Jonathan Del Arco, who played Hugh on Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Picard and Fantome on Voyager, chatted with us about the Trek the Vote show on October 2, a fundraiser for Vote Save America. In part 1 of our interview with Del Arco, we asked him what to expect at this “comedy show that blends politics, games, and a healthy scoop of hot nerdery.” Now read part 2, where we talked about how he found himself on Picard, the surprise news that his character was going to die, and more.
(This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.)
You turned up on season 1 of Picard; were you given any kind of backstory on what Hugh had been up to and how he got to where he was?
I sure wasn’t! [laughs] We were lucky enough to have rehearsal for the first episode, we had some time because they were building sets and they were running way behind, they were rewriting a bunch of scripts and we sat around talking, and they were like, “I don’t know.” So I did come up with a lot in my own head of what I thought, and we did have one person who was more knowledgeable on this, Kirsten Beyer, so I did talk to her. She was helpful and helped me kind of hash out what might have been in that middle ground, which was very helpful. But initially, no, I was trying to piece together exactly—they kept saying to me, he’s really broken, and I didn’t understand what that was. A very weird note to me. I didn’t understand what that meant. And then once I got into him and into the scenes, I completely comprehended what they meant by broken… I eventually got there, but I use all kinds of things to motivate my mental state on the ship and to try to find a thread. What I didn’t want to happen, because it’d been so many years and I was in so much makeup the first time, for the fans to not recognize Hugh, that there needed to be some thread of recognition of who that young person might have become.
So did you have any specifics that you came up with in terms of, like, what he’d been doing?
Yes, he dedicated his life to the betterment of the little collective that followed him as they broke off from The Collective, as it were, and became their leader and their guide. And then when this opportunity came up to work on the on The Artifact. He took it because he felt, were he not there it, the situation, would have been even worse for the xBs, even though he wasn’t capable of protecting them fully. He did what he could within that job to keep things from going completely off the rails, right? Which eventually they did.
Jonathan Del Arco as Hugh in Star Trek: Picard. Photo Cr: Trae Patton/CBS ©2019 CBS Interactive, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Was this a situation where they had written Hugh in and then called you, or was there someone on the production—I know you’d worked with [executive producer] James Duff, who was on the show at that point. Was that something he did? How did it all happen?
James was the showrunner on The Closer and Major Crimes and a very dear friend of mine and Jeri [Ryan]’s, and he had been hired to come very early on, one of the early executive producers and writers of a spin-off of Star Trek. We didn’t know what it was. There was no Picard yet. It was a spin-off of Star Trek. Alex Kurtzman, James Duff, and I believe maybe one other writer was involved at the time, and James really wanted it to be a Borg spin-off. That’s why he talked to Jeri and I, and really started talking to them about it being this Borg storyline. And somewhere within that he discussed it with us maybe a year before it even happened. And they didn’t have Patrick yet. So I think then they went and made the pitch to Patrick. But had Patrick not done it, some kind of show about the Borg would have happened. It would not have been Picard, it would have been a show about the Borg. And you can even tell how heavily Borg-influenced it was. So the Borg was really the the kernel, from what I understand of of the beginning of that idea. And once Patrick became involved, the pieces began to fall into place, and we were set up and given deals to come be a part of the show. What I was not told was that I was getting killed, because that was not James’s plan. And James left the show before they began filming. He had a creative differences and left, I think, weeks before I even began. I’d signed my contract, and the people that were left, I think, then made that decision without my being told or even knowing about it through gossip. I read it in a script. That was the first time I ever—
They didn’t tell you before they sent you the script?
No.
That’s always fun for an actor.
It was not. [laughs]
Do you know why?
I have no idea what the creative reasoning for killing Hugh was. I was told they needed it to propel the story. And maybe they thought, that’s how they get Seven onto the cube. I just think they missed a lot of really great storytelling opportunities with Seven and Hugh… Had I stayed on the show, I wouldn’t have gotten to do these two movies that I did, one which premieres October 18 in theaters, The Grotto. I would have never gotten to do The Grotto, because I would have been filming Star Trek and so creatively, I don’t regret it. I don’t feel bad about it. The only thing I regret is I didn’t get to do stuff with a couple of people, Jeri Ryan and LeVar Burton. Those are the two people I wanted to really have an opportunity to connect with as characters. Creatively, those are the two relationships I really wish I’d gotten to do.
Given that season 3 of Picard was so Borg heavy, it seems like that would have been a great opportunity, especially because your original adventures were with that whole crew.
