In the season four finale of Star Trek: Discovery, “Coming Home,” voting rights advocate and Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams makes an out-of-this-world cameo.
In only her second TV appearance following a guest spot on ABC’s Black-ish, Abrams made her Star Trek franchise debut as the United Earth president. Abrams, who has been vocal about being a fan of the shows, said in a behind-the-scenes video posted to her Twitter on Saturday that she wanted to be a part of the show, regardless of the role.
“Whatever the story was, I wanted to be a part of it because watching Michael Burnham come into her power as captain, watching this party-crew reclaim itself — not only in a new era but in a new space that is so reminiscent of what they remembered but so different — that, to me, speaks of why we do the work we do in politics,” she said. “It’s about giving people hope and giving them a better life and creating this vision of what is possible.”
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During the three-minute clip, which also featured brief interviews with star Sonequa Martin-Green, showrunner Michelle Paradise and the episode’s director and series EP Olatunde Osunsanmi, Abrams discusses the experience of prepping for the role in terms of hair, makeup and costuming. Abrams also explained that her love for the franchise is based on the fact “that it is not one thing.”
“It is so many different shows, and it’s so many different vantage points. It has this idealized notion of what can be but a very grounded understanding of how hard the work will be to get there,” she said. “What has been so remarkable about every iteration of the show is that they take that same construct, but they do it so differently and so well that you never get bored with the journey.”
There's a lot of work to do. Are you ready for that?https://t.co/zW1iluAW2z#StarTrek #StarTrekDiscovery#UnitedEarth #OneGeorgia pic.twitter.com/vgcZPtoVRd
— Stacey Abrams (@staceyabrams) March 19, 2022
In an interview with Yahoo! Entertainment, Paradise explained how the team hid Abrams’ cameo from the public, noting that a few “precautions” were taken, though nothing drastic.
“We did take precautions on the day. Not listing her name specifically on the call sheet — normally, a performer’s name will be listed on the call sheet next to their character name. We didn’t do that in case any paperwork happened to get out,” she said. “We weren’t doing CIA-level things, but it was very important to all of us that we keep that lock[ed] down so the audience could experience that reveal in the moment.”
Paradise, who also wrote the season four finale, said that after reaching out to Abrams’ team, she agreed to a Zoom call with her and co-creator and EP Alex Kurtzman, where they pitched her the role.
“It was pretty overwhelming, I’ll be honest. Alex and I were both really taken aback,” Paradise recalled. “She was so kind and thoughtful, and just great. We were both absolutely thrilled to get to talk to her and pitch her the idea. Once she said she wanted to do it, we pinched ourselves a bit.”
As for whether Abrams might appear again, Paradise told Yahoo! that she’s “confident” Abrams will be busy with other things but that “it would be an absolute thrill to be able to do that again on any level.”
