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Paramount’s Star Trek: Prodigy is a fantastic animated series that every generation in a household can sit down after dinner and watch together. The series is about a hodge-podge group of enslaved teens who steal an old Starfleet ship and explore the galaxy. Hot on their tail is Captain Janeway (Kate Mulgrew). Captain Janeway is also a part of the stolen ship’s AI as a hologram who serves as the teen’s mentor along the way. Jameela Jamil shines as Ensign Ascencia, a Trill bridge officer who, in a recent episode, reveals a surprising secret that sends the entire show in a fascinating new direction. BGN spoke with Jameela Jamil at a recent Zoom press junket about her compelling new character and being a part of the Star Trek universe.
I read that you’re a huge Star Trek fan. Other than Prodigy, what is your favorite show in the franchise?
It’s always going to be The Next Generation, probably because it was the first one I watched and the one that I watched the most repeats of. And also, because it was my introduction to Data [Brent Spiner]. Data was like the true love of my life, so Next Generation for me.
Not Worf?
I identified with how grumpy Worf [Michael Dorn] was and felt like he got a really bad rap. And as a Brit, I identified with that, but Data was the one I saw so much of myself in data as a kid. And I learned how to understand many things via his character arc in Next Gen.
If you weren’t playing Ensign Ascencia, what other character would you love to dig your teeth into in this world?
To be perfectly honest, I’m thrilled with this character. There’s no character I would rather play. She’s not only one of my favorite characters within the show, but she’s one of my favorite characters, not just in voiceover that I’ve ever played, but that I’ve ever played. I love her so much. I think she’s so interesting. I think her backstory is so complicated, relatable, and sad, and also, she clearly an a*shole. I just love how complex she is. I love when women are given really complex roles that don’t fall into any stereotypes, which I feel like hers doesn’t, and I would die to do a live-action of Ascencia. That would be a true dream of mine. We’ll put that out into the universe.
You’ve got such amazing comic timing, and Ensign Ascencia is a little bit on the serious side. Will we get to see any of your comic timing put to use in future episodes?
There’s a bit of Scar from The Lion King that I’ve put into her so she becomes more playful once she starts to feel comfortable in her villainy. I feel like we start to see more of her playful quite grotesque side, the way that she gratuitously enjoys what she’s doing. It’s very, very unhinged. And so I feel like I get to put a little bit of that into this, but generally, this is quite a dramatic role, which I think is why I would love to explore this character further and take her into other dimensions if possible. I just love playing her.
It’s great that the writers explore such complexity, especially for a children’s show.
It’s also teaching children and anyone who watches it complexity. I think Star Trek has always done a good job of this. For example, to explore why anyone’s this angry, where this anger comes from, and how it’s very rare that the bad guy actually thinks
that they’re the bad guy. She [Asencia] doesn’t think that she’s on the wrong side. She thinks she’s on the right side and that they [Starfleet] are evil and must be punished. Teaching people that there are two sides to any story is important. And it doesn’t mean that she’s right. And it doesn’t excuse any of her behavior. But it is important to understand that nobody’s pain comes from nowhere.
Switching it up a little bit. I recently reviewed the Star Trek Cookbook: Culinary Adventures in the Final Frontier. Which of these recipes would you love to try:
Katterpod noodle bowl from Deep Space 9; Chadre’kab in a lovely eggplant tomato polenta from Voyager; or Ripple Berry ice cream from Deep Space Nine?
Ice cream 100%.
What right now is bringing you the most joy?
The fan responses to this show. It’s really sweet. The age range is so vast, unlike anything I’ve ever done. It’s really exciting to get letters from parents about how they can bring their kids into this world. So I think right now that’s been one of the great joys of the end of this year for me has been interacting with the Star Trek fan base and how welcoming they’ve been to me and how much fun we’ve had together since Comic-Con, when I was able to let my full freak flag fly.
New episodes of Star Trek: Prodigy stream Thursdays on Paramount+ to be released on the Nickelodeon network.
