Hey, nerds.
I'm Wil Wheaton, and this is The Ready Room,
your official behind-the-scenes hub
for all things Star Trek Universe.
Today, I have the pleasure to be talking
to the Soji formerly known as Dahj, Isa Briones,
who has all the details on the latest episode
of Star Trek: Picard.
And as always, we will be getting deep
into spoiler territory, so if you haven't seen Episode 9,
"Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 1,"
you're gonna want to watch that first.
Because honestly, when was the last time
a Latin-titled episode of anything wasn't full of spoilers?
And it's called "Part 1"!
Like, it's telling you right there in the title!
But first, the crew just uncovered
an entire society populated by synthetics,
and I have a thousand followup questions.
Luckily for us, we have the show's creative team
to answer a few of them in this week's installment
of "Producing Picard."
Control room?
Engage.
I think we thought of an all-synthetic society
as a way of discussing how different lifeforms
can be marginalized and how they can become reactive
in the face it.
So, the synth society on Coppelius
originated from a single neuron
that was smuggled out of Daystrom
by Bruce Maddox the day of the synthetic ban.
And he then hooked up with Soong,
and together they went to this world,
which was pretty much off the beaten path,
and began reconstructing by a process
called fractal neuronic cloning.
Doesn't exist, we made it up.
From there, they created the first synths,
and then the synths began creating other synths.
So, it is a world whose population is purely synthetic,
except for Soong, who is the sole surviving organic there.
We're not all machines here, you know?
We created another Soong for Brent Spiner to play.
He's played several, and we construed this particular Soong
to be, essentially, Data's brother.
Dr. Altan Inigo Soong, mad scientist.
My father had me, but he created Data,
a fact he never let me forget.
It's always delightful to let Brent play
different characters, and Soongs in particular.
And what's fun about this particular Soong,
like so many Soongs, is that you don't really know
which side he stands on.
Well, I am incredibly lucky
to be joined by a remarkably talented young actor.
I have to read the names of your characters
off of this card because there are so many.
'Cause you never know. [Laughs]
Dahj.
Mm.
Wil: Soji. -: Mm.
Wil: Sutra. -: Yes.
Wil: Jana. -: Mm!
You are playing like an Orphan Black cast of characters
in this show.
Ladies and gentlemen and non-binary viewers,
please say hello to Isa Briones.
I am so thrilled that you are here.
Thank you.
I love you in this show.
You are amazing in this show.
Thank you so much.
We have many, many questions.
I wanted to ask you about Sutra.
Mm-hmm.
So, she looks just like Data.
Yeah.
She appears to be an earlier version,
an earlier synthetic.
[Isa] Yeah.
[Wil] And she is, one of the things that impresses me so much,
one of the things that makes you so fun to watch as an actor,
is you really become a different person
when you are playing these different characters.
You're not an actor in a wig or an actor under makeup;
you are a totally different person.
What went into bring Sutra to life?
I think the fun thing about- when I first started working
on doing Dahj and Soji, it was like,
"Oh, this is fun because I get to play someone
so much like myself."
'Cause she's a young woman going through
all sorts of crazy new stuff,
trying to figure out who she is,
and that's exactly what I'm going through.
But then to get to play someone very different
and very different from those people
is also exciting because you can take it
in a completely different direction.
You can have free rein. And the writers
and all the creative team were very generous
with just letting me figure out
who I wanted to make Sutra be.
I mean, of course, they had their input,
but they really let all of us have free rein
over our characters in a really exciting way.
Did you get to take a lot of runs at her
and try her different ways to sort of like,
did you find her in rehearsal, or did you find her in prep?
I feel like she just kind of organically came about.
Also, when you get into the gold, and into the outfit,
and into the hair, there's something
that's so magical about costumes
and really making that character
that I feel like it naturally just happened.
I feel like when I'm doing work in makeup,
or prosthetics, or something like that,
I feel like I'm not gonna get caught.
Yeah.
I feel like I'm in the makeup, so I can take risks.
Exactly.
I can be something that I would feel like,
"Oh, that's too far, if I did-"
Yeah, it is wild how just walking around set
in those wedges, suddenly,
you start to walk differently,
and you start to just feel the character.
