Exclusive: Dawnn Lewis On Being Among The Rare Black Captains In ‘Star Trek’ Franchise With ‘Star Trek Lower Decks’
Now playing on CBS All Access, ViacomCBS’ digital subscription video on-demand and live streaming service, is its new half-hour animated comedy series, STAR TREK: LOWER DECKS.
Following the premiere, new episodes of the series’ 10-episode first season will be available to stream weekly on Thursdays, exclusively for CBS All Access subscribers in the U.S.
Developed by Emmy Award winner Mike McMahan (“Rick and Morty,” “Solar Opposites”), STAR TREK: LOWER DECKS focuses on the support crew serving on one of Starfleet’s least important ships, the U.S.S. Cerritos, in 2380. Ensigns Mariner, Boimler, Rutherford and Tendi have to keep up with their duties and their social lives, often while the ship is being rocked by a multitude of sci-fi anomalies. The Starfleet crew residing in the “lower decks” of the U.S.S. Cerritos, includes Ensign Beckett Mariner, voiced by Tawny Newsome, Ensign Brad Boimler, voiced by Jack Quaid, Ensign Tendi, voiced by Noël Wells and Ensign Rutherford, voiced by Eugene Cordero. The Starfleet characters that comprise the ship’s bridge crew include Captain Carol Freeman, voiced by Dawnn Lewis, Commander Jack Ransom, voiced by Jerry O’Connell, Lieutenant Shaxs, voiced by Fred Tatasciore and Doctor T’Ana, voiced by Gillian Vigman.
For Lewis, who is best known for her role on NBC’s A Different World, ABC’s Hangin' with Mr. Cooper, and her work in various stage production, she’s among the rare Black captains in a Star Trek franchise. Throughout the 50 years the franchise has been around, Avery Brooks played Captain Benjamin Sisko on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Madge Sinclair had a brief role as the captain of the USS Saratoga in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. She later played CaptainSilva La Forge in the Star Trek: The Next Generation seventh season episode "Interface". Ursala Bryant played starship Captain Tryla Scott in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Conspiracy". Paul Winfield famously played Captain Terrell in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Captain Dathon in the Star Trek: The Next Generation fifth season episode "Darmok."
Although this is an adult animated series, Captain Carol Freeman is just as good and tough as any of the other captains from the other series and Lewis couldn’t be a better person suited to voice her.
In speaking exclusively with BlackFilmandTV.com, Lewis talks about voicing Captain Freeman, being a Trekkie fan, and being on Broadway with the Tina Turner musical.
You've done voice animation before, so how did this project come to you?
Dawnn Lewis: Just like most of them, the network, or the shows send out a call when they're casting a new project. Oftentimes, they have something specific in mind. They send out specific calls to our agents to say, “Is Dawnn available?” or, “Is so and so available? We're interested in meeting with them.” So sometimes they have in an open call throughout the voiceover industry, and sometimes they make specific requests. I was grateful that this time I was a specific request. I don't know how long the shortlist was, but I'm really glad I was on it. Because I've been a Trekkie since I was I was a kid. I used to take spankings for watching Star Trek. We were supposed to be in bed and we would sneak to watch the show when my mom was off to night school when we were very, very small. The person watching us was not supposed to let us watch TV, so me and my brothers would sneak up under a blanket and some sheets and cover the TV in us under it to see if we could keep the volume down as low as we could. They couldn't tell that we were in our room watching TV.
How does it feel to be the among the rare black captains of a Star Trek franchise?
Dawnn Lewis: You know what I really hadn't thought about that until you said it? In all honesty, when I think of Star Trek, one of my huge impressions and just dreams like watching the show Nichelle Nichols as Lieutenant Uhura in Star Trek: The Original Series. She was so beautiful and so smart, and so competent, and she was right there fighting next to Captain Kirk whenever they would beam somewhere and they would get into trouble. She wasn't the weak girl. She could handle herself and she was gorgeous.
I think almost started crying the first time I got introduced to her a few decades ago and it was just inspiring to me. So to now to be among the rare Black captains, I feel like I could possibly be some young girl’s, Lieutenant Uhura and be an inspiration to her.
How would you describe Captain Carol Freeman?
