-: I'm Anthony Rapp
and I play Lieutenant Commander Paul Stamets
on "Star Trek: Discovery".
(bass drop)
My first point of contact
with "Star Trek" was in after-school reruns on,
I don't remember which channel it was,
I grew up outside Chicago,
but coming home after-school,
it'd be one of the many shows
that I would often watch after-school,
like "Gilligan's Island", "Star Trek", "Twilight Zone",
those kinds of things,
so I always was really drawn to Spock, especially,
and then I saw the first three movies
in the theater, when they were released,
and then during like the 80's during "Next Gen" time,
I was happily working a lot as an actor,
so I wasn't watching any television.
So I missed all of the rest
of "Star Trek" until I got this job,
and then I went back and watched a ton of "Next Gen",
and "Deep Space Nine", and "Voyager", and all that stuff.
My very first job ever was in the children's chorus
of the original production of "Evita",
but it was the touring production,
but it was the Hal Prince production that started
in New York with Patti LuPone, although she wasn't in mine.
But it was in Chicago, it was the tour,
and I was one of the kids, and we sang,
♪ Please, mother Eva ♪
♪ Will you bless a little child? ♪
♪ For I love you ♪
♪ Tell Heaven I'm doing my best ♪
I'm holding a candle by the way.
♪ I'm praying for you ♪
♪ Even though you're already blessed ♪
-: So Anthony Rapp and loving yourself.
-: When I got cast in the show,
it was like the strangest gift
that I never would have predicted coming my way,
because I always, this kind of thing,
I always thought that I would just be an audience member.
You know when I would see certain shows in theater,
I'll be like, "Wow, I would really think
I could do that show,"
or, "I would really love to do that show."
With this, it was more like, "I love watching this show."
Watching any kind of, like, sci-fi fantasy thing,
I would just love watching it.
I never pictured myself in it
so it was just like completely,
I don't even know they were doing a new "Star Trek".
So it was like the biggest surprise
I could have ever imagined.
I've been meeting people who continue
to tell me how much it means to them
that Stamets is openly gay on "Discovery",
and that's Stamets and Culber are in a relationship
and that they can see themselves,
that there was a man who said that
from seeing us on "Star Trek: Discovery"
that he was able to come out
and he looked to be, I don't know,
in his 30s, maybe his 40s,
and that just happened in the last year or two,
like these are the kinds of stories
that I keep hearing, that are incredibly meaningful.
There are times when on set, when it's all of us together
and we really are a family, and it's like the day-to-day
of doing the show is just joyful and a pleasure.
I feel incredibly lucky to say that.