Even people on set were like,
"Oh my God, you've become a whole other person.
I'm scared of you."
She is a little scary, which is something
we have really only seen once before
with Data's brother Lore on Next Generation.
Yes.
What is going on in her head?
She lets Narek go.
What's going on with that?
The thing is, you know, I feel like behind every baddie,
at least every good, compelling baddie,
there's a real reason.
There's gotta be a compelling reason
why they are the way they are,
and for her, I mean, we talk about,
we don't see, but we talk about Jana, her sister,
who was taken from her in a very horrible, shocking way.
And I think when we look at all the other synths
on Coppelius, this world that we're on,
you see that they are this earlier version.
They've really lived in this bubble with just them,
so they're kind of sheltered, in a way.
They've really only known each other.
And also, everyone is made in pairs
so you always have your companion.
You always have your person there with you.
But the thing that's different about Sutra
is her sister was taken, and that affected her
in such a way, at least this is the work
that I've done in my head.
Of course, we don't see it,
but that loss is what makes her develop,
I think, in a very different way than everyone else
because she's experienced a pain
that no one else on that planet has experienced.
So, I think that informs her to-
since they are not extremely experienced
in the ways of the world, all she knows is this pain,
and that immediately colors the way that she goes forward
and the way that she view sentient life.
All living things.
It really, she can't trust anyone,
and that is what drives her to make these
not popular decisions.
She comes across a little bit to me
with the naiveté and the conviction
of someone who is kind of a newly minted cultist.
Mm-hmm.
That sense of like, "This is absolutely right."
Yeah.
"This is how it is, and everybody else is wrong,
and I can see all of that."
Do you agree that she's kind of fanatic like that?
Absolutely.
With something that extreme happening in her life,
I feel like that's the only thing she really knows.
So, she's just reacting in the only way she can.
'Cause we've all been hurt, we've all been in pain,
and that pain sometimes makes you do crazy things.
Maybe you chop off your hair, or something.
You do something.
But this is such an extreme circumstance
where she's so sheltered
and has been in this almost cult-like world
that every decision is extreme.
So, she's like, "No, hate those people.
Writing them off.
Gotta destroy them, I guess."
And I guess as an actor, can you talk
about how bad people-
I play villains all the time.
We are never the villain.
We're the hero of-
Of our own story, yeah.
-: Our story, right? -: Of course.
So, you get to do this really cool thing in this episode
where you get to play people,
you get to play multiple characters
who are in direct opposition to each other.
Yeah.
When you were doing your prep, I break down my scripts,
and the actions, and all of that stuff.
Did you do this?
The fact that you were playing all the characters,
did it change your preparation at all,
or did you just like, "I'm gonna prep this character,
now I'm gonna prep this character, they're all together"?
I don't even...
Because Sutra came so much later,
like when I first found out that I was gonna be twins,
like before we even started filming,
I was like, "Ooh, I'm so excited.
I get to play opposite myself."
And then I get the script, and I'm like,
"She dies in the first episode.
Dahj is dead, so I'm not gonna get to play them as-
alright, cool, whatever," and I just let that go.
But then getting Sutra that late in the game
just for the last two episodes, I was like,
"Oh, this will be fun," 'cause you kind of-
especially since I've already very firmly established
who Soji is at this point,
then it allowed me to immediately go
in a completely different direction
'cause I wasn't creating two characters at the same time.
It was just like adding a new foe,
a new, interesting person into the mix.
And I feel like that just kinda came naturally
because Soji was already very much a part of me
that I got to play something very differently
in a more natural way.
You have a couple of really cool straight-up Data moments.
I mean, I think I speak for Next Generation fandom
when I say those were lovely moments,
and they were wonderful to see.
In 1990.
Oh my gosh.
Long before you were born, I think.
Yes. [Laughs]
Jonathan Frakes directed an episode of Next Generation
called "The Offspring."
I am sure you've seen it.
It's my favorite episode, obviously.
When I first saw you as Dahj,
I turned to my wife and said,
"My God, she looks just like Lal.
That can't be an accident!
That has to be a thing."
[Isa] Yeah.