Dawnn Lewis: Captain Freeman is very, very capable. She is excellent at her job, and she takes her job very seriously. And I've read in the press materials that the USS Cerritos is the ship that I'm the captain of, but they consider that one of the lesser important ships in Starfleet. You know what not I'm not having it. Captain Carol Freeman is not having any of it. You will not call my ship lesser. You will not call my crew lesser. They may be have their own personality challenges, but I think what we do and who we are is vital and crucial to the mission that is Starfleet. She's serious. She's funny. She's clever. She's very resourceful. And like Lieutenant Uhura, she's a badass. We've got some episodes where they were some fight scenes and Captain Freeman is no joke.
What was your impression when they first sent you the illustration of what your character would look like?
Dawnn Lewis: I thought she looked like Nancy Wilson. I loved it. I thought it was great that she had that gray streak in her hair right off the center. Nancy Wilson was so elegant and had that same kind of silver streak through this beautiful head of hair. So I was like, “All right Nancy in space.” I loved it.
I understand you completed the series from your home due to the pandemic?
Dawnn Lewis: This past year of working on the show, we've done a combination of being in studio, sometimes our characters as individuals, and sometimes we've got to work scenes together. And then in the middle of it was when I went to New York to start working on the Broadway show Tina, the Tina Turner musical. So while I was even in rehearsals, or sometimes on show days, they would find a recording studio not far from the theater, and I would be in the studio, recording my episodes for Captain Freeman and then heading right back to rehearsal or to do a show that night. Then when everything shut down in March, we didn't have that option anymore. I came back to Los Angeles. And by the grace of God, voiceover work was one of those opportunities that we could still participate in.
In order to make it work, the folks from Lower Decks came up with this idea. And I'm sure that a few other production companies did as well, where they sent us portable recording studios. From what I understand, I was the first one on our show to get one of those setups sent to their house and we made a makeshift recording booth in my house and I kept working and kept recording right away.
As this series is an adult animated series, is it meant for kids?
Dawnn Lewis: The humor can sometimes be adult, but I think if you're not really paying attention to that it can go right by you and the visuals of it allow you to laugh and to enjoy the people you're being surrounded by. I would say young teenagers, and teenage teenagers onup. If you're a Trekkie fan you're going to love it because a lot of the visuals are very, very true to what people have come to expect from Star Trek. If you're younger than that, then some of the humor may go over your head, but that's okay too. Even if you're not a Star Trek fan, hopefully watching this show will cause you to think “you know what, maybe I will check out some of the other series.”
What's the joy of doing animated work?
Dawnn Lewis: When you do voiceover work, you get to be all kinds of characters and creatures and people that you could never be in live action. I couldn't play a seven year old boy as an actor on stage or in film, but I can as a voiceover actor. I couldn't play some different culture or some made up distant land or play an 87 year old grandmother when you look at me physically. In voice over world, however creative you can manifest your voice and be convincing in that world, you can be just about anything and I love it. I absolutely love it.
You’re back in LA because the Broadway world has been shut down due to the pandemic. How much fun did you have being in the Tina Turner musical?
Dawnn Lewis: When I'm not doing a film project or a TV project, and sometimes at the same time, I'm still on on stage. I'm from New York. I'm from Brooklyn. So it was really great to be around my family again. So being there to do Tina. There was a particular reason why it was important to me just to do Tina because her story of not just survival but of thriving through her complicated and challenging, and really oppressive circumstances to become the legend that we know her as today was very, very personal to me. I came from a home with domestic violence and my mom managed to save herself so that she could save myself and my brothers, and each one of us have gone on to thrive and flourish in our own various areas of life and in our careers. And that story, that story of women who survived particularly from that time period, because those days it wasn't common for women to stand up for themselves. It was a very, very male driven environment and society.
To have those women one by one, stand up and take a stand and say, “I will survive. I am worth more, I will be more, I will do more and I will have more for my children” is a story that needs to be told and gratefully with Katori Hall’s book and the incredible creative team that we had in this amazingly talented cast, being able to bring that alive was just a real honor to me. Getting to meet Miss Turner. I met her a few years ago at a music awards ceremony and but we just met really quickly in passing, but to be able to speak to her that night after opening night, and she saw the show, she touched my hand and said, “I really want to tell you how much I thoroughly enjoyed your performance.” She said it was beautiful. She said “it made me feel like home.” Being aware of what that circumstance was I had to ask her well, was that a good thing? Because the relationship between she and her mother was not a very positive one. She laughed. She said, “No, it was spot on. It really did make me feel like home, you did a fantastic job.” That meant the world to me. Being back on Broadway and having her stamp of approval is just everything.