Calgary’s “Star Trek: Discovery” Actor Clare McConnell Talks Klingons

By | Posted: May 5, 2017 6:24 pm UTC
Calgary actor Clare McConnell - Star Trek Discovery

Clare McConnell Discusses “Discovery” Role

CBS recently made the largest Discovery casting announcement yet.  That announcement included a relative newcomer named Clare McConnell.

Yesterday, Metro News managed to catch up with the Calgary native to discuss her upcoming role in Star Trek: Discovery.  While all the actors, producers, and crew are being tight-lipped about the new series, McConnell did have a few things she was able to say about the highly-anticipate show.

According to Metro, McConnell managed to get the role of playing Dennas, a Klingon leader, after just one audition.  Surprisingly, the role was actually given to her back in December 2016.  “I’m very excited.  I’ve known since December, so I’ve been hiding it from all my friends”, says McConnell.  This begs two questions surrounding some of the decisions being made about Star Trek Discovery:

  1. Why did CBS wait 5 months to make an official announcement?
  2. Who else has already been cast that we don’t know about?

Presumably, the answer to that first question is that they would like to trickle out information over a long period of time, likely to keep Discovery in the news zeitgeist.  As for the second, that’s anyone’s guess at this point, though we have a few cast members in our character list that have not been officially announced yet.

Discovery Setting a New Course

A few months ago, we broke a story about the new look of the Klingons, and how Star Trek Discovery is charting its own course.  Furthering that, McConnell says that “[t]he actors have really been encouraged to make it their own. I’ve even been encouraged to make the Klingon language my own.”  She has been receiving Klingon dialect coaching, likely from Rea Nolan, though that remains unconfirmed.  “Each series is such a classic thing, but also such an innovative thing”.

McConnell says that the ship sets “looked incredible” and her character has a “very cool” costume.  We’re unsure if the costume she’s referring to is the one depicted below, or if she’s in something else given her leadership role in Klingon society.

Star Trek Discovery - Klingon wardrobe?
Star Trek Discovery – Klingon wardrobe?

One encouraging comment that McConnell made is that there is an atmosphere on set in Pinewood Studios Toronto that everyone wants to get Discovery right, because “Star Trek is such a beloved series”.  We’ve heard similar statements being made by various people involved in Discovery‘s production, and from CBS execs.

Clare McConnell is a relative newcomer to acting.  She was previously cast in the movie Dim the Fluorescents.  That production won a grand jury prize at the Slamdance Festival.

She currently lives in Toronto where Star Trek Discovery is now in production of the 13-episode pilot season of the series.

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About Enrico Pastellio

Rico became a Star Trek fan after being introduced to it during Star Trek Enterprise's run. After finishing that series, he went back watching TNG, DS9, VOY, and most of the movies. He's a big fan of Star Trek (2009) for its action, but favors the cerebral nature of each tv series. When Rico first heard about the new Star Trek Discovery series (then just know as 'Star Trek'), he immediately wanted to start up a new site about the show. You can email him at enrico@ncc-1031.com.