upset when I read that.
03:51I felt that.
03:52I felt your own.
03:53What am I?
03:53Not living?
03:55Not cool.
03:57But, yeah, I mean, but it was perfect because, especially with all the dancing that we do throughout, you haven't seen it all yet, but, like, with all the dancing we do, like, he's the perfect dance partner, like, Ethan, because he's so strong.
04:07Yeah, you are, and I trust him as a castmate, so all of that was incredible to learn new Latin routines and styles and ballroom.
04:18We did waltz.
04:19And it makes a lot of sense on some level because they're both sort of the most restrained.
04:23Yes.
04:23And have, they're hiding a lot of shame and inner turmoil, and so on paper, it kind of makes a lot of sense.
04:30Yeah.
04:30But it was still such a shock, yeah.
04:32Yeah.
04:32And my understanding, Christina, you've been dancing since you were a little kid.
04:36Yeah.
04:36What was your dance experience before diving into all of this?
04:40Like, like none.
04:42No, I did a tiny bit.
04:44I did a tiny bit in university, but, I mean, not like Christina Chong.
04:49And so what was the prep like for you?
04:52Just panic.
04:54It was, it was, it was, we did a lot of hours.
04:57I think we counted 74 hours of extra rehearsal.
05:01For weekends.
05:02And the real difficulty lied in, in performing those, those lines while we were dancing.
05:08Because if just doing the Argentinian, Argentinian tango routines that we did is difficult on its own.
05:13But then to combine sort of Spockian techno monologues along with it was an incredible challenge.
05:19So, thank you.
05:21And to match it from shot.
05:23And to match it from shot to shot.
05:25Yeah, because it's got to be timed out perfectly and to the music.
05:30But still feel organic.
05:31Yeah, and still feel spontaneous.
05:32So, that was an incredible challenge.
05:34Jess, how does Nurse Chapel feel about her one-time boyfriend romancing a colleague?
05:41How does she feel?
05:43You've never dove into that.
05:44You know, I think, I think the divergence of Chapel and Spock's romantic relationship, like the splitting of that.
05:52I think that, I think Chapel is pretty at peace with it.
05:57I think that she understands that like, although you can really love someone, sometimes your paths just do not align.
06:03And she is at peace with that when she goes away for the fellowship.
06:08I think that it's always going to be strange to see your ex lover with someone new, especially when you like work with them.
06:15But I think that, I think that, yeah, I think that she understands that this is probably better, you know?
06:23They're like more of a, it works.
06:25And she moves on pretty quickly.
06:27Yeah.
06:28She's distracted.
06:29She's got a boyfriend.
06:31Yeah.
06:31Rebecca, this show is done all manner of genres.
06:34You've got musical, horror, courtroom drama.
06:36How have you maintained Una's consistency as a character throughout all of these sort of wild swings of...
06:44Well, I think the adjustment comes within each genre flip, but the core performance is who you are on the bridge, you know, who you are before the mission and before we go into whatever strange new world we end up in.
06:59And so I think you maintain who that character is on the bridge and who they are professionally, and then the adjustment happens within the genre shift.
07:11Akiva, last year when I visited the set, you briefly mentioned, could Star Trek do Muppets?
07:17Sure, they could do Muppets.
07:18And then today you announced that in season four you're doing Muppets.
07:22Did you know in that moment that you were going to be doing Muppets when you said that to me?
07:25I did.
07:26I mean, I hoped we would, you know.
07:30I mean, it's, you know, like the musical, I have these huge, huge, huge ideas that Henry knows how to do.
07:38Because I have no idea how to do a musical or no idea how to do Muppets.
07:42So, but, you know, he's actually, he's done all of those things before.
07:46So we were already on the runway for Muppets.
07:49It wasn't, you know, we were talking to Henson and trying to figure it out.
07:53But, yeah, sorry.
07:56It was fine.
07:58Were we told to not say Muppets?
07:59Were we told to say Puppets?
08:00I say Muppets.
08:02Okay.
08:02If you say Muppets, I'm saying Muppets.
08:04Yeah, we keep getting mixed.
08:05Although, because technically, but it's Henson.
08:07Yeah, right.
08:09Henry, when Akiva comes into your office and says, I'm thinking we're going to do Puppets,
08:14how do you decide how that you're going to make that feel like Star Trek?
08:21I mean, it's funny because that's not usually how I remember it going down.
08:25But usually it's, I think we want to make it as funny and ridiculous as possible, but also have like a core emotional story that comes out.
08:37I mean, I kind of feel like the, you know, you get three acts of jokes and two acts of emotion at least by the end of most of our episodes.
08:46And part of that was, how do we do what has to be, feel like a classical Star Trek episode that has elements of Star Trek in a way that people have never seen before?
08:56And that's really the core of it.
08:58I mean, that's how we approached the musical.
08:59We were looking at it like, one, we can't do this badly.
09:03We have to do this well and we have to take the time and effort to put in all of that.
09:08And how do we make it feel like a Star Trek episode?
09:11We approached the puppets exactly the same way.
09:15Okay.