So, for that episode, Frakes directed that episode.
Yes, I know.
I've gushed to him about that episode.
Right after he finished casting,
he and I were in the makeup trailer,
and we were talking about it, and he said,
"We all take for granted how good Brent is.
"We don't even realize until you see people do a bad Data
how hard it is to be Data."
[Isa] Yeah.
I didn't see you do a bad Data.
I saw you do a great Data.
So, I wanted to know if you've studied Brent.
Did you lean on Frakes at all when he came in?
Did you lean on Patrick for advice?
Because those mannerisms are established.
Those aren't really choices.
Those are more interpretations.
Yeah.
Yeah, I...
When I first found out that I was gonna be doing this,
they made it very clear, "You're not trying to be Data,"
like, of course, because also,
no one can be Brent, obviously.
And also, they're both supposed to be very evolved
and advanced synthetics.
So, I got to really just be.
They were like, "She needs to appear human, so just be you,"
but then we get to sprinkle in little Easter-egg,
head-tilt moments and things that every time
I read the script, it was like, "Head tilt."
Alright, gotta do it.
The head tilts.
I feel really self-conscious
that I'm gushing about this so much.
I feel like it's super unprofessional,
and the Internet is gonna eat me alive for gushing so much
because this is like The Chris Farley Show for me,
but I saw those moments, and I care so much
about Star Trek and about Next Generation.
Yeah.
I care so much about the legacy of these characters
that when I hear they're going,
these things are gonna happen, I go,
"Please, please, please don't mess it up!"
Yeah.
Those little moments, and the first time
I noticed it was in, I want to say that was like episode-
Four?
Yeah, so there's a moment where she does that tilt,
and I was like, "Ah!"
Yeah.
And I was like, "Oh, I wonder if someone
who didn't watch that every day for seven years-"
Yeah. [Laughs]
Would know.
[Wil] Would know what that was!
That episode was directed by Jonathan Frakes,
and it was the first time that I really had to do
that head tilt, and I was so nervous,
and I didn't really, I hadn't worked with Brent yet,
and I didn't really talk to him a lot.
So I didn't get much of a chance to be like,
"Am I doing this right?"
[Wil] Yeah.
But since Frakes was there, I was like,
"Hey, you gotta help me.
I want to make sure I don't botch this.
People are gonna eat me alive on the Internet
if I do this wrong."
[Wil] Yeah, yeah.
And so, we tried it a few different ways,
and then the last take I just hear Frakes
all the way over in his tent go, "Perfect!"
I can hear him say it.
I know-
"Brilliant!" [Laughs]
I can absolutely hear it.
I love that, and I'm so envious you got to work with him.
[Isa] Oh my God.
As an actor and as a director.
A dream come true.
[Wil] Yeah.
Right?
God.
My research staff tells me
that you have martial arts experience.
Yes.
You got to do some super badass fighting sequences
in the series back as Dahj, and then again as Soji.
Did you get to do some of your own bodywork,
or were you doubled a lot?
Well, so right away, I think the first thing,
even before we started rehearsing for the first episode,
I immediately went into fight training.
We have an incredible stunt team,
and, yeah, as you mentioned, I had done martial arts
a lot when I was a kid, but I stopped in my teens,
and so I was kind of afraid
that it was gonna feel really out-of-my-body.
But once I started getting back into it-
Come back?
"Oh my God, I remember now how much I loved this."
And since I'm from musical theater,
in musical theater you're supposed to be able to dance
as well as sing, and I was always trying
to go to dance classes and get better at that,
and it never really worked, and I realized,
yeah, martial arts comes a lot easier to me
than dancing does,
which is not great for my career sometimes,
but it really was so cool getting to go back to that.
They really taught me everything.
Of course, Kiera O'Connor, my incredible stunt double
in the first episode, she did all the flips and stuff,
'cause I can't quite do that.
Sure, sure.
But they were so great at teaching me everything,
making sure that I was safe,
and I really got to do a lot of the fight sequence
that you do see, so that was really cool.
You have to do those movements.
They have to be super controlled
because it's a staged fight,
but then there's the other level of, you're a synthetic.
[Isa] Yeah.
