Omari Hardwick and Kacey Rohl have entered the expansive cosmos of Star Trek with Star Trek: Section 31. Hardwick suits up as Alok, one of Section 31’s agents who works with Michelle Yeoh’s Philippa Georgiou on a covert mission. Rohl stars as Rachel Garrett, a familiar face to Star Trek fans, a character that will go on to become the captain of the USS Enterprise-C.

Hardwick is right at home in this action-adventure, as his filmography is littered with high-octane productions. He has previously featured in action films like Kick-ᴀss and led the acclaimed crime drama series Power for six seasons. Rohl is a veteran television actress, best known for her recurring roles in Hannibal and Arrow.

In celebration of Star Trek: Section 31‘s premiere on Paramount+, ScreenRant spoke with the pair of actors to discuss how Rohl’s performance as Rachel Garrett was informed by Tricia O’Neil’s version of the character and what it was like for Hardwick to develop his dynamic with Yeoh behind the scenes.

Kacey Rohl’s Rachel Garrett Predates Tricia O’Neil’s Version Of The Character

Garrett Debuted In Star Trek: The Next Generation

ScreenRant: Kacey, you play the character of Rachel Garrett who Star Trek fans know and love from The Next Generation, originally played by Tricia O’Neil. For what you were trying to build with this character, was your portrayal something that you wanted to naturally segue into what Tricia established in The Next Generation?

Kacey Rohl: There’s a lot of life between where Tricia is in her journey and where I am in her journey, her being Rachel. But yeah, Tricia did such an amazing job. Thank you for tipping the hat to her because I do always try to mention her. She did such an amazing job in that episode, and so how I onboarded that was that I didn’t necessarily want to wind up doing an impression of that. There was a moment where I was like, I have to speak the same way she does and I have to move the way she does and play her as though she’s a real person, and that’s a take. But I think it was Olatunde who let me know, ‘We hired you because of you, of your life force and what you’re going to bring.’ So my job was to watch yesterday’s enterprise a bajillion million times and really soak in all that Tricia did and add it to the soup of what I brought, which is my staunchness, and also my little bit of wackiness. And so I think we’re at the beginning of the journey of where Tricia takes her.

Omari Hardwick Praises Working With His “Hero” Michelle Yeoh

“I would call her my beloved yo-yo forever…”

Omari, Alok has a very interesting dynamic with Georgiou where it feels like they don’t fully trust each other, but they are kind of forced to work together. Talk to me about just kind of developing that dynamic with Michelle.

Omari Hardwick: I’ll use your word, great word choice. They were forced together, whereas there are other characters within this space, including the Motley Crew I put together, where it’s not a forced relationship. It kind of gradually blends or comes about because they’re so forced together. I think what Michelle and I were able to do was create a rapport immediately. Our H๏τels were not far from each other. We tried to get together as much as possible outside of set, outside of work or production. We did learn pretty quickly that while on set there was enough off time, enough off-screen time where we could just sit and really build and talk about each other’s lives, each other’s journeys, she being an Asian woman in America and in other parts of the world because she’s so big, and this is an African-American man, and my journey’s been its own exclusive reality that she wanted to learn about. I wanted to learn about hers.

And so I think I, the fans will be able to benefit not just from their character unison or this dynamic duo that comes about between the legendary Michelle Yeoh and whatever I brought to Alok. But equally, they’ll probably see those moments that we must have built some rapport offset and then brought that of course to camera, which is the job of an actor if you know what you’re doing. It was an amazing thing to be able to rock out with a hero of mine. I’ve worked with a couple of my heroes, Kevin Costner included, but man, Michelle Yeoh, I would call her my beloved yo-yo forever, and I’ll forever work with her if she’d have me.

About Star Trek: Section 31

In this Paramount+ exclusive movie event, Michelle Yeoh returns as Emperor Philippa Georgiou, who was first introduced in Star Trek: Discovery Season 1. Star Trek: Section 31 centers on Yeoh’s character as she faces her past sins and is recruited by Starfleet’s secret division that protects the United Federation of Planets.

Stay tuned for our other Star Trek: Section 31 interviews with…

• Michelle Yeoh
• Director Olatunde Osunsanmi & Executive Producer Alex Kurtzman
• Rob Kazinsky & Sven Ruygrok
• Star Trek: Section 31 red carpet

Source: ScreenRant Plus