One of the unexpected joys of the most recent third season of “Star Trek: Discovery” has been the presence of legendary 77-year-old Canadian filmmaker David Cronenberg (“The Fly,” “Dead Ringers,” “A History of Violence”) in a small but key role.
Cronenberg, who has only acted sporadically and often pops up rather randomly when he does, has now appeared in two episodes so far in the role of the mysterious 32nd century Federation official Kovich. Part academic historian, part interrogator – he’s fiercely intelligent and nimble whilst having an almost Data-like matter of fact manner.
In his first appearance he one-upped Michelle Yeoh’s Emperor Georgiou, while in his second he had a discussion that tied in the Abrams-verse Kelvin Timeline, the Mirror Universe, and filled in the blanks of the temporal wars that plagued the 30th century in the “Star Trek” timeline.
Now, Variety reports that Cronenberg will reprise the character in more episodes in the show’s fourth season which recently began production in Toronto where Cronenberg lives. He not entirely jokes that the role came to him because “I’m cheap and I’m available” and he’s also a big “Star Trek” original series fan. Discussing his role he says:
“I am an obedient actor, and [I’m] trying to bring the music out of the dialogue. It’s very interesting dialogue. It’s not easy, because not naturalistic, obviously. At times, my character in particular is going into a kind of a sci-fi technological monologue. It’s difficult to bring out the music in that and have some emotion in it, so it’s not just dry technological stuff. That’s quite an acting challenge, and quite a lot of fun.”
Cronenberg says he’s not sure what his next directing project will be and he’s currently seeking to finance three projects he has written – two features and one series. He also indicates if he does direct again he wouldn’t direct an episode of a series.