So they have to be extra precise.
Yeah.
Did you feel extra pressure?
I mean, any time you're doing a fight scene, it's intense.
Yeah.
Was there an additional intensity at all?
I just wonder because I see like, you can't show expression.
You have to make these choices that are so different
from what we actually do.
Yeah.
No, I feel like when you're in the moment
and in something that intense,
I'm a girl who loves drama and who loves to tackle
that kind of a role.
So when you're in something that is so naturally intense,
like you're not faking it at all.
Once you're fighting, it feels like you're fighting.
Actors always talk about how you know
that you're playing a role, but your body doesn't.
And so, when you start fighting, your body is in that mode.
It is ready to kill, kind of.
So, it just kind of comes out, which is a cool feeling
'cause it's not something you always get to do.
Hopefully, you're not having fights like that
in your daily life.
Oh, yeah.
Just see me outside, okay? [Laughs]
Okay. [Laughs]
No, but-
I surrender.
[Laughs] Yeah.
I wouldn't.
You've seen what I can do.
[Laughs]
No, but it really does kind of just happen,
the heat of the moment.
Of course, you have to be safe, since it's not real.
You don't want to actually hurt anyone,
but it is really cool to see
how your body kind of just kicks in.
How much Star Trek did you watch
from the time you were cast
until the time you started working on the show?
Did you dive into it?
Did you feel like you didn't need it?
No, I wanted to know.
I knew that I wasn't, again, I wasn't supposed to be Data,
but I wanted to know the world of it
just so I had some kind of background.
But, as you know, 23 episodes, seven seasons
is a lot to do in a couple of weeks before filming.
So, first, I just kind of was reading all the descriptions,
trying to see what pertained to me.
Of course, I saw "Offspring," and I was like,
"Hmm, I wonder what that..." and then read like,
"Data has a daughter."
No kidding!
I was like, "Isn't that me?" [Laughs]
Now, I would've expected Star Trek Incorporated to go,
"Isa, you really need to watch this."
Yeah, no!
[Wil] "It is very important."
They sent that later, but I came across that myself
and I was like, "I think I should watch this."
And of course, I got obsessed with that episode,
but, yeah, I kind of bopped around to various episodes,
but then I got to, I think it's end of Season 3
where Picard gets assimilated by the Borg.
Yeah, "Best of Both Worlds, Part 1."
And I was like, "Oh, this is cool."
And I just kept on watching, and I got so hooked.
We tend to sort of, at least in my slice of fandom,
I was a Star Trek fan before I worked on Next Generation.
So, I am obsessive, and nerdy, and obnoxious,
and weird about it.
Yeah.
In my little slice of Star Trek fandom,
that particular episode
and the story that kind of grew out of it
is really, really, really important to us.
Yes, very important.
So much to do with our show, specifically, too.
Yeah, nothing really makes me happier as an actor
and as a fan than meeting someone working on Star Trek
who loves it and cares about it as much as I do.
Yeah!
No, I really...
It's funny how it slowly became so much bigger to me.
I didn't clock how important it became in my life.
Of course, I knew it was this job I was doing,
and of course that's important,
but getting to really know the story
and also getting to meet fans, going to Comic-Cons,
and really seeing how much this whole franchise,
but specifically this captain, has meant to so many people
and the impact that it has had on their lives,
it becomes a very emotional-
Yeah.
Part of the job.
Like it becomes so much more than just a show you're doing.
Were you apprehensive at all?
Were you like, "Oh no.
Is this gonna be like a Saturday Night Live sketch?"
Or did you know the reality of Star Trek fandom?
I mean, when you get a job and you're out of a job,
you're like, "I'm gonna take that job."
Yeah, of course!
Absolutely.
There was no apprehension there.
Yeah, yeah.
But I definitely, and I was aware
of how big Star Trek is, and how intense the fandom is,
but it just becomes a whole,
you suddenly see a whole other side of it.
I think from the outside you're like,
"Oh, that can be a crazy fandom,"
but when you're in it, it's so appreciated
because then you realize, "Oh, this thing
that we've been working on for six months,
people want it, and people cannot wait,
and people love us, and we love them so much for it,"
because how often as an actor
do you already have that built-in,
you already know people are gonna receive it?
