Star Trek: Picard’s Ito Aghayere: Whoopi Goldberg was a “guiding light” when my Guinan came to life –

Ito Aghayere made his debut in “Star Trek: Picard” as a young Guinan on the March 24 episode. HL ONLY talked about how exactly “right” this role was for him, collaborating with Whoopi Goldberg and more.

Jean-Luc Picard has a blast from his past in the latest episode. Star Trek: Picard† Picard traveled back in time to 2024 and crossed paths with young Guinan. Ito Aghayere† Guinan and Picard’s friendship is special, dude Goldberg inside Star Trek: The Next Generation† Young Guinan has no idea what Picard will mean to her in the next few years, but when they first meet, they bond pretty quickly.

HollywoodLife He spoke to Ito EXCLUSIVELY about why he was drawn to the role of Guinan even before he knew he was playing the iconic character. He referred to Whoopi as his “guiding light” for the character he was working with. Sir Patrick Stewartand how they work together to integrate versions of Guinan into “one world”. Read our questions and answers below:

Guinan is clearly a well-known character. Did you know that when you auditioned, you auditioned for Guinan?
Ito Aghayere: A new one. All I know is that a girl named Gwen was trying to get rid of a boy named John who was driving her crazy. She didn’t want to leave her bar and she had to pack up and leave because she was fed up with everything. That’s all I know. there wasn’t much but there was Everything There. What I connected with was just her disappointment and fear of hope for the world around her. I think that as an actor, there are times when you are presented with a piece that you can work on or work on that fits perfectly into the slot you are emotional, psychological or experiential. It’s not uncommon, but it’s always a gift when it fits in your pocket. I think it was for me. This is what I identify with. In the midst of a pandemic and everything that’s happening in the world, it sounded like a story to me about a black woman that resonated very, very directly. That’s why it occurred to me. I think it took me a few days or a day to meet the producers. He said, ‘Oh, by the way, you’re playing Guinan. This Star wars† And go. “That in itself was great, because I love the show. TNG It’s one of the few shows my family doesn’t understand, but they still thought it was scientific and intellectual enough to say, ‘Yes, they can watch it’. we will go and see Passionflower on our television”. I fell in love with Guinan as a kid and reviewed reruns throughout my childhood. Whenever I saw special guest Whoopi Goldberg, I knew it was going to be a drug deal. It could have been a very good episode. That’s how I learned about Guinan’s role, so it was completely comforting to discover that a story that resonated with me emotionally was also part of a series that had an impact on me as a kid.

Did you take anything from Whoopi’s performance while preparing for the role?
Ito Aghayere: You laid the foundation. I’ve seen interviews where he said “I want to watch”. Star wars when i was a kid and i used to see this black woman in charge of communication crossing the bridge and i am in the future. People like me are in the future.” Well Whoopi was mine Nicola Nichols† My Nichelle Nichols was Whoopi Goldberg. Very few sci-fi shows in the ’90s had black women doing their thing, and they were so cool and sizzling. Whoopi just brought this kind of mischievous but omniscient quality into her work, so being able to play my Guinan 400 years ago was a real treat because what she did was my guiding light. That’s what the person I grew up in was like, right? So what does it mean for me to be 400 years away from that level of wisdom, that level of maturity? What would a person 400 years younger look like? What is my pain? What level of grace do I have for people? How bored am I of being the 400 years younger version of this character to raise myself somewhere? Doing this math for me was like a journey of discovering who my Guinan was.

It also gives you the opportunity to make this character already established in the universe your own.
Ito Aghayere: Absolute. It showed another side of him, another side of who he was. It was also quite interesting to choose different traits to bring to the character that I felt could stay with, is it silence or humor or a really dry sense of humor? There are some features I’m thinking about, I want these two characters, these two versions of this character to be anchored in the same world.

Most of your scenes are with Patrick Stewart. Being able to share the same space with him must be an experience in itself.
Ito Aghayere: It was both surreal and scary. But when you meet him, you realize how smug he is. It’s in English, so I guess it’s part of the region. He is very generous with the people he works with and relieves any tension. Drop all these things. We shot our first scene together in the wrong order. So chronologically, it was at the end of the episode. Basically, I met Patrick for the first time and we must have had this level of relationship where I’m already pointing a gun in my face. I already sent him from my bar. I’ve done all of this before and now we’re at a point where it won me over. That’s great because Patrick has a natural affinity. It’s like working with him is an invitation to friendship, and that’s what he brings. The first day was like “You are my Guinan”. “Yes, I am Sir Patrick Stewart, knighted by the Queen of England. I think I am your Guinan.” It was such a wonderful welcome to the world and this world that he captained it for decades. To be able to work with someone who knows the relationship we will finally have, so we can plant the seeds together. It was a great gift for the show, we were able to lay the foundation for what I hope fans of the series and new viewers of the show can achieve, even if it’s not there right now, maybe a sense of anticipation for what that relationship might be.

Have you contacted Whoopi? Did you talk to him?
Ito Aghayere: We couldn’t work together due to the epidemic. everyone who is with me Star wars he was messing things up mainly because of COVID protocols and stuff like that, so we couldn’t really be together on set. I still have hope. But what we came up with is understanding, okay, so that’s my hair. How about we do your hair like this? What if we do? Shall we lock the eyebrows? Let’s bring our Guinans together in one world. Many collaborations have been made in this regard.

So even though the two of you couldn’t work together, did you manage to talk about the character?
Ito Aghayere: Not personally, but we were able to work with a lot of creators, makeup, hairstyles and special effects to figure out how Guinan should look right now, so it’s not a big departure from Guinan, which was founded years ago. TNG† So how can we synchronize all these Guinans so that they appear to be in the same world?