Summary
- Celia Rose Gooding found the horror-themed episode "Lost in Translation" emotionally challenging.
- Gooding had to put aside her own fears to portray Uhura's vulnerability and trauma.
- Director Dan Liu helped Gooding navigate the emotional demands of the episode.
One Star Trek: Strange New Worlds episode was "harder" for Celia Rose Gooding than Star Trek's first-ever musical. Despite the extra rehearsal required, Strange New Worlds' musical, "Subspace Rhapsody," was in the Grammy Award-winning Celia Rose Gooding's wheelhouse. But another Strange New Worlds season 2 outing challenged Gooding emotionally and pushed her - as well as her character, Ensign Nyota Uhura - to their limits.
In an interview with Awards Radar about Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, where Celia Rose Gooding spoke in detail about how filming the horror-themed Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2, episode 6, "Lost in Translation", was "uncomfortable, but necessarily uncomfortable" because it showed both Gooding and Uhura at their "most vulnerable." "Lost in Translation", however, allowed Gooding to team up with Paul Wesley's Lieutenant James T. Kirk. Read Celia's quote below and check out Awards Radar's interview in the link above.
“Lost in Translation” was a massive undertaking. I think, honestly, it was harder than the musical episode for me emotionally. I think the musical episode, it was very familiar to me. It’s a wheelhouse that I’ve lived in for the majority of my life. And so, when I was tasked with a horror episode, ask somebody who is naturally quite anxious and does not watch horror movies. Yeah. It was definitely a big undertaking for me because I really had to put Celia’s fears aside and really embrace that. We’re really not holding back and displaying how trauma affects a person’s mentality, their emotional wellbeing, their mental health. And Uhura, someone who really prides herself on her ability to just keep going, we see her really break down in a way that… I have something very similar to Uhura, where it’s my instinct to just keep going and to really deny that instinct and really sit in this very wounded, very vulnerable, very soft and fleshy place. It was very uncomfortable.
It was uncomfortable, but necessarily uncomfortable. It was so interesting to really display how haunted Uhura is and how vulnerable she has to be with her crew mates, and really, with Paul Wesley as Captain [sic] Kirk. I’ve really had to open up to Kirk in a way that is not an instinct for me personally. And Uhura, I think this was the most vulnerable she had been on camera for the first few seasons. This is probably one of her most vulnerable moments where she’s expressing to the superior officer that she just does not think she can go on, which is a big deal, especially for a legacy character, especially for a character as beloved and as historic as Uhura. To hear her say, “I don’t think I can do this anymore,” is really, it’s a gut punch. It displays her humanity in a way that I think we haven’t had an opportunity to really see…
Dan Liu, our director, Dan Liu, he really shepherded me through that process. And I’m very, very grateful for him. I don’t think I would’ve been able to really show up the way I needed to show up in this episode without him.
Uhura & Kirk's Strange New Worlds Episode Was Also Important To Star Trek
A big Star Trek canon moment happens in "Lost in Translation"
Strange New Worlds season 2, episode 6, "Lost in Translation", was crucial for Star Trek canon. Not only did Lt. James T. Kirk meet and team up with Ensign Nyota Uhura for the first time in Star Trek's Prime Universe canon, but "Lost in Translation" ended with Uhura introducing Kirk to his future best friend, Lt. Spock (Ethan Peck). In a pleasingly low-key moment, Kirk, Spock, and Uhura all shared a quiet drink together, unaware that their destinies would be irrevocably intertwined for the next few decades in Star Trek: The Original Series.
The next step of growth for Uhura was realizing her importance to the USS Enterprise.
Ensign Uhura and Celia Rose Gooding both had to face their fears and deepest emotions in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2, episode 6. Haunted by apparitions, Uhura had to reconcile the death of Lt. Hemmer (Bruce Horak), her mentor, who appeared in a horrifying form to torment her. But with Kirk compassionately by her side, Uhura saved the day, and put her guilt over Hemmer to rest. Indeed, the next step of growth for Uhura was realizing her importance to the USS Enterprise as the crew's Communications Officer, and without "Lost in Translation," Uhura wouldn't accept her role of keeping the Starship Enterprise's crew connected.
