Warning: This article contains spoilers fromStar Trek: Picardseason 3, episode 4 and the entirety ofYouseason 4.
He can’t help it.
His nose crinkles and his eyes squint.
Between his roles on ‘Star Trek: Picard’ and ‘You’ season 4, Ed Speleers is used to spoiler warnings.Paramount + / Netflix
He’s working out in his head how best to address the question.
“I’ve never had to overthink it before, even in interviews,” Speleers admits.
My peabrain can’t keep up."
Ed Speleers as Jack Crusher, son of Beverly Crusher and Jean-Luc Picard, on ‘Star Trek: Picard.'.Trae Patton/Paramount+
It’s a stress most actors have to deal with in some capacity.
Speleers has double the pressure because (spoiler alert!)
And both shows are running simultaneously, which has created quite the minefield.
Ed Speleers as Rhys and Penn Badgley as Joe on ‘You’ season 4.Courtesy of Netflix
Speleers only sees the positive of these spoiler warnings attached to his characters.
In his mind, it means people are excited about them.
“I love the fact they are so juxtaposed.
Ed Speleers as Rhys, Penn Badgley as Joe Goldberg.Courtesy of Netflix
And they’re both so multifaceted, but in such different ways,” he remarks.
“The process of putting both of them together was actually really different.”
Star Trek’s next generation
Speleers’Star Trekjourney began with what his generation does best: binge-watching.
Speleers’ nose tightens again.
He doesn’t want to list off too many.
“There are two that…
It wasn’t about emulating specific mannerisms from the early performances of Speleers' on-screen parents.
Matalas wanted to instead impress upon him the themes.
How does Picard view his own existence?
Why didn’t he start a family for all these years?
“I was given the luxury to explore Jack as his own entity,” Speleers says.
The character was pitched to Speleers as an amalgamation of various space cowboys.
Yes, Captain James T. Kirk, he confirms, was one such touchstone.
He remembers sitting on the couch after class in high school with his pops, watchingThe Next Generation.
“There’s a swashbuckling nature to Kirk I suppose, isn’t there?”
Speleers remembers having a drink with Stewart off screen.
The first was on their first meeting over lunch in Los Angeles, where they enjoyed white wine.
Stewart would later invite Speleers' family to swim in the pool at his California home.
The drink of choice then was rose.
“Very civilized,” Speleers says, chuckling at the memory.
“Space brothers,” he calls their relationship.
“That guy is so engrained inStar Trek…” Speleers doesn’t want to say “canon.”
“When I think of canon, I think of ships in the armada,” he says.
“Mythology” is the word he runs with.
“Talking at length with [Wheaton] was very entertaining.”
He speaks with a schoolboy giddiness about the potential to do much more with Jack Crusher.
Speleers makes clear, “I 100 percent want to do it.
That, too, is a big question mark at the moment.
“It’s so hypothetical,” he says.
It was a different way of working than Speleers' experience onPicard.
He knew all the big beats from series creatorSera Gamble: how (spoiler alert!
Speleers didn’t have all the scripts laid out in front of him.
There was no clear-cut backstory laying out the small, nuanced details to this character.
It seemed to click quite well playing a complete nutcase.”
Speleers takes a moment to laugh at what he just said.
“That’s not good, is it?”
The fun came inPart 2 of season 4when the illusory Rhys reveals himself.
The actor felt like the shackles came off and he could lean into the true nature of this character.
He and Badgley worked closely together to develop that Joe and Rhys connection.
It makes Joe really question himself.
‘How could I possibly come up with this creation?’
It has to feel so different to him.”
(Blame the NDAs!)
“This could be it and I may never work again,” he says.
(Something tells us that won’t be the case.)
