Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ Celia Rose Gooding Learned How to Punch Kirk on Camera — Did She Ever Miss?
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The following contains spoilers from the July 20 episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.
When you’re used to fending for yourself, asking for help feels like an impossible feat. That’s what made this week’s Star Trek: Strange New Worlds so challenging for cast member Celia Rose Gooding.
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The hour, titled “Lost in Translation,” found Uhura grappling with strange hallucinations she couldn’t quite explain, which were later revealed to be distressed communications from an alien species.
Despite her insistence on working through the issue, Uhura still had a strong community made up of her Enterprise cohorts — and Farragut lieutenant James T. Kirk (Paul Wesley) — to turn to in her time of need. It’s an idealistic scenario that Gooding says she had trouble immersing herself in while filming the episode.
“We live in a very individualist society, and to put those instincts of being an individualist aside and really fall further into the community nature of Star Trek… that was where the challenge lived,” she told TVLine.
“It lived in just bringing the guard all the way down,“ she added. “That was the hard part, especially when we as Black people — me as a Black femme — worked so hard to build those bricks to keep us safe and to keep us secure and to keep us protected. So it was a real practice to bring those bricks down, and to keep them down for the two weeks that we were shooting this episode.”
Read on for our full interview with Gooding, in which we discuss Uhura’s initial meeting with Kirk and reuniting with Bruce Horak, who plays Hemmer.
TVLINE | One of the reasons why I love Uhura’s interpersonal relationships on the Enterprise is because she has such a strong community. Pike has so much faith in her.
It’s so funny to watch her, to know who she’s going to become and the level of confidence and regality and grace and power that she’s going to grow into. To play a version of her who doesn’t even think those things exist, to watch the people around her be like, “No baby, you got it. Get out of your own way, please, because we need you.…” That was just so wonderful, to feel that uplifted and supported and believed.
It made those moments of confidence come so easily, because everyone else around me has them. But it also made those moments of deep insecurity so real. I keep talking about her humanity and her honesty and her vulnerability, but it’s really inspiring to me to have that but also play it as someone who just does not have that knowledge.
You don’t have to feel the best to be the best, and that’s OK. How you feel about yourself may not be a 100% authentic reflection of who you actually are, and that’s human and that doesn’t mean that anything’s wrong with you. It just means you’re young, trying to make sense of the crazy world around you and the opportunity that’s been placed in front of you. It was really satisfying for me as an actor. I could talk about it forever, but my goodness was this good for me to play.
TVLINE | We know what Uhura and Kirk’s relationship becomes in the future. Did you have conversations about planting the seeds of that in this episode?
I had a lot of conversations with our director Dan Liu about what Kirk’s reputation was in the beginning of his career in Starfleet, and how Uhura has probably only learned about Kirk through his brother, who may not be a fan of him all the time.
Paul [Wesley] is such a naturally warm, inviting and engaging person that I have to forget that and be like, “No. You’re like a playboy, and I’m not for that.” It was a lot of emotional figuring out and marking the timeline, in my mind, of who Kirk is to her and how that changes throughout the episode.
[Kirk] brings the joy, he brings the comedic factor, he brings the lightness that is needed for Uhura’s really dark mental headspace. And it was just wonderful to start in such an interesting place and know where their relationship eventually goes. To know that the level of respect and admiration and trust that Kirk has in Uhura started from a place of her punching him in the face? I think that’s just lovely.
TVLINE | Did you have to do any stunt training for that?
Believe it or not, these linguini noodle arms [of mine] have never thrown a punch, so I had to do a lot of stunt work and a lot of choreographing. Like, how does one throw a punch? Not just any punch, but one by a Starfleet officer who’s probably done security training with La’an Noonien-Singh, who does not mess around? How do all those things play in this fraction of a moment? A lot of thought went into my fight scenes.
TVLINE | Did you ever miss a punch?
I always nailed it. It was wonderful. It was a one-take situation. Everybody was so impressed. [Laughs] No, it took a while. It took some time to get it right, but we got it eventually.
TVLINE | This episode was a great tribute to Hemmer (played by Bruce Horak), who died in Season 1. What did it mean for you to honor the character and be reunited with Bruce?
I love Bruce. [In Strange New Worlds Season 1], a lot of my on-camera work was with him, so he very much became a real mentor for me — a real symbol of trust in me as an actor that I very well may not have even had in myself. And man, does that tie so closely into what Episode 6 is even talking about.
You know when you have an older sibling come in to where you’re working, and you can’t help but show off and feel very cool about all the work you’ve gotten done while they’ve been gone? That’s what it felt like. In a very selfish way, I wanted him to feel as though he left an impact on me, that he could be proud of the work that I was doing. I know it is not my job to impress my costars, but I can’t help but want to, especially when they have so much faith and trust in me. Bruce was one of those people that really, really trusted me and really, really supported me and really uplifted me, so I wanted to make sure that he didn’t feel as though his faith in me was ill placed.
It was lovely to see him again and I hope that they find ways [to bring him back again]. If Uhura is haunted by Hemmer for the rest of the series, fine. I guess that’s what we’ll have to do. But I really missed Bruce, so it was great to work with him again.
Note: This interview took place before SAG-AFTRA officially announced a strike on July 13.
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