- 2 months ago
Star Trek: Discovery airs Sunday’s at 8:30PM on CBS.
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00:00Hi, this is Mariah Gullow from The Hollywood Reporter, and we're in studio with Shehzad
00:07Lateef today. Star Trek Discovery! I'm so excited, Shehzad. You have no idea. I am a Star Trek fan.
00:15I have been to a Star Trek convention as a child. Did you dress up? I didn't dress up. I wore
00:21actually kind of a star and moon dress, but I did get an autograph from Michael Dorn. Wow.
00:27Wow. Wow. I met Terry Farrell the other day for the first time. Oh yeah? She was great.
00:34She was lovely. She was easing me into the con circuit. How? Okay, wait a second. Are
00:41you fully into the con circuit yet? No, no, it was my first time. You were at your first
00:46con. My first one of meeting fans and stuff like that, and she was just giving me the tips.
00:52Nice, nice. Anything good to share? She was just, you know, it was just nice to meet her.
00:57People who were so passionate, it was lovely. Yeah. It was great. I mean, I think this is
01:02the beginning of a beautiful friendship with the fans of Star Trek. Discovery's amazing.
01:07Thank you. It's really, really exciting. What an exciting show. It's crazy. Can we talk a little
01:14bit about your character? Yes. Because we had an amazing reveal, and I have so many questions.
01:19I'm actually really confused, but I think I know what's going on, but do you know what's
01:24going on? I think I know what's going on, yeah. Do you know the physical mechanics of
01:28what has happened? There was lots of discussions with, you know, everyone had their, you know,
01:32put in their five cents. It was producers, writers, everyone, you know, other actors wanted
01:36to know what was going on so they could, you know, react to stuff. And my understanding of
01:40it is, Vok is the core being underneath, Vok, sorry, Vok, we changed, that changed halfway
01:45through. Really? From Vok to Vok? Vok to Vok, yeah, because, you know, Vok sounds too much
01:49like other things. Yeah. And there, yeah, so Vok's the core being underneath, and then Ash Tyler,
01:56who is a real soldier who L'Rell finds, and, you know, he matches sort of physical descriptions
01:59as much as he can. His consciousness, his memories get him placed on top.
02:05He's in there. So it is two B-Words, you know. So it's physically, we're physically Vok.
02:11We're physically Vok, but he's been crushed down with bits, bits of Tyler's, you know,
02:15obviously his skin and some of his organs and that kind of thing. Oh man, so it's a real
02:18Frankenstein situation. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Crazy. How did you, I mean, how did you kind of
02:24become those, I mean, you've got three characters now. It's three. Because you're in the mirror world
02:31too. It's three, it's technically four because the new Tyler Vok sort of transformation
02:35is actually its own little thing, you know, dealing with this, if you wanted to say it
02:38was four, but it's crazy. The first four reps, I was just Vok anyway, so it was, that was
02:46my focus. And then, you know, I could move on to Tyler, and then Tyler, for the first three
02:50Voks sort of sleeping, so then I could focus on Tyler. And then it was nine, ten, eleven
02:54when it started getting crazy. You had to keep, start switching things. And then couldn't
02:57make sure the arcs, you know, link up and continue and, you know, that it all makes sense.
03:02Because it was trying, it's hard to sort of keep a focus, like an objective eye on it.
03:06Was it a relief to get out of the Klingon makeup for a while?
03:09Yeah, because it's claustrophobic. I never put contact lenses in my eyes ever before,
03:15and it just stings. It makes you cry. It's just, it's just horrible. It's claustrophobic.
03:19It's sweat. It's lots of sweat after 12 hours. And you have to like really.
03:23You have to streak through straws, you know, you're not allowed food. They were like, don't eat,
03:26don't eat. I said, I'm eating. I'm eating. I'm having my lunch. I used to like open wide,
03:30make sure the lips didn't get messed up, like ketchup. No sauces. I love sores.
03:33Oh no.
03:35But it was a relief. But mask works great because it's very free. You know, you're hidden underneath
03:41this thing, so you can, you just feel very free. So that's the only positive side. It's good for
03:46acting.
03:46And now, you know, everybody, I mean, everybody who's a Star Trek fan knows that the Klingon
03:52language is very well developed. So how are you with Klingon?
03:57I was, I think I was very good. I mean, I got, you know, a good response from Robin,
04:01who was the expert who'd spoken it for four years. We did our first practice session. She
04:06was like, oh, you're good. You're good.
04:08Nice.
04:08And I was like, I was like, because there's very, you know, similar sounds to Arabic and
04:11Spanish rolling R's and stuff. And I'd studied Spanish a bit and I'd done a bit of Arabic
04:15before. So it's, I find it quite easy and I enjoy languages. So it was, it was, it was a fun,
04:19fun thing to get into. And it, you know, it helps you obviously become Klingon.