Paramount’s Star Trek: Prodigy is a fantastic animated series that every generation in a household can sit down after dinner and watch together. The series is about a hodge-podge group of enslaved teens who steal an old Starfleet ship and explore the galaxy. Hot on their tail is Captain Janeway (Kate Mulgrew). Captain Janeway is also a part of the stolen ship’s AI as a hologram who serves as the teen’s mentor along the way. Jameela Jamil shines as Ensign Ascencia, a Trill bridge officer who, in a recent episode, reveals a surprising secret that sends the entire show in a fascinating new direction. BGN spoke with Jameela Jamil at a recent Zoom press junket about her compelling new character and being a part of the Star Trek universe.
I read that you’re a huge Star Trek fan. Other than Prodigy, what is your favorite show in the franchise?
It’s always going to be The Next Generation, probably because it was the first one I watched and the one that I watched the most repeats of. And also, because it was my introduction to Data [Brent Spiner]. Data was like the true love of my life, so Next Generation for me.
Not Worf?
I identified with how grumpy Worf [Michael Dorn] was and felt like he got a really bad rap. And as a Brit, I identified with that, but Data was the one I saw so much of myself in data as a kid. And I learned how to understand many things via his character arc in Next Gen.
If you weren’t playing Ensign Ascencia, what other character would you love to dig your teeth into in this world?
To be perfectly honest, I’m thrilled with this character. There’s no character I would rather play. She’s not only one of my favorite characters within the show, but she’s one of my favorite characters, not just in voiceover that I’ve ever played, but that I’ve ever played. I love her so much. I think she’s so interesting. I think her backstory is so complicated, relatable, and sad, and also, she clearly an a*shole. I just love how complex she is. I love when women are given really complex roles that don’t fall into any stereotypes, which I feel like hers doesn’t, and I would die to do a live-action of Ascencia. That would be a true dream of mine. We’ll put that out into the universe.
You’ve got such amazing comic timing, and Ensign Ascencia is a little bit on the serious side. Will we get to see any of your comic timing put to use in future episodes?
There’s a bit of Scar from The Lion King that I’ve put into her so she becomes more playful once she starts to feel comfortable in her villainy. I feel like we start to see more of her playful quite grotesque side, the way that she gratuitously enjoys what she’s doing. It’s very, very unhinged. And so I feel like I get to put a little bit of that into this, but generally, this is quite a dramatic role, which I think is why I would love to explore this character further and take her into other dimensions if possible. I just love playing her.
It’s great that the writers explore such complexity, especially for a children’s show.
It’s also teaching children and anyone who watches it complexity. I think Star Trek has always done a good job of this. For example, to explore why anyone’s this angry, where this anger comes from, and how it’s very rare that the bad guy actually thinks
that they’re the bad guy. She [Asencia] doesn’t think that she’s on the wrong side. She thinks she’s on the right side and that they [Starfleet] are evil and must be punished. Teaching people that there are two sides to any story is important. And it doesn’t mean that she’s right. And it doesn’t excuse any of her behavior. But it is important to understand that nobody’s pain comes from nowhere.
Switching it up a little bit. I recently reviewed the Star Trek Cookbook: Culinary Adventures in the Final Frontier. Which of these recipes would you love to try:
Katterpod noodle bowl from Deep Space 9; Chadre’kab in a lovely eggplant tomato polenta from Voyager; or Ripple Berry ice cream from Deep Space Nine?
Ice cream 100%.
What right now is bringing you the most joy?
The fan responses to this show. It’s really sweet. The age range is so vast, unlike anything I’ve ever done. It’s really exciting to get letters from parents about how they can bring their kids into this world. So I think right now that’s been one of the great joys of the end of this year for me has been interacting with the Star Trek fan base and how welcoming they’ve been to me and how much fun we’ve had together since Comic-Con, when I was able to let my full freak flag fly.
New episodes of Star Trek: Prodigy stream Thursdays on Paramount+ to be released on the Nickelodeon network.
