A PATH TO DISCOVERY
Canadian McConnell nabs coveted Star Trek role, but was not allowed to talk about it for months
Canadian lands Star Trek role
From December to April, Clare McConnell had to keep a very big secret. The Calgary-born, Toronto-based actress had just landed a dream role, cast as Dennas the Klingon in Star Trek: Discovery. But the highly anticipated new entry into Gene Roddenberry’s sci-fi universe was so secretive she couldn’t tell her friends about it. She couldn’t tell her family. She couldn’t even tell her Trekkie dad.
Still, she had to tell her Toronto roommates something about where she was going every day. So she made up a show. She called it Tennessee Fields. It was an “historical fantasy” in which she played a character who came from another universe.
“I kept making it more and more detailed, and it sounded terrible,” says McConnell. “I’m glad that is not the show that I’m on.”
McConnell is now free to tell people that she plays Dennas, leader of one of 24 Klingon houses in a story that takes place 10 years before the adventures of Captain James T. Kirk and Mr. Spock in the original Star Trek series. She just can’t say much else. No screeners have been released to the press and CBS has kept a tight lid on specific plot points.
In a carefully monitored interview with Postmedia, the otherwise amiable actress is occasionally forced to respond to questions from a nosy journalist with a terse “I can’t answer that” or “I can’t confirm.”
What we do know is that the new series involves the Klingon empire being in disarray and the attempts by a leader named T’Kuvma (Chris Obi) to bring stability and unite the houses. While McConnell would not confirm or deny this, it has been reported that the Klingon empire is at war with the Federation in the series, which would only make sense to those who know the Klingon-Federation dynamic of the first Star Trek show.
The Walking Dead’s Sonequa Martin- Green plays Starfleet First Officer Michael Burnham — this is the first Trek show where the main protagonist is not the Captain of the ship — who is a graduate of the Vulcan Science Academy, despite being human. James Frain plays Sarek, a younger version of Spock’s father. Jason Issacs plays Captain Gabriel Lorca, who oversees the starship Discovery. Michelle Yeo plays Captain Philippa Georgiou, who commands another ship called the Shenzhou. Rainn Wilson plays a younger version of the troublesome Harry Mudd, an oddly lovable antagonist from the original series. There have been rumours that Tribbles may make an appearance.
Whatever the case, McConnell’s entry into the Star Trek universe required her to fully immerse herself into her Klingon character. She learned the Klingon tongue, which she was surprised to discover was based more on Cree than an Arabic language, as is often assumed. She spent a few hours each day being fitted with elaborate prosthetics to capture an unexpectedly new look for the warrior race, although no pictures of McConnell in character have been released at this point.
Winning the role, on the other hand, was a curiously short journey.
When she was called to audition for the part back in December, she bunkered down with her acting coach to create a unique physicality for the role. She figured she had little chance of winning the part, so she might as well throw caution to the wind.
“I found something in it that I connected with and I suppose it worked,” she says with a laugh. “Sometimes when the stakes are so high it means the stakes are low, if that makes sense. It’s like, there’s no way this is going to happen, so I’m just going to have fun. So, of course, that’s when it actually happens.”
A few days after her audition, she received a call while working her day job as a dog-walker. She was told she was very close and she should be prepared to decamp to Los Angeles on short notice. Later that night, while at her second job at a Toronto bar, she received the news.
“I was in the middle of serving someone when my phone rang,” she says with a laugh. “I was like, ‘Hollywood calls.’ I could not believe it. It was crazy.”
Born and raised in Calgary, McConnell studied drama and improv and modelled before heading to Toronto at the age of 18 for Ryerson University’s theatre program. Not long after arriving, she landed a coveted spot in Toronto’s Second City troupe.
Earlier this year, she starred in Dim The Fluorescents, which took the Grand Jury Prize at the Slamdance Film Festival and is expected to be released theatrically later this year.
Unlike her father, McConnell was never a Trekkie while growing up. But when she landed the role on Discovery, she began researching not only the Klingon culture but Roddenberry’s worldview in general, which offers an optimistic and altruistic take on humanity and the future.
“I watched Star Wars and have never been someone who connected with war movies I suppose,” she says. “So I had this taste in my mouth of that and had this feeling that other franchises, like Battlestar Galactica and Star Trek, would be similar. But Star Trek is so singular in how liberal it is and how progressive it is.”
It’s the first time McConnell has had to act under prosthetics, which initially made her nervous. Eventually, however, she found it liberating.
“It was very exciting to me to book something that really wasn’t about how I looked, it was about what I did,” she says. “I am excited to bring femininity and strength to the screen in that way. I think that they can co-exist and you can be beautiful and powerful and dangerous and all of these things at the same time.”