09:15You two are really good at that.
09:17Yeah.
09:17You guys are really good at it.
09:19We were saying upstairs a little bit, Adam, that a lot of our shows are like wedding toast.
09:23You know, we sort of, we go in light and then we try to come around at the end and give you emotion.
09:30I used to say it was three jokes and an aw.
09:32Yeah.
09:33Aw.
09:35Is there any other genres you could tease for what's coming up on season three?
09:42There are a few.
09:43I mean, I don't want to reveal it because some of it will spoil how you approach it, but there are definitely some genres that have not been done on Star Trek before that we go into in season three.
09:54And there's even more of them in season four.
09:58There's a lot in season four.
09:59There's a lot in season four.
10:00Almost every half.
10:01We'll revisit that.
10:02And it's interesting that season three, which was sort of released to the press in two bunches, most frivolity is in the front half.
10:10And we take a different turn in the back half of the season.
10:15How far along with you, you mentioned at the panel today about the possibility of continuing doing the Enterprise story past the end of Strange New Worlds.
10:28How far along with you are you in sort of figuring out what that would look like?
10:31Are you going to, you know, have, tell stories that haven't been told before?
10:36We create existing episodes.
10:37Like, how are you thinking about that?
10:39So let me just be very clear.
10:41It doesn't exist, right?
10:42It's an aspiration.
10:43It's a hope on our part to be able to continue telling stories that would kiss the end of Strange New Worlds.
10:53But Strange New Worlds ends on Jim Kirk's first day of work as captain of the Enterprise.
11:00And as you know, you know, if we call where no man has gone before the second pilot, there's space and time and relationships and crew that exist that have been untold, the untold stories of Kirk's Enterprise.
11:19So that's where we would love to situate the show, not really trying to drive into the continuity that we've seen, but in that gap between.
11:28Got it.
11:29Got it.
11:30Our approach to that, like Star Trek, is full of hope.
11:33Yeah.
11:33Nice.
11:35Rebecca, I do have to ask, since I have you here and I write for Variety, have you shot any of Avengers Doomsday yet?
11:41Yes.
11:46Were you surprised to get the call to come back?
11:48Very surprised, yes.
11:51And thrilled.
11:51And thrilled.
11:52Yeah.
11:53And is that about as much as you could say?
11:54It was very, it's been very surreal.
11:56Um, I really just can't talk about it.
12:00Sorry.
12:02But I'd love to, but yeah, it's, it was very, it's been very surreal and extremely fun to be with my old cast and a new cast.
12:09Um, uh, yeah, currently in production.
12:12Currently in production.
12:13Are you going back or you still have more to shoot?
12:14I cannot say.
12:15I cannot say.
12:16Okay.
12:17Um, you know, you guys are going to be shooting, I believe the final season in a few months is my understanding.
12:23Um, what's something, not to put you in a nostalgic frame of mind, but I'm going to do that.
12:28What is something about the show that you're going to miss the most?
12:30Oh, just going to set and working with cast and crew that you've known for like five years and like, you know, there's such a shorthand with the, our wardrobe people and makeup and, you know, everyone, just the familiar faces and it's been our life for just so long.
12:49And, um, yeah, that's, for me, it'd be the people.
12:51It's the crew.
12:52The crew.
12:53Our crew is amazing.
12:55So beautiful.
12:55We have the most beautiful crew.
12:58I think that I'm never going to forget that.
13:00I'll miss the material.
13:02The, the right, our writing is, the writing that is so good.
13:06For me, I'll really miss waking up at three in the morning on Monday.
13:09And really complicated arrangements of words.
13:1372 hours of dance rehearsal.
13:1574.
13:16Four layers of Spanx.
13:17Four layers of Spanx, yeah.
13:20All the shapewear.
13:21You know, Adam, in a, in a way that I, I think we'll probably talk about one day later on, but season five was not a given.
13:30And, uh, it was an act of love and, uh, sacrifice and contribution and collaboration on the part of everybody you see here in a way that I have never in my life experienced before.
13:45And I have never experienced a cast like this.
13:49And I'm old as fuck.
13:50But these people are so talented, so game, and they're the show.
13:57We're kind of just there going, hey, now try that.
14:01Henry, how about you?
14:04Um, I mean, there's, there's, there's kind of too many things to, uh, point at.
14:11But if I had to point at one, the, the, the, the, the thing that has been the most fun on this show was trying to come up with something new for the cast to try in every episode.
14:22Um, this, I mean, I grew up watching TV and going to the movies, you know, that's the, that was a lot of, a big part of my childhood.
14:30And it became the literal part of this job.
14:33You, you go into this as a viewer and you try to approach it as a viewer and like, how do I react as a viewer?
14:38And so part of it is just like, what if we try this movie we haven't seen?
14:43And what if you guys bring something to it that surprises us?
14:46And, you know, the, I've found that when you hand things off to people who are talented and smart and kind, they tend to bring it back to you in, in like, in a, in an incredible way.
14:57And that's the part that I like the most about the show.
14:59Guys, that's a great note to end on.
15:01Thank you so much for coming in.
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