In a recent interview with PEOPLE, Paul Giamatti recently opened up about his surprising casting in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy. The two-time Oscar-nominated actor has starred in numerous awards-caliber roles over his lifetime, but being cast in the latest Star Trek series sounds like a dream come true for the 58-year-old.
“I didn't actually think I'd ever actually get a call!” Giamatti admitted to PEOPLE. “I made no secret about the fact that I loved the show, but I never thought it would actually be something that would happen… It's a top experience for me. I don't know that much else can top this. I still kind of can't believe that I got to do it."
Giamatti plays the villainous Nus Braka in Starfleet Academy, a half-Klingon, half-Tellarite with a past connection to one of the Academy's cadets. A space pirate, Nus Braka is volatile and aggressive, and generally opposes most of the values that Starfleet cadets are being taught. He's also got a long-standing grudge with the Academy's leadership, especially Chancellor Nahla Ake (Holly Hunter).
Giamatti, who realized at a young age that "I was more temperamentally probably suited to Klingons than Vulcans," relished the role of the intense and compelling villain.
“I haven't played a whole lot of out-and-out bad guys — I've only played a few. I play sort of bad guys,” he explained. “I play complicated, unpleasant people. I don't think I've played a whole lot of bad guys, capital B, capital G ... it's always fun to do that kind of thing. You're really given a lot of license and to be kind of grand.”
Giamatti also really embraced the hybrid background of his character, especially as someone familiar with Tellarites from The Original Series.
“When they were designing the makeup and they came back to me and they'd said, ‘The conclusion is you're going to be sort of half-Klingon, half-Tellarite.’ And I was like ‘The pig guys?’" he recalled. “Because I remembered them from the original series. I think they've occurred rarely over the years in other things, but I really remembered them, actually, from when I was a kid being very struck by that one Tellarite, that very strange face and kind of disputatious pig person. And I was like, ‘This sounds kind of good. Yeah, I like that! That's a funny idea!’"
"And I said, 'Well, now you have two really aggressive races too, so I'm going to be super-aggressive.'" he continued.
This thrilling new chapter follows a fresh class of cadets as they train under the watchful, demanding eyes of Starfleet’s finest. Together, they’ll face the highs and lows of academy life: forging unbreakable friendships, clashing in explosive rivalries, experiencing first loves, and stepping into their destiny as the next generation of Starfleet officers. When a mysterious new enemy threatens both the Academy and the Federation itself, these cadets must rise to the challenge or risk losing everything they’ve just begun to fight for.
Despite limited screentime in the first three episodes of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, Giamatti's Nus Braka commands every seen with incredible intensity and aggressiveness. His ferocious and unpredictable nature makes him one of the franchise's most compelling villains to date, and I particularly look forward to learning more about him as the series progresses.