04:23Would you be able to teach me a Klingon phrase or a word?
04:27I remember I saw, you know, you just erase everything from it. But my first ever line
04:31was, um, I will light the fire, which is, um, cool. That's pretty good. That's pretty
04:40good. That's very good. That's very good. Thank you. Now, um, I'm not sure if, uh, Michael
04:47Burnham will ever have you back, but at this moment you are a dual love interest. Yeah.
04:53Um, what was it like filming two very different love scenes? Yeah, there's a four way, there's
04:59a four way relationship going on inside three bodies. It's very, um, that's how I've been
05:02describing it. But it's, um, it's crazy and they're equally justifiable. Both these romantic
05:07relationships, you know, Volker and Laurel, it's a nice, it's their own story. It's lovely
05:11and they should be on that journey and also should, you know, Ash and, Ash and Michael. So
05:15it's just something, something's got to give and one of them's, you know, it's very sad
05:18that it's gonna, one of them must, won't be complete, you know. Yeah. Um, I, I like both
05:25of them. You know, they should all just go on a double date. That's what I want. I want
05:28them to all go on to a restaurant together. That's what I want. That would be good. Um, so, uh,
05:35okay. So let's talk a little bit about, um, the canon of Star Trek. How familiar are you
05:42with it? I mean, you're a young man. This is, I don't even know how long it is.
05:45I mean, I'm aware of the history. I mean, I was aware of what the show was. I wasn't
05:50a super fan. My granddad was, um, my uncle was, I grew up with Next Generation. Um, it
05:55was on after Fresh Prince, um, you know, BBC Two. It was a good double bill and just Patrick
06:00Stewart and his, his lovely shiny head. Is your family putting in any of their two cents?
06:05Uh, I haven't, I spoke to my uncle once and he was just very happy. I, I don't, I haven't
06:10had any, like, you know, cause this is set 10 years before. So, I mean, you can't really do,
06:14like research by watching it. It's not really going to benefit you really, really, cause
06:17it's, you know, this is, everything is new in a sense. Right. Um, I mean, you could be
06:21somebody's father. That's true. That's true. That's true. Um, no, but it's nice. Again,
06:27I watched, rewatched next, some next gen. That was mainly the one I, I rewatched cause it
06:30was the one I, it was nostalgic for me. Yeah. Yeah. Um, well I have a question. I have some
06:36questions for you just regarding, um, Star Trek characters. Um, I wanted to see if we,
06:43if Star Trek was a yearbook, I wanted to see who would be most likely to do certain things.
06:48So you can name characters from your Star Trek or from any other, if you think, if anything
06:53comes to mind, um, most likely to succeed in any universe. Ooh, maybe Lorca. He's very
07:03adaptable. He knows, you know, he knows how to survive. Did you hear the theory that he
07:07is actually mirror world Lorca, mirror universe? Is that the? That's a Reddit theory. I don't
07:12know any, I'd never read any of that from stuff, but that's, oh yeah, you know, I can see what
07:15they're, okay, yeah. That's good. How about class clown? It's gotta be, gotta be Mary
07:22Wiseman. And me, and me, and me. Mary Wiseman and me. I'm going to say Mary Wiseman.
07:28Nice. Teacher's pet? Uh, maybe Burnham. Yeah. Maybe Burnham. She said that she was like
07:37that at school when she was young anyway. She said she was really, you know, bookish.
07:40Mm-hmm. Most athletic? Oh, Doug Jones or Wilson. You know, Wilson's got that classic,
07:47you know, beach bod, but like Doug Jones has got the contortionist body. That's a, that's
07:50a good battle, actually. Interesting. They can share the beer book page. Yeah. Biggest flirt.
07:57Biggest flirt. I'm trying to think of who we got. Maybe Laurel. Maybe Laurel. I was just
08:03going to think that. Yeah, Laurel, Laurel, Mary Chiefer. Yeah, Laurel, Laurel. Life of the
08:08party? Life of the party. Ooh, maybe a bit of Wilson and, and, and, and Doug Jones again.