I mean, not having to have a scene with Geordi, or to even ask about Geordi was completely misinformed to me. I kept asking, “Shouldn’t I ask about Geordi?” Nope… But you know what? I’m fine with that, because I got to do these movies, and I’m excited that I did. People magazine just put the trailer out [for The Grotto] today.
I just rewatched your first episode of Next Gen [“I, Borg”] and all over again, your performance blew me away. Did you have any thought back then that the episode and Hugh would have such an impact on viewers, not only to come back later in TNG, but decades later?
I think about it often. I wonder, what about the performance and the character hit people in such a primal way? And I think that character is a study in loneliness. And I just think that that’s something everyone can identify with at some point in their life, feeling alone. We come into the world alone, we leave the world alone. I think it’s a very scary thing for people, and it’s a very isolating thing for people to be disconnected from family and friends and being alone. There’s a ethos to that that I think really strikes at it. At the time when I played the role, I was going I was in grief, my partner had passed, so I was in a very particular space as a person that I think I put into the role that had a beautiful resonance to people. I think people just connected to that, to the truth of that person.
There was a vulnerability there.
Absolutely, yeah. So I think that that’s why. But it’s also a great character to come out of this sort of villainous—the idea that the villainous collective has this vulnerable, fragile creature amongst them.
You had a great scene with Whoopi… Do you remember anything about filming it? Had you worked with her before?
I had never worked with her. I was a fan, and I remembered her just being the loveliest person ever, and joyful and smiling—she was a fan of Star Trek. So she was really, really, really into it. I remember, because you film things in a certain order; when you’re a star, it’s called shooting you out, which is, let’s get all your stuff done so you could go home. I remember her insisting that they do all of MY stuff first, because I was in the uncomfortable costume. So then I could relax out of some of that makeup and do her stuff. I remember thinking that that was just amazing. And then she said, “Come back and say hi to me when you’re out of that makeup.” And so I did. I went back, and she goes, “Oh, you’re so cute!” So it was a really cute moment. She wanted to see what I looked like out of all my stuff. She was terrific.
And you also had great scenes with Patrick, with LeVar… there must have been something fun in that scene with Patrick in Picard, where you got to actually hug.
I will take full credit for the hug. It was not in the script. And I hear a lot of people talk about the hug being a moment for them, so that’s nice to hear… It was odd, the way it was written. We just had the conversation, there was no physical touching going on. And Patrick said, “I feel like we should at least shake hands or something.” And I said, “Would you mind if I hug you?” And he said, “No, let’s try it.” So we rehearsed it. And the director [Maja Vrvilo], she came up to us with tears in her eyes, and she goes, “Oh, we’re doing that. Everyone was crying, we’re definitely doing that.”
Picard and Hugh hug on Star Trek: Picard
Trek the Vote is happening on Oct. 2
Hosted by Trekkies Jon Lovett and Alice Wetterlund, guests so far include Jonathan Frakes, Gates McFadden, Wil Wheaton, Jeri Ryan, Rosalind Chao, Tawny Newsome, Eugene Cordero, Noël Wells, Mike McMahan, and of course, Del Arco himself. (Read part 1 of our interview for details about the event.)
Why is it so important to connect Trek to this? What’s the connective tissue?
The connective tissue to me, is, first of all, Trek is a family. Trek is an organized principle of fans that believe in certain principles—that are obvious, right? The Federation, the respect for humanity, not judging someone on what they look like or on what their physical capabilities are or aren’t, on their wealth… There are many, many things that connect the vision of Star Trek to what is happening in in our politics right now, and the possibility of a future where we have different point of view of running the show. By that, I mean a woman in particular. It would be a very refreshing change to try to put that at the helm. Remember when Janeway became the first captain? It was a moment in Trekdom. I think this will be a moment in American history in the same way, and it’s very optimistic to me.
So there’s a lot of connective tissue with the future. For one, we believe in science. I dare say, you could definitely make an argument that the people running on the other side are not very big believers in science. I believe in healthcare, I believe in a person’s body autonomy… I dare say the other side doesn’t believe in body autonomy, because they have taken it away from women across the country. So we could go down the line of how it aligns. Sometimes I’m very surprised to talk to anyone that is a fan of Star Trek that doesn’t see the similarities between the kind of two ideologies of what America is… [And in terms of the event] What’s great about Star Trek is this sort of opportunity to have fun and also make a change.
Listen to full interview
The audio of the full interview with Jonathan Del Arco was released today on the All Access Star Trek podcast.
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