Wilson: Trek Role Was A Fan’s Dream
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For Rainn Wilson, who plays Harry Mudd on Star Trek: Discovery, getting the role was a dream come true.
Wilson was a fan back to his childhood days. He watched the original series when it was in first syndication, and like many fans, really got into the show. “I was about six years old when I started watching the Original Series in re-runs in 1972 in Olympia, Washington,” he said. “I watched every single one multiple times. I had a model of the Enterprise. I had books about it. I was just fascinated. I was there on opening weekend for the first opening movie. Obviously, Star Wars fell in there, in between. When I was about eleven years old, I started reading science fiction. I started with Ray Bradbury, which so many people do, a lot of short fiction, a lot of great short story writers, Robert Sheckley and so many more. I read all the classics; Arthur C. Clarke and everybody.
“But to get to go back and do a classic character from TOS…You know, actors are always like, ‘Oh, it’s a dream come true.’ It really was a dream come true for me.
“As soon as I heard about (Discovery), as soon as the writers staff was formed, I begged my agents, ‘Can I just have a general meeting?’ So, I went in, sat around for forty-give minutes, looked at some of the drawings of what they were coming up with and I said, ‘Hey, I’d love it if there’s something for me.’ And they were like, ‘Well, I don’t know that there’s anything for you necessarily right now, but we’ll keep you in mind.’ Then, I don’t know, six months later I got a call. ‘How about Harry Mudd?” I was like, ‘That’s perfect.'”
How does Wilson feel about Mudd being left behind when Lorca and Tyler escaped the Klingon prison ship? “I thought that it was not very Star Trek-like,” said Wilson. “The move is to take Mudd with him and then put Mudd up to trial. He doesn’t get to determine the laws. Put Mudd on trial for spying in a Klingon jail and Mudd would serve a year in prison and be let out, and it’d be fine. But leaving him essentially to die? That’s no bueno.”
So when Mudd returns in Magic to Make The Sanest Man Go Mad, what should fans expect? “Well, we know that Mudd is not so happy being left behind in the Klingons prison,” said Wilson. “We know that Mudd visits the ship. And I think that shit is really gonna hit the fan. That’s about all I can say.”
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