Interview
‘Star Trek: Starfleet Academy’ Stars Detail Why Jett & Lura’s Romance Is ‘Super Fun’
What To Know
- Tig Notaro reprises her role as Jett Reno in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, where her character now has a romantic storyline with Lura Thok, played by Gina Yashere.
- Both Notaro and Yashere describe their characters’ relationship as serious and highlight the fun and contrasting personalities they bring to the romance.
Tig Notaro originated her role as Jett Reno on Star Trek: Discovery, first appearing in its Season 2 premiere. She reprises it in the new Paramount+ series, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, but there’s a first for her as Jett now: a romance! Yes, Jett’s now an instructor and in a relationship with U.S.S. Athena first officer and academy cadet master Lura Thok (Gina Yashere).
“Because I was single through Discovery, it’s been really interesting to incorporate a relationship because we are romantically involved on a show,” Notaro said, referring to Yashere, as you can see in the full video interview here. “I was talking to Gina about this, that I didn’t think our dynamic made sense at first because I thought I would be the more dominant personality in a relationship.
She continued, “And honestly, when I watched it with my real wife, she was like, ‘I love this dynamic.’ Because my wife’s feeling is, to make a relationship work, one person needs to be a little scared of the other one. And so it’s fun. It’s a fun new chapter to be in, a romantic relationship, especially with this person, this being that yells at everyone.”
Yashere shared she was already a fan of Notaro’s before they started working together on Starfleet Academy.
“So, when they told me that Tig was going to be in the show and we were going to be in a relationship, I was like, ‘My God, this is going to be fun and hilarious,'” she said. “I get to play opposite one of my favorite comics, and we get to act together. It was like, this is brilliant. I had no idea what it was going to be. And I knew it was going to be weird for her having to be in a relationship with a scaly blue thing.”
But for Notaro, it was more so the fact that Lura yells that she’s a Jem’Hadar-Klingon hybrid. “That’s not really my speed, I’ll be honest,” she explained. Still, she loves the dynamic, calling it “super fun.”
The relationship is “very serious,” both stars detailed, with Notaro noting, “I feel like it’s those little subtle moments of how we look at each other and what we are dealing with that [show] it’s serious. You wouldn’t be looking at each other or acting that way if there wasn’t something more going on.” She also added that we’ll see “a softness” to Lura when she looks at Jett.
For executive producer Alex Kurtzman, he loves that he has “two of the funniest people in the world” and has now put their characters in a romance. “They’re very different. Their energies could not be more different,” he added, noting that both stars weren’t part of the show just yet when they figured out they wanted to add that element.
“Tig was actually the very first person I cast on the show just because she’d been in Discovery and we wanted to bring her back. But Gina came later in the process. And the minute it became those two, it was like, ‘Oh my God, we could just write these scenes forever. They’re so fantastic to watch,'” he shared before promising, “You’ll see plenty.”
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, Thursdays, Paramount+
