Ready to learn a bit more about the lead character in Star Trek: Discovery?
We spoke to star Sonequa Martin-Green about her mysterious role for this weeks upcoming issue of Entertainment Weekly. Her character, First Officer Michael Burnham (deliberately a mans name), has been shrouded in mystery so far, with the shows trailer hinting at a Vulcan past. Is she human? Vulcan? Martin-Green is ready to clear things up (a little).
We can tell you that Burnham is fully human (not half-Vulcan as some have speculated) and is the first human to attend the Vulcan Learning Center as a child and then the Vulcan Science Academy as a young woman. She has a close relationship with Sarek (James Frain), the father of Spock. For the past seven years, shes been serving on the U.S.S. Shenzhou.
Im the first officer on the U.S.S. Shenzhou that is captained by Captain Philippa Georgiou, who is played by the amazing Michelle Yeoh, she says. I have an inner war and its a journey of self discovery and finding out what it means to be alive, to be human, to be a Starfleet officer, what it means to be a hero.
The producers searched long and hard to find an actor who could pull of Burnhams divided nature. We read a lot of people and they either went way too robotic or and chilly or way too emotional, says Aaron Harberts, who serves as showrunner on the series along with Gretchen J. Berg. Whats beautiful about Sonequas performance is shes capable of playing two, three, four things at once. Shes got such a great command of her craft, shes able to be aloof but warm; logical but able to surrender her emotional side to the audience.
Adds Martin-Green: I have the Vulcan conflict in my life from Sarek and Amanda so theres always going to be that inner conflict with me. But I think its relatable because we all have some kind of inner conflict going on who we are versus who we present ourselves to be. Theres a lot to be discovered.
