Ed Speelers portrays the role of Jean Luc Picard’s son in the Star Trek series, Jack the Crusher. The actor has shown the fans that he’s worthy of landing the Star Trek: Picard role. While the actor is enjoying the fruits of his hard work, he shares the details of the excruciating and extensive process of earning the part of Jack for the series.
Ed Speelers reveals that he had to go through several rounds of tests before he finally got the part of Jack. Although he thinks it’s a long process, he admitted it took him longer to find the courage to audition. In his interview with Collider, he revealed,
“I really want to say that it was incredibly extensive, and I did round after round after round and had screen tests galore, but it wasn’t. The thing that took the longest was me actually finding myself, plucking myself the courage to do the tape. It took my girlfriend really… Not [persuading] me, because I love the thing. When it came in, I was like, “Oh my God, this is great. This ticks all the boxes. This is exactly the sort of challenge I’m looking for.” But I struggled to tape. I was like, ‘Oh no, this isn’t working.’”
When he finally landed the role, he was very emotional as he nearly abandoned the entire process. He said,
“I was almost in tears. I just couldn’t quite work out how to do it, and I nearly gave it up. I nearly was like, “No, I’m not doing this. I can’t. I’m not going to do it.” I was very dramatic. It was very actor-y behavior. It took my girlfriend to sit me down, have a cup of tea, tell me to grow up, pull myself together, and we shot it, and we did a late-night tape, and we sent it off. And two weeks later, I found out that they wanted to maybe test me with Patrick [Stewart]. And then very quickly, they changed their mind on that and said, “No, actually we want to offer you the role.” And I was like, “Oh, okay. This is kind of serious.” I mean, it very quickly meant a lot to me, really.”
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Being Part of the Star Trek Franchise Is a Privilege for Ed Speelers
Trae Patton/Paramount+
For Ed Speelers, having to be a part of the Star Trek franchise has been a privilege and is probably the most significant role he’s played. He said,
“I mean, I would not want to do a disservice to other shows I’ve been a part of, but yeah. I mean, this thing has been going since, I want to say 1964, but that might just be in my head. It’s such an honor. I mean, the whole thing was so surreal to be a part of it and to be given the role that I was given. Yeah, it’s been a privilege from start to finish and so surreal within that because you cannot escape without knowing… It’s impossible growing up anywhere and not [having] a subtle understanding of what Star Trek is and then what it might mean to so many people globally.”
The first five episodes of Star Trek: Picard season 3 are now available on Paramount+.
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