08:15He likes to sing. He likes, he's got a. Oh, really? He breaks out into song in costume,
08:19just randomly, like Elvis. Amazing. You know, he's great. Yeah, yeah. Fun to see. Okay,
08:25last one. Most likely to die in a horrible transporter accident. I'm going to say Laurel
08:32again. Yeah, okay. I know, his days are numbered, I feel like. Yeah. So, I mean, Klingon,
08:42the Klingon culture is a little interesting in this, in this Star Trek. It's a little different
08:49than it has ever been. Yeah. Do you think that they're kind of gearing up to see like a
08:54transformation of their culture? Because it feels like there's, there's this Klingon honor
08:59code that you see in the next generation, and I feel like they're not evolved yet. They're
09:03not there. Yeah, they're sort of finding themselves. You know, it's wartime. There's these new characters
09:07we've never seen before. They are finding their culture, and it will have to adapt, because
09:11it's, you know, we've got to reach that point at some point, you know, when they, the 10
09:14years has to, you know, this whole wartime thing. But it's not, it's still got that essence
09:20of, you know, because they were based on Japanese samurai, I think I remember reading somewhere
09:24back in the days. There's still that obsessed with their own culture and tradition, keeping
09:28and retaining that, and making sure it passes down to people and stuff, and there's a very
09:32operatic nature to them, and, you know, traditional and, and, and sensitive to that, and warriors.
09:39And, but other than that, yeah, I mean, it is different. But I think there's license with
09:42that with each series, but I'm sure the writers are aware of that, and they'll get to that.
09:46Yeah. I mean, I just like playing the difference of those two things, playing a human and that.
09:50I mean, that was, that's nice to play both those things. Yeah, yeah.
09:54One's very classical style, and one's very, you know, method style. It's likely two, two schools
09:58of acting, basically, both doing those kind of things. That's interesting.
10:02Okay, so what is your opinion of Bach, or of Voke?
10:07Voke.
10:08Like, can you explain, have the showrunners, like, really explain the motivations behind
10:14the characters? Because I feel like you learn a lot of him in the first few episodes, and
10:20then you get, it gets really, it starts to get really confusing with the new...
10:25Yeah, yeah, well, he, yeah, he's got his whole, you know, he could have a whole prequel up until
10:29the point where he says, I'll light the fire. He's got a very interesting story of this guy who's,
10:32an outcast in, in Klingon society. He's got, you know, he's an orphan. He's albino.
10:37And he's carving out his own destiny, you know, he says, he takes the opportunity in the
10:42moment, say, I will light the fire. And from that point on, people like characters like
10:46that who are manifesting their own future, you know, he's grabbing the, you know, the
10:50bull by the horns. And that's very interesting to watch. And then we suddenly don't see it
10:53for ages. And this, which is quite interesting. But I, it goes on this whole other path. It's not how I
11:00thought the story was going to go when I was reading it. But he's a very sensitive. I like the fact that he's not this
11:06crazy warrior, hungry, shadowy dude. He's very internal and very sensitive. He needs Laurel.
11:13You know, it's very, there's something sweet about him. I think there's something very sweet about him.
11:17I get the sense you don't see him as particularly a bad guy.
11:20Not at all. Not at all. He's, he, I think, I can't, I can't judge, you can't judge a career as this.
11:25That's a classic, classic, classic little acting role. You can't, if I, if I was, yeah, I have to see him as a,
11:30he believes what he's doing is right. And, um, I think in the first few episodes, that's fair. I mean,
11:36because it was confusing who did what, you know, who made the first move. It gets complicated when he attacks Burnham,
11:42yeah. But I mean, they're, I suppose they're enemies. And the Federation, just, just as evil in their eyes.
11:47Mm-hmm. Well, let the Reddit theories commence on that. So, um, just a personal question to you. Um, would you prefer to,
11:59to be in a mirror universe or to be jumping to the past or the, or the future?
12:06These are things that happen quite often on Star Trek. I'm not that interesting. In the future, I'm not that interesting.
12:10I'm very interested in the past. That would be nice. Mm-hmm. Just to see old things.
12:14Mirror's good because you could see, you could see slight variations. I think the past.
12:18The mirror, mirror world seems confusing to me. Yes, yes. Yeah. It's you, but, I mean, Doug Jones playing the, you know,
12:25that, that whole thing of him just bathing Sinecra in the mirror. You know, that's great. I thought it was just little variations like that.
12:30Yeah. But, um, I think the past for me. Interesting. And, um, is there an alien race that you would like to be if you,
12:40it could be any of the Star Trek alien races? I think, I think the Vulcans are very interesting.
12:45I agree. Because there's always that underlying thing because originally, you know, they were this crazy passionate race.
12:50Right. They're so noble. So it's repressed. So it is actually repressed. Yeah.
12:54So it is there. And that's very interesting. But they're like the wise men of the universe.
12:57They're the wise, yeah. And they, you know, they've got that great martial art, you know, just like tic-tic-tic-tic.
13:01Yeah. And they're strong. They're strong. They're wise. And, you know, Leonard Nimoy.
13:06Exactly.
13:07Well, Shazad, thank you so much for being here. Thank you.
13:11Um, the season finale of Star Trek is February 11th. So, uh, we've got some more episodes before the day is done.
13:18I hope you enjoy them. Yes. And enjoy your cons.
13:21I will. I will. Thank you. Thank you.
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