Celia Rose Gooding embraces “Star Trek” icon Uhura: “It’s just fun to play a recognizable, playful version of this character”

Actor Celia Rose Gooding has stepped into the middle of one in every of science fiction’s most passionate fandoms, portraying the long-lasting character Nyota Uhura in Paramount+’s “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.”

“Trekkies are some of the most devoted fans I think in fandom history,” Gooding mentioned. “To be embraced with open arms, reprising an iconic character, they’ve been so generous and so kind to me and so receptive of my take of her.”

The collection, the eleventh within the Star Trek franchise, takes place a decade earlier than the unique present. Gooding performs a younger Uhura, a Starfleet cadet specializing in linguistics. Though she comes from a household of Trekkies herself, she admitted she was not very acquainted with the franchise earlier than touchdown the function.

“When they found out that I’d booked the role, I think everyone was ten times more excited than I was,” Gooding mentioned. 

She describes her mother as the largest Trek fan she is aware of and mentioned she leaned in her mom’s early steerage, from perfecting the Vulcan salute to embracing the present’s spirit. 

“‘Trek’ is all about curiosity and hope and community,” Gooding mentioned.

Gooding defined that she deliberately averted studying an excessive amount of about Uhura’s future storylines, for the reason that prequel format means her character would not know what’s forward. 

“She doesn’t know her future, so it’s probably best to not be too, too informed,” Gooding mentioned. “So I’m not playing as if I know what’s going to happen to me, because no one knows what tomorrow brings.”

This week’s episode marks a turning level for Uhura, as she faces scrutiny as she navigates her twin id as each a younger girl in her early twenties and a Starfleet officer entrusted with loads of accountability. 

“When that responsibility is interrogated, when her contributions to Starfleet are interrogated in a way that she’s not expecting, she has to confront her contributions to the institution that is Starfleet in a way that I don’t think Star Trek has given audiences a lens into before,” Gooding mentioned.

The season additionally introduces lighter moments, together with a budding romance.

“I just was really excited for her to have some levity and some joy and some flirtation,” Gooding mentioned. “A little quasi workplace romance can’t hurt anybody in the fictional world. It’s just fun to play a recognizable, playful version of this character.”

Season three of “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” is now streaming on Paramount+.