Aubrey Plaza is known and adored for her rather deadpan and dark humor, which she often employs in her quirky and offbeat roles — so much so that the talented actress has become endearing to wider audiences. Still, the actress will soon add director to her list of credentials as she recently revealed more details about the upcoming project she’s writing and directing. While remaining secretive about the film’s plot, she has revealed that the movie will be family-friendly and that she’ll try and “fill the female Tim Burton slot.”
But what does that mean for the actress’ fandom? What type of film can the fans expect from the Parks and Recreation star? Well, we can only look for clues and hope to piece together some answers for the time being.
Tim Burton is a well-known American filmmaker and artist who mostly dabbles in gothic fantasy and horror. So, every time there’s a gothic and grotesque movie or animation made for children, it’s likely Tim Burton. Much like the works of Wes Anderson or Guillermo del Toro, Burton’s movies radiate with uniquely flawed characters.
The fandom, critics, and the entire art world have to come up with a word to describe the director’s unmistakable visual style: Burtonesque. It’s so significant that one can recognize Burton’s visual aesthetic at a glance, or at least his involvement in a particular film.
But what does the term Burtonesque even mean? The Burtonesque style is unique because it often centers on the dualistic relationship between nightmarish dreads and childish wonder, all carefully packed and soundtracked to Marilyn Manson’s “This is Halloween” track from The Nightmare Before Christmas.
Burton’s cinematography is heavily influenced by the visual liberties of Germanic expressionism, stylized in a manner that offers a twisted version of reality that aims to bring the viewer back to a state of childlike curiosity. The director has spent a lot of time trying to replicate the dreamlike settings of his favorite childhood films, which mainly featured terrifying monsters of some kind. Burton has delighted in bringing a complicated variety of emotions to the surface in his films, which span from Big Fish and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to Edward Scissorhands and the aforementioned, Nightmare Before Christmas.
Considering that we know very little of Aubrey Plaza’s Burtonesque-like project, we can only assume that it might take a similar tone. The actress herself has stated that the project she’s writing is a family-friendly film, much like the majority of Burton’s filmography, which also implies a monster of some sort, with plenty of weird comedy. And who better to do weird than Aubrey Plaza herself, anyone who has seen Parks and Recreation and 2016’s Dirty Grandpa knows exactly what type of weirdness Plaza can employ — even Robert DeNiro freaked out during the shooting of the latter.
Plaza began her career performing improv and sketch comedy at the Upright Citizen’s Brigade Theater. She rose to fame after landing the part of the cynical and sarcastic April Ludgate on NBC’s hit mockumentary series called Parks and Recreation. While the sitcom has received numerous honors and critical praise during its seven-season run, catapulting its stellar cast to greater popularity and success and drawing a fervent fan base, Plaza’s character was particularly well-received.
Her character in Parks and Recreation, April Ludgate, appears like a character penned by the master of macabre Tim Burton wrote himself. April always had that Wednesday Addams vibe if Wednesday grew up and got a job as a government clerk. This interpretation becomes more tangible in scenes where she appears along Nick Offerman’s Ron Swanson, as her character’s deviousness becomes apparent in moments in which Ron pulls his own tooth or purposefully mispronounces names to let other people know he doesn’t care about them. This brand of humor is something we just recently witnessed in Tim Burton’s Wednesday series for Netflix, though the latter is admittedly darker than Parks and Recreation.
In later performances in independent films like Life After Beth, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, and Safety Not Guaranteed, Plaza demonstrated her distinctive range as an actor. The actress has recently starred in dark comedies and thrillers like Black Bear and Ingrid Goes West, and she had a brilliant and outstanding performance in the superhero series Legion — in which she also portrays the Shadow King Amahl Farouk. At the Sundance Film Festival, Plaza’s upcoming crime drama Emily the Criminal had its world premiere, and both reviewers and viewers gave it high marks.
