Wilson Cruz Recalls ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Audition & Being ‘Formidable Enough’ (VIDEO)
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Wilson Cruz‘s journey to becoming Dr. Hugh Culber on Star Trek: Discovery—now in its final season, dropping Thursdays on Paramount+—had a few twists and turns.
As he shares with TV Insider, he read about the series early on. “It was even before CBS All Access [the streaming service’s name before the Paramount+ rebrand]. I think it was CBS in general was going to bring Star Trek back to TV and Bryan Fuller was attached to create it. I had just worked with Brian a couple years before, maybe more on the series finale of Pushing Daisies,” he recalls. “I sent Bryan a little DM on Twitter saying, ‘Hey, how are you? By the way, great article … about the new Star Trek series. By the way, huge fan, would love to be part of it.’ Shoot your shot, I say.”
Cruz did get a response from Fuller. “Wilson, would be great to see you in a Starfleet uniform,” he wrote. “Little did I know it was going to be stark white and spandex,” Cruz says.
Fuller did move on after developing Discovery but Cruz also had history with the two writers taking over, Aaron Harberts and Gretchen J. Berg. “I knew that they were auditioning people. I knew that Anthony Rapp was up for the gay role. And so I was like, ‘Well, I guess that’s the way that they’re going.’ They announced Anthony. I was like, ‘Okay, fine, moving on,'” he shares. “I call Anthony up. I’m like, ‘Congratulations, baby. I love you so much. I can’t wait to watch. I’m a big Trekker. I will be there watching.’ He’s like, ‘I love you so much,’ because we love each other.”
But then a week after that, his agent and manager called. “‘There’s going to be two gay guys and they’re in a relationship, and we didn’t know this before, but now you’ve been offered this part,’ offered this part,” stresses Cruz. “I, of course, lose my mind. I call up everybody I know—my parents, my brother, who’s my best friend. I am celebrating.”
However, the day after, he received another call, that the studio wasn’t sure if he was “formidable enough for the role” and wanted him to read. Watch the full video above for more from Cruz about the sides he read and how he landed the role of Culber.
Star Trek: Discovery, Thursdays, Paramount+
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