Posted in: Apple, Audio Dramas, Star Trek, TV | Tagged: for all mankind, star trek, Star Trek: Khan

Star Trek: Khan: Schmidt Compares Marla to "For All Mankind's" Margo

Wrenn Schmidt spoke with Bleeding Cool about how playing Star Trek: Khan's Marla McGivers compares to For All Mankind's Margo Madison.

Since bursting into the scene in 2006 in an episode of Law & Order, Wrenn Schmidt has been an up-and-coming rising star on TV, landing roles on CBS's Blue Bloods and Person of Interest, HBO's Boardwalk Empire, FX's The Americans and Tyrant, Cinemax's The Outcast, and Hulu's The Looming Tower. In 2019, she landed her biggest role as NASA engineer/Mission Control director Margo Madison on the AppleTV+ revisionist sci-fi series For All Mankind across four seasons, with her fate left uncertain for season five since she turned herself in to US authorities after being branded a traitor for defecting to the Soviet Union. While Schmidt didn't know if another opportunity like that would emerge, she found herself in another major sci-fi franchise, arguably the biggest one in pop culture, in Star Trek in the audio drama Star Trek: Khan, which directly follows the events following The Original Series season one episode "Space Seed" and before 1982's The Wrath of Khan.

Schmidt spoke to Bleeding Cool about whether she could draw any comparisons between Margo, who found herself as an unwitting patsy of a Soviet conspiracy, forced to turn away the only life she knew in the United States, and forced to live in exile until she came back as a branded traitor; and her role as Marla McGivers, originally played by Madlyn Rhue in TOS, who became enthralled by Khan Noonien Singh (Ricardo Montalban) and mutinied against the Enterprise before helping her captain retake the ship. Given a choice of a court-martial or joining Khan in exile, she chose exile, which is where the audio drama picks up the story. Coincidentally, For All Mankind co-creator Ronald D. Moore paved for so much of the franchise's storytelling during the syndicated era, starting with The Next Generation.

'Star Trek: Khan' and 'For All Mankind' Star Wrenn Schmidt on Why 'Khan's' Marla McGivers Is Just as Fascinating as 'For All Mankind's' Margo Madison

You've worked with another Star Trek legend with Ronald D. Moore, on 'For All Mankind.' I was wondering, since there are some similar things with Margo and Marla, since they've both been betrayed by the institutions they once trusted, I'm wondering if you drew any inspiration from Margo Madison in your performance as Marla? Following that up, is there anything you could follow up about your experience of filming season five of 'For All Mankind', perhaps some insight we might expect?

It might sound a little esoteric, but once you've played a character, there's something about that character that stays with you, and you carry inside of you. Sometimes the merging of me as Wrenn and a character, sometimes it almost really blurs. I'm sure there is some cross-pollination between the two characters (of Margo and Marla). They share a lot of similarities in a way, but beyond that, I do not know. It's a really good question. I'm sure there's something there, but the other thing I think is that there are perhaps some parallels now, I'm only realizing there were some parallels there between the two characters as far as stories. I don't know beyond that. Marla is incredible, cool, and amazing in her own right.

I remember telling Kirsten (Beyers) and Fred (Greenhalgh), when we wrapped this, I said, "Playing Margot Madison has been one of the greatest honors of my life as an actor." I felt so lucky to have played such an interesting character, and I wasn't sure when that opportunity would come along again. I thought I might have to wait a while, and then I was saying, "I didn't have to wait very long at all, because I think of Marla McGivers in a lot of ways." She's fascinating, complicated, and extraordinary in a different way, and it was challenging playing her. I had so much fun, we had so fun doing the recording. I don't know, man, can you put in a word to the Star Trek universe that Wrenn Schmidt thinks that they should make a Khan series (for more seasons), and that Naveen Andrews and Wrenn Schmidt would like to play Khan and Marla McGivers?

I sure will. Thank you for your time!

The premiere episode of Star Trek: Khan, which also features the voices of Sonya Cassidy, Tim Russ, Olli Haaskivi, Maury Sterling, Mercy Malick, Zuri Washington, and George Takei, is now available with new episodes on Mondays through November 3rd. All four seasons of For All Mankind are available on Apple TV+.

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