So, one could say that Plaza is riding a career high right now and quite probably a broomstick to boot, judging by her tastes. She’s currently starring in The White Lotus and is set to appear in the MCU’s Agatha: Coven of Chaos, which is scheduled for a next-year release. Her upcoming project, which she branded as a blend of Beetlejuice meets Hocus Pocus — the former of which is Burton’s work — through her Evil Hag Productions (aptly named) company. As previously stated, not much is known about Plaza’s project, but if anyone ever had the chance to challenge Tim Burton’s reign as the master of the strange and the macabre, Aubrey Plaza is among the first to come to mind.
If you were a fan of The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl, then you know this rising star as Baby Voice Darius. He also played Thug Yoda on Insecure. However, Tristen J. Winger has come a long way since his whispering vibes on Issa Rae’s original YouTube series. He’s turned his playfulness with characters into a role on CBS’s new hit drama, So Help Me Todd.
Though the show leans toward more serious storylines, Winger still flexes his comedic muscles as Lyle, the archenemy of Todd (Skylar Astin)—the main character of the show. Lyle takes issue with Todd’s nepotism, as their boss is Todd’s mother, Margaret (Marcia Gay Harden). Their battles are epic and hilarious, but the audience can easily see that these two will be forced at some point to join forces.
BGN spoke with Winger via telephone about what drew him to acting, his role on the show, and how he stays grounded as his star rises.
What drew you to acting?
I can proudly say it was a couple of things. The first one is seeing myself in the character portrayed by Jaleel White on Family Matters. He was Steve Urkel, a Black nerd, and my six-year-old self was watching Family Matters as part of the TGIF line-up. I’m seeing this kid who wore suspenders, who loves science and math and loves doing experiments, who was funny, who had an interesting voice, and I’m just like, “Wow, that feels like me. This is the type of person I want to be when I grow up.” That, accompanied with me always imitating my uncles or teachers, getting in trouble in class for talking, and being my young, nerdy self, unapologetically, is what led me into acting.
What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned during this evolution from Baby Voice Darius on The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl to Lyle on So Help Me Todd?
To be true to myself. It would have been very easy for me to embrace the part of me that’s a people pleaser and to do everything that people ask me just because they asked me to do it. Once I got the role on Insecure on HBO with a character whose name is Thug Yoda, it would have been very easy for me to just go for roles and take auditions that were just for this character that was a gang member, but he doesn’t represent the media’s idea of who a thug is. It would have been very easy for me to just roll into that. But, because of what I want it for myself and because of my team, from my manager to my agency, they steered me [down] the path of making sure that I was doing what I wanted to do with the roles that we got to audition for. I went to Amazing Grace Conservatory in South LA, co-founded by Wendy Raquel Robinson, and she would always say, “To thine own self be true,” and I embraced that. I continue to live through that in everything that I do. “No” is such a powerful word, and it is a complete sentence.
Tell us about So Help Me Todd and your role on the show.
So Help Me Todd centers around Todd, a private investigator who lost his license to investigate. His mother is a partner at a law firm in Portland when her husband (Todd’s stepfather) goes missing. Todd jumps in to help his mom, who is this strong character, this strong woman who is type-A personality, who always has everything together. Her world falls apart, and he hates to see his mom like this, even though they’re a little bit estranged because he owes her $9,000. He jumps in anyway because love is love. Once that got solved in the pilot, Marguerite, his mother, brings Todd to work in the office. The only problem is Lyle, played by me.
I play a type-A investigator who has all his ducks in a row. He’s very serious, he’s unapologetically judgmental, and he doesn’t take any crap from anybody. He immediately recognizes the favoritism toward Todd because this man doesn’t have a license. “Why is he practicing in my department?” That’s where we butt heads, and we’ve been doing so all season.
Your character has a big episode airing on December 8. Tell us about that episode.
In a word, that episode is about family, and it’s about the lengths that you will go to make sure that your family is okay, to make sure that your family is whole, to make sure that your family is supported. That is really one of the themes of the show in general that we saw from the pilot, that this is about family. This is about doing whatever it takes to make sure that your family is good. In this episode, we get to see what that looks like for Lyle.
