Posted in: CBS, Star Trek, TV | Tagged: david cronenberg, Kovich, paramount, star trek, star trek: discovery

Star Trek: Discovery – David Cronenberg Discusses Kovich & Directing

David Cronenberg, a true jack-of-all-trades in front and behind of the camera in Hollywood, has been pretty active lately not only directing Neon's Crimes of the Future and acting in numerous projects like Falling, the Shudder series Slasher, and Star Trek: Discovery for Paramount+. As one of two key 32nd century Federation figures the U.S.S. Discovery meets in season three as the agent Kovich alongside Oded Fehr's Admiral Charles Vance, both will make their return in the upcoming season four. Appearing in three episodes of season three, Kovich revealed to Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh) that the Terran empress from the Mirror Universe was suffering from a terminal temporal illness that will eventually cause her to fade out of existence. As part of the first issue of their Explorer magazine, StarTrek.com released an excerpt from their upcoming interview to review his career and what role he'll play in season four.

Cronenberg admits there are benefits to being in front of a camera as a performer. "I enjoy the fact that you don't have the responsibility of the entire movie on your shoulders (laughs)," he said. "Acting takes you back to a childlike innocence. Kids – children, almost babies – immediately act. They love to play other characters, take on personas, play with each other. There's a very childlike, basic, primitive, lovely thing about becoming another person and taking on an accent or different body postures. It's an innate thing, I think, a very human thing, a way to experience what it'd be like to be somebody else. I think it's what allows us to be the social creatures that we are."

The star recalled how executive producer Alex Kurtzman approached him and the two discusses his fandom of The Original Series. "We're talking about the '60s, and I'd watch every week. I was a fan," he said. "Was I a fan in the sense of crazed, insane fan? No. But I was enough of a fan to want to see it every week, and to enjoy it, and to talk about it. I can't say I've been able to keep up with all the many spin-offs. But it's still, in essence, a familiar rhythm, particularly in the dialogue. There's still this Star Trek techno talk with invented technology that's very convincing and has, at times, an emotional meaning underneath. It was interesting for me to try and find the tones… the music, basically. It's like singing, like music, the rhythms of the dialogue. It's not normal dialogue in terms of dialogue people have when they're in a restaurant or walking down the street. So, it's not easy to crack. It's a lovely challenge for an actor."

As far as directing an episode of Discovery, it's another beast altogether. "I wouldn't consider it," Cronenberg said. "I met Alex in Santa Monica before I was shooting. It was great to meet him, hang out and talk. But, it's a different kind of directing. It's almost a completely different modality of work because so many things are established. You come in to direct an episode of something like Star Trek, the casting's been done, the tone of the script's been done. And you're not there for months and months of CG work and post-production, including the dialogue." For more on Kovich's actions in season three, his glasses, chemistry with the cast, production values, and smartphones, you can go to Startrek.com

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