Posted in: Paramount+, Star Trek, TV | Tagged: Kacey Rohl, Omari Hardwick, paramount, Star Trek: Section 31

Section 31: Omari Hardwick & Kacey Rohl on Research, Rachel & More

Section 31 stars Omari Hardwick & Kacey Rohl spoke with Bleeding Cool about Star Trek prep, stunts, and building on Rachel Garrett's legacy.

While Omari Hardwick has a clean slate as one of the new characters of Star Trek: Section 31 as Alok Sahar, Kacey Rohl has the task of building on the legacy of a character introduced 35 years ago in Rachel Garrett, the ill-fated captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise-C in the Star Trek: The Next Generation season three episode "Yesterday's Enterprise." As part of the new Star Trek: Discovery spinoff film, Rohl plays a younger incarnation of the character as a lieutenant still trying to prove her worth in Starfleet's secret organization. Alok leads his group that includes Rachel, Quasi (Sam Richardson), a shapeshifting Chameloid; Zeph (Robert Kazinsky), the mech-wearing muscle; Fuzz (Sven Ruygrok), a Romulan/Vulcan wildcard; and Melle (Humberly González), a Deltan with innate empathic abilities. They seek out former Terran Emperor Philippa Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh) as they try to neutralize a new threat that risks upending the galaxy. Hardwick and Rohl spoke to Bleeding Cool about whether director Olatunde Osunsanmi had them prep any material before filming, how Rohl is bearing the torch as Rachel, and stunt work.

Star Trek: Section 31 Stars Omari Hardwick & Kacey Rohl on How 'Mission: Impossible' and 'Crimson Tide' Prepared Them for Their Roles

Bleeding Cool: Was there any required viewing or reading that Olatunde had you guys do before jumping into filming?

Hardwick: You can take that one, Kacey.

Rohl: Yeah, there was a little bit of homework. Independently, not asked by Olatunde, I watched all of 'Discovery' to see everything Michelle did. Also, it's just a fabulous show, then there were a couple of things that Olatunde wanted us to watch. One was 'Mission: Impossible,' I watched all of them in a row, which was so much fun. I highly recommend it. There was another one was 'Crimson Tide' (1995)

Hardwick: 'Crimson Tide' shout outs to Denzel Washington and Gene Hackman, particularly for our characters to your question about Kacey and me being in a commanding role and trying to do the policing of not only 'Section 31,' but for the film. Olatunde did his job well by steering us in the right direction for homework.

Kacey, like Rachel, originated from Tricia O'Neil's iteration of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Did you look at her episode, 'Yesterday's Enterprise,' or did you want to do a fresh take of your own?

Rohl: No, I've seen that episode [sings a tune] so many times. Yeah, lucky me! Tricia O'Neil did an incredible job with the original iteration of Rachel Garrett. Those were big boots to fill, and I wanted to honor them. I don't take lightly what she means to the whole canon. I absolutely watched that episode many times and also brought my own humanity to Rachel at this point. Obviously, I'm the younger version of her early on in her journey. I'm a lieutenant at this point. In 'Yesterday's Enterprise,' she's a captain, obviously. I got to play with a lot of colors and plant a lot of seeds that ended up flowering to 'Yesterday's Enterprise,' but I watched the episode.

Can you talk about the stories just bouncing off the cast with the ensemble work? Was it more difficult doing the stunts or incorporating the technobabble?

Hardwick: Really great question; we had an incredible stunt coordinator.

Rohl: Yeah, Chris McGuire.

Hardwick: What Chris was able to do early that helped everything was the stunt choreography and coordination. It was a rehearsal within a rehearsal. Your body was able to get loose before we started days one, two, three to week one of work where jargon is coming out where we're verbalizing, moving, and finding blocking. Any time you can be physical, the earlier, the better. He did such a tremendous job with his team, including our stunt doubles and the other stunt coordinators. Parts of Chris's team made it where the technicality to your point in question, where things were a lot easier to come by once we got to him because so much of the movie is fighting and action. We did a lot of work in that space. You, not as much, right?

Rohl: Not as much, but what I love about watching these guys do all the rehearsals and then how it ended up coming into the movie with Chris's brilliant choreography and how it informed the story, which I so appreciate, right? It isn't beat him up for beat him up's sake.

Hardwick: He allows for collaboration.

Rohl: It felt informed, like an extension of the other work, which is always cool to see.

Hardwick Nobody's asked us about the stunt work in the way that you did, so I appreciate that.

Star Trek: Section 31 is now streaming on Paramount+.

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!