As your star continues to rise in Hollywood, how do you keep yourself grounded?
Fortunately, I have a bunch of wonderful, beautiful people around me who keep me grounded. My best friends keep me grounded. My family keeps me grounded. My mom for sure keeps me grounded. One of my mom’s many idioms is, “Don’t look too good nor speak too wise. Be aware of yourself. Be aware of who you’re talking to and what you’re saying to whom because unfortunately” — and I haven’t experienced this (knock on wood) — “not everybody is your friend.” I believe that people have positive intentions. As long as I have positive intentions, then I believe that’s what’s going to come to me, so a little bit of faith is in there as well.
What’s next for you?
Well, [I’m] looking forward to more episodes of So Help Me Todd first and foremost. We want to put that into the universe so that comes back to me. That is my intention, to keep making more episodes of So Help Me Todd (wink, wink CBS). Besides that, during the downtime between seasons, definitely shooting movies because that’s beautiful. I love movies as much as I love television. And also if we’re talking about the business side of things, that’s a way to market myself and bring myself to the whole world to make myself international to be like a Kevin Hart, to be like an Issa Rae, to have that recognition so that people will want to support everything that I do.
Watch new episodes of So Help Me Todd Thursdays on CBS at 9 PM EST or stream it on Paramount+.
Willow takes us back to Tir Asleen and the magical world of the original movie, but there are plenty of new faces. Hannah Waddingham, best known as football club owner Rebecca Welton in Ted Lasso and the shame nun from Game of Thrones, makes a surprise guest appearance in episode three. Proving there are no small roles, Hannah Waddingham makes the most of her short time on Willow as she plays the character of Hubert, an ax-wielding woodswoman.
Who Does Hannah Waddingham Play on Willow? Meet the Character of Hubert
When Elora escapes from the possessed Commander Ballantine, she runs into a spooky forest. She races through the gloom and stumbles into a sunny clearing. Two people live there and seemingly have nothing to fear from the outside world. Waddingham’s Hubert gets all the lines while her companion (Caoimhe Farren as Anne) stays silent in their first Willow scenes. Hubert rambles like a true Shakespearean fool, brushing off Elora’s urgency and inviting her to share their meal of roasted mushrooms. We admit it’s refreshing to have characters in epic fantasies that live calm lives. But unfortunately, that can never last.
How Do Hubert and Anne Fit into the World of Willow?
On Willow, Hubert and Anne are Daikini living in the uncultivated territories. There may be some magic about them that keeps them oblivious to the dangers of the outside world, but we don’t learn more in this episode. They have heard of Elora Danan, the true empress. And once they realize she is standing before them, Hubert and Anne are immediately inspired to follow her on her quest. They pledge their lives to her, which doesn’t work out well for them.
Will We See Hannah Waddingham and Hubert Again on Willow?
When Ballantine finds Elora in the clearing, Hubert fights him with her ax. While she lands a blow, she still clearly doesn’t understand the danger, and Ballantine kills her. Elora flees with a stunned Anne. She tries to bargain for new friend’s life, but the possessed guards kill Anne and recapture Elora. Unfortunately, that seems like it spells the end for Hannah Waddingham and Hubert on Willow. That said, on a magical series like this one, there’s no telling what may happen next.
Where Else Will We See Hannah Waddingham?
While we wait for Ted Lasso‘s third and likely final season, Waddingham seems to pop up everywhere, and we’re not sorry about that. Most recently, she played a witch in Hocus Pocus 2. Waddingham will also lend her voice talents to the upcoming Garfield movie.
Hannah Waddingham’s role on Willow may not have been a huge one, and her character was a little short-lived, but Waddingham looks like she’s having fun. We definitely enjoyed seeing her turn as Hubert.
Melissa is Nerdist’s science & technology staff writer. She also moderates “science of” panels at conventions and co-hosts Star Warsologies, a podcast about science and Star Wars. Follow her on Twitter @melissatruth.
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