People are gonna watch it?
Like, that's the dream.
At the end of this episode,
Soji is placed in a really difficult position.
She has to choose between her motley crew family,
and she has to choose between her synthetic family.
And I guess, next week, we're gonna find out what happens
when she is forced to kind of make
what feels like a Sophie's Choice.
Yeah.
Between these two families.
Yeah.
I think the fact that she's found another sister
is really, it's exciting for her because she...
I mean, she doesn't even get to say goodbye to Dahj.
She finds out about Dahj in the aftermath,
and it's so quick and just something
she has to be okay with,
the fact that she's lost her sister.
And now she's found someone else
who has also lost their sister,
and she has the opportunity to make this new connection
and find this new love with this new family.
But as we can see, Sutra's not exactly
what you may want in a sister.
Yeah.
'Cause she's a little scary.
Yeah.
But there's just, there's that natural thing.
You can't choose your family,
and she's trying to figure out what is more important.
Is this family more important, or is the future
of the rest of the universe more important?
It's really a big decision to put on someone
who five days ago thought she was human, you know?
It is, spoiler alert, I've seen it.
[Laughs]
It's extremely satisfying, and it is important to me
that you know that I believe
that Star Trek is better because you are in it,
that you have played these characters so beautifully
and so perfectly, that I cannot imagine
anyone else in these roles.
I told you this backstage, I'll tell you this
in front of the world: I am thrilled
to be in a Star Trek family with you.
Thank you so much.
Because I think you're awesome.
Thank you so much for spending time with us today.
Thank you.
Yay. [Laughs]
Now, what kind of Ready Room would this be
if I didn't have another brand-new, behind-the-scenes
video package for you to watch?
Well, I am not gonna drop the ball
after nine straight weeks.
Let's roll the segment.
In the prop department, early on,
before we spend lots and lots of money fabricating props,
we make foamcore mockups of anything
that we want to feel the scale of it on a person,
and also for stunts and choreographing the fighting.
And also, sometimes we'll have them printed out
in their various capacities
to show the features and how they change and transform.
In order to get the scale right,
we'll 3D-print these models out
after we've done a foamcore mockup
to get the ergonomics correct for the hand.
So, these I had fabricated to be exact replicas
of what they had on The Next Generation,
but we updated the pieces
to be these different acrylic pieces
so that the whole thing has this glinting,
iridescent feel to it.
The mill that they were built in
is building all the sets for the show, as well,
and there's just so much dust.
And so, in order to glue these clear,
acrylic pieces together, they literally had to take them home
over the weekend, because every time
they tried to put them together, all the dust
would swoop right in right after they'd polish it.
Before we start fabrication on anything,
I'll do a show-and-tell with the creatives
and guide them through every new custom fabrication
for the show.
We have synth tools here.
These kind of represent the full gamut
of the different engineering, medical,
and artistic tools that they'll be using.
Once those are approved, 3D models are built
by the designers, and then those are sent
to the fabricators where new 3D models are built.
In this case, these are just static acrylic pieces
that don't have any electronics hidden,
so they can go straight from the 3D model into fabrication.
Welcome to Thad's room, eldest son of Riker.
He is deceased, and so we had an opportunity in this show
to show Thad's character through the props
and through the set dressing.
So, if you look around the room in here,
Thad was into cartography and into making fantastic worlds.
So, we were able to build and create
all-custom fantasy maps for him
with different languages, cultures,
mythical beasts, and denizens.
Thad was also the one who started building bows and arrows,
and Kestra tagged along, so we wanted to show
that he was involved in archery.
Ah, right here we have baby Thad with Picard
on-board the U.S.S. Titan.
A long time ago.
Thank you so much for joining us here today
in The Ready Room.
I will be back next week to talk about the season finale
of Star Trek: Picard.
It is called, wait for it,
"Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 2."
Please believe me when I say
you are not gonna want to miss this,
because I will be joined by the Admiral himself,
Patrick Stewart, along with Dr. Agnes Jurati, Alison Pill.
Until then, I'm Wil Wheaton.
Live long and prosper.