Editor’s note: The below interview contains spoilers for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.
The penultimate episode ofStrange New Worldsshook audiences this week by delivering the first major character death of the series. While the opening of the episode certainly telegraphed that the two newly promoted crew members would fall prey to the “Red Shirt Trope” (despitenotwearing red shirts) few could have imagined that this episode would be Hemmer’s (Bruce Horak) last. As the crew faces certain death at the hands of the Gorn, an infected and dying Hemmer makes the ultimate sacrifice to ensure that the crew—and ultimately his family—survives to fight another day.
In a one-on-one interview with Collider, Horak spoke about when he learned of Hemmer’s impending death, what it was like to fulfill an Obi-Wan Kenobi-like mentorship role for Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding), fleshing out what we know of the Aenar (the rarely seen Andorian subspecies), and whether Hemmer ultimately got to be the “fixer” he set out to be.
COLLIDER:The episode starts out with one of these now-iconic crew meals. Were they as fun and as camaraderie-building as they appear to be?
BRUCE HORAK: The crew meals? Oh yeah, that was a great time. We got to actually hang out together. Shooting under COVID protocols meant that, usually between takes, we were all separated and there was not a lot of socializing. So actually getting to sit at that big table together meant [that] we could hang out and have a few laughs and build some of that camaraderie that I think basically infects the whole show. You get that feeling for sure.
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From the start, Hemmer very much felt like this very integral part of the crew. How early on did you know your fate?
HORAK: I knew it from the very start. When I auditioned for the part, they told me that Hammer would be killed off. That he would be given a noble death was as much as they told me. Honestly, I had no idea the exact circumstances of how it was all going to end up until I read episode 1-09.
Did it change how you played through the episodes, coming up to this moment?
HORAK: Knowing that he was going to die, did it change it? I don’t know. I don’t think it did. No, I don’t think it did. I think I understood his role within the narrative arc. I knew that he was the mentor for Uhura. Thinking of famous archetypal mentor figures throughout science fiction and fantasy, it just seemed to fit into all those wonderful archetypes, with a layer, obviously, because he has this wonderful connection with the Uhura. There isn’t a distance or whatever. But knowing that he’s the mentor, I knew that he was going to connect. Finding that kind of authenticity throughout the scenes with the Uhura just seemed the way to go.
It very much seems like that connection with Uhura, and ultimately his death, is what convinces her, that she needs to stay with the Enterprise. What was it like for you to get to have that kind of impact as a character for an iconic character like Uhura?
HORAK: Oh, it’s a total honor. I mean, you get to play with the Obi-Wan Kenobi character, basically. It’s wonderful. It’s adding to that character’s backstory and the richness and depth that we’re going to see from Uhura going forward.
Hemmer is very much a tough-to-love personality. He’s very hard on the outside, soft on the inside. For you, what were his motivations for being a little bit more closed off with a lot of the crew and making them work to be loved by him?
HORAK: Well for me, I really dug into the history of the Aenar. I dug into Memory Alpha and I went back and looked at what we knew about his species and where they are. Knowing that there are very few of them left, that they are a dying species, that they are somewhat ostracized and considered a myth in the Andorian world, I felt like this is another great outsider figure that obviously puts up this sort of veneer of gruffness and harshness in order to keep people a bit at a distance, might be coming from general suspicion or fear. But ultimately, it feels like that’s where it’s coming from, feeling like an outsider.
As you said, the Aenar are very much outsiders and not as well-known characters in theStar Trekuniverse. Did you get to bring anything to the table yourself to help flesh out that species and to help flesh out Hemmer?
HORAK: Oh yeah. I’d say the general sense of play and humor that comes through, that was from me. The way that he’s moving and navigating spaces, certainly that’s mine. All of the words though, those were directly from the script. So I take no credit for that. Just getting to play in that sort of high status, gruff, exterior, I mean, I’m drawing from a few influences in my life who will remain unnamed.
I know early on you said that Hemmer is very much a fixer type of character. Do you feel like by the time that he comes to his end, that he has helped fix the crew?
HORAK: I think there is a really lovely moment of … What is it when something comes full circle? Completion. Yeah, it’s a moment of completion. He certainly brings the ship back online, the brokenUSS Peregrine. So he’s integral in fixing the physical environment so that they can actually physically leave. Beyond that, it’s the situation itself, which is this incredible hazard. He’s about to erupt with Gorn and the solution to that is to sacrifice himself. I think that’s a really lovely moment of completion for the character. Showing that sacrifice is really the heart of what Starfleet is all about, sacrificing yourself for those you love. That beautiful lesson to Uhura feels like all of the little loose ends have been tied up in a lovely bow.
What was filming that sacrifice like for you? I know I was crying just watching it. So in the moment for you, what was the weight and the gravity of that experience?
HORAK: Well, hindsight is different. But in the moment, I was acutely aware of the determination of completing this task. I just kept putting that in forefront of my mind, instead of thinking about the grief and the loss and all that was going to come. I mean, the real moment of it was getting physically into, “Okay, this is a very sick character. He’s going to erupt any second now.” So there’s [an] immediacy and high stakes. It was a lot of adrenaline and probably one of the more exhausting days that I had on set.
Strange New Worldsis streaming now on Paramount+.
Looking to brush up on your knowledge about the Aenar? Check out Paramount+’s feature about the species below:
