Posted in: Star Trek, TV | Tagged: Deep Space Nine, star trek, star trek: deep space nine

Star Trek: Ernie Hudson Reflects on "Deep Space Nine" Audition & More

Ernie Hudson (Boston Blue) spoke with us about auditioning for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, the "Spenser" link with Avery Brooks, and more.

Boston Blue could have had two Star Trek captains leading the series, but alas, we only had one with Sonequa Martin-Green in the lead role of Lena Silver. The other is Ernie Hudson, who plays her grandfather in Reverend Peters for the upcoming police procedural. Hudson, who's coming up on celebrating 50 years in Hollywood, has appeared in nearly 270 projects, including several franchises, but shockingly, not Star Trek, not even as a guest star. While promoting the Brandon Sonnier and Brandon Margolis-created Blue Bloods spinoff, the Ghostbusters star spoke to Bleeding Cool about if the Gene Roddenberry franchise ever came up with Martin-Green, how close he was to landing Deep Space Nine lead of Benjamin Sisko, and how he coincidentally played the same role of Hawk as Sisko actor Avery Brooks for a separate Spenser franchise project unrelated to the Robert Urich-starred ABC series Spenser: for Hire.

Star Trek: Ernie Hudson Reflects on Losing Deep Space Nine's Benjamin Sisko to Avery Brooks and Their 'Spenser' Connection

With you being in 'Boston Blue' and you brought up Star Trek, I was wondering if you spoke to Sonequa [Martin-Green] about like her time on 'Discovery', and if an opportunity ever arose for you to be in Star Trek, and if there was anything to why it wasn't a reality?

No, we never talked about it. I auditioned for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. When they told me [laughs] that they were thinking about going with a black captain, this was back in the day, I thought, "They're not going to make the captain the black guy." They told me they wanted me to come in, so I went into the audition, and I read. I thought I did a good reading, and they liked me, then they wanted me to come back the next day.

They told me to "make him sexier," and now I don't know how to do that. I don't know what that means, so I went to the meeting, and I did an Elvis [Presley] thing, and it was ridiculous. Halfway through my reading, they said, "Thank you. That's enough," so I didn't get the role, but I've always been a fan of Star Trek, Star Wars, and all those things, but hadn't been asked to be in them for whatever reason. I suppose there are still possibilities, but yeah.

I mean, if you scored Sisko, would you have been okay sporting a bald head for that?

Funny thing, you said it, because there's Reverend [Raphael] Warnock, who's the head of Martin Luther King's Baptist Church in Atlanta. He's also a senator who has a shaved head, and for years, I wore my head shaved. I did a TV movie called 'Walking Shadow' (2001) with Joey Montagna playing the lead as Spenser, but I played the role of Hawk, and my head was shaved. I've worked many times with a shaved head, and on this show ['Boston Blue'], I wanted to shave my head. I told the producers. I showed them a couple of pictures, and they said, "Well, that's interesting, Ernie, but no thanks." I think they wanted the hair and mustache.

Boston Blue, which also stars Donnie Wahlberg, Maggie Lawson, Gloria Reuben, Marcus Scribner, and Mika Amonsen, premieres on October 17th on CBS.

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