Paul Giamatti ("Sideways," "John Adams") and Holly Hunter ("Raising Arizona," "The Piano") — two of the most acclaimed and award-winning actors of our generation — may seem like unlikely choices to be streaking across the final frontier in the 32nd century, but their roles in Paramount+'s new "Star Trek: Starfleet Academy" offered myriad challenges and rewards for the esteemed Hollywood pair.
To find their "Starfleet Academy" characters' pulse, Giamatti’s Klingon/Tellarite space pirate Nus Braka and Hunter's USS Athena captain and Starfleet Academy chancellor, they both fearlessly plunged into the parts with unbridled enthusiasm.
"I felt pretty alive right away, it was right there on the page," Giamatti tells Space.com. "Certainly getting into all of that gear. The first time they put me in all of that gear, I thought, 'Ooh, I get this guy. This guy has had a life. Look at all the stuff I'm wearing. All the stuff of where he's been and who he is.' Getting myself fully suited up, I was really like, 'Oh, I see. I’m ready to go!'"
Hunter found her Captain Nahla Ake by leaning into the character’s calm humanity.
"What was really interesting, it was when I read the script and saw that Nahla has a lot of speeches, because she's captain, and so there’s orientation and exposition for the characters but also for the cadets and also for the audience," she explained.
"I wanted the first ship-wide speech I delivered on the bridge to have intimacy. I wanted it to be not a speech. I wanted it to be a conversation with the cadets, who are not in the room. So it was like a 32nd century thing that I wanted to figure out. How to make it not formal, how to bridge the gap between me, the crew, and the cadets who were not present. I just wanted no formality between me and them."
Giamatti and Hunter’s familiarity and personal connections with "Star Trek," especially in its 60th anniversary year, also helped ground them in the production for an enjoyable overall experience.
"I started watching as a child when 'The Original Series' was in syndication in the early '70s," Giamatti shares. "I began watching with my father, who thought it would be a good idea for me to watch this because I would enjoy it. So I've had a lifelong relationship to it. Being a part of this very special sort of world, being allowed into it felt like a lovely sort of privilege. But it didn't feel stodgy. It felt really warm and welcoming. It was a lovely atmosphere the whole time. Everything about it was wonderful for me."
Likewise, for Hunter, the absence of narrative restrictions in this legendary sci-fi universe allowed for a refreshing sense of ease while filming.
"There’s nothing punitive about the boundaries of 'Star Trek,'" she notes. "You can do this, you can't do this. No, that’s where we don't go. There was none of that. It felt like a playground, a little bit of a sandbox. 'Here we are, you guys go have some fun.' And it was really easy to have fun with Paul. The scripts just offered so many opportunities for mischief and good times."
"Star Trek: Starfleet Academy" streams exclusively on Paramount+ starting Jan. 15.
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