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Trekcast: Our interview with Adele Shepherd · Star Trek Podcast: Trekcast

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  Trek, the Galaxy's Most Unpredictable Star Trek podcast. Hey everybody, it's Daniel.
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  We'll Trek cast and we've got an interview today with Adele Shepherd. She's
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  going to be part of Trek Long Island this May thirty first through June second,
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  so we're very excited to talk to her. Adele. Hey, thanks
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  for being part of the part of the show today. Yeah, thank you
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  for having me. Yeah. So, you were one of the co stars
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  on the Card season two and now you're going to be at the convention.
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  What are you looking forward to at the convention in Long Island. It's my
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  first time on the East Coast for fandom. Yeah, so just getting to
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  meet all brand new people. I'm sure I'll run into a couple familiar faces
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  that might be working in the convention. Looking to meeting the East Coast fandom.
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  Oh that's awesome. Yeah, I'm also a West Coast guy, so
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  it'll be exciting for me to be out there as well. Oh cool,
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  great, Yeah. Yeah. So I do have to ask one question because
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  you were you were the homes officer on the Stargazer and I've always had this
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  question about starships. Do they have cruise control. Well, it is a
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  Reman's ship, and I'm going to go ahead and say, yeah, yeah,
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  I mean there's all of a pilot right right, there's got to be
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  right. That same is cruise control. I mean, there's that scene if
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  anybody's seen it. We we're just kind of floating there in front of the
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  anomaly. M no. And I'm not having to do much there except for
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  make sure all the shields are up, So it's kind of like putting to
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  the neutral right in a sense. Yeah, sure, yeah, awesome.
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  You know. One question I did have is I'd seen in past the interviews
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  that you were very excited to get this part. Just as you were just
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  wrapping up with it, you were talking about that. But one thing I
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  was wondering is what was your expectations of being in Star Trek and what was
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  it actually like. Were there any differences there or yeah, oh that's a
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  great question, thank you, that's a good one. I didn't really have
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  a lot of expectations besides that I was going to be in uniform and that
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  they were going to pull all the shots because of Star Trek, but I
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  was surprised with how extensive they pulled all the shots. When I after,
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  you know, my my wardrobe was fit properly to me and everything was ready
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  to go. And then I finally walked on set. It was they built
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  a whole ship. It's an entire ship. It was a real I was
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  like, this is this could take off, This could just actually fly away
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  somewhere. So it was it wasn't hard to be in character and make it
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  real because they say make it real, especially with sci fi, get so
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  deep into that is reality because it's it's you know, we don't actually live
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  like that, right right, So in my efforts to make it real were
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  a lot more natural than I thought they would be because I stepped onto an
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  actual bridge and actual ship, and then the hallways and the whole other parts
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  of the ship that were that were built for the sets were so authentic and
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  real you really felt like you were there with it being so immersive like that.
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  Was it easier to get into the character, Oh my gosh, yeah,
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  really easy to get into the character. Like I knew, I knew
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  exactly who Keny was. It's like I had an idea of who I wanted
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  this character to kind of being how she was going to come across. But
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  then actually being in such an immersive experience, which is a great way to
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  say it filled in all the little details, like what kind of details did
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  it help fill in? It kind of relaxed me into the character. It
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  kind of easier to go, yeah, I am flying the ship as not
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  having to make up in my mind how to fly the ship because it's right
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  there in front of me, and I was able to naturally just kind of
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  improv what you would do because that whole helm had all the buttons and you
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  know, the blinking lights and everything's moving in the screen saver would change depending
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  on what cues the director would give from certain action moments in the scene.
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  So I was able to just respond naturally and be the helmsman there in that
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  moment with my lines without having to overthink, well, I should probably pretend
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  to push something over here, Well, actually that's actually what I probably should
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  push. It was very, like I said, very organic. It flew
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  kind of what's the word I looking for? It sounds like it was intuitive.
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  It was really intuitive. Thank you. It was very intuitive. There
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  you go. Awesome. You know one thing about Star Trek is they do
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  have a history of bringing back actors for multiple different Roles. So I was
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  wondering, if you were to come back, is there a certain species in
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  Star Trek that you'd like to play next time around. So the first thing
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  that was teased to me was an O'Ryan. Okay, I was like,
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  yeah, paint me green, that would be really cool. So I would
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  like to come back as an O'Ryan. I like the original Star Trek.
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  So is there that you know, they're kind of a fun character and being
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  a dancer professionally outside of this and that's what my life is most of the
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  time. The idea of the Orion's going from you know, their dancers and
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  then now they're in Starfleet is really really cool. That's a very cool character
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  growth for those humanoid species. Yeah, and the Oraans can get pretty uh
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  those can be physical parts, like some fight choreography in that is. Being
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  a dancer help with that kind of fight choreography immensely. Whenever I meet a
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  stunt coordinator or somebody that's doing the fight choreography, they love that I was
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  a professional ballerina because then they're able. They know that I have the flexibility
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  and I have the mental capacity for you know, stepping on the same foot
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  every time and it's it's choreography in a sense like fighting combat those kinds of
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  scenes that you see because you're not actually hitting each other. It's like it's
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  a lot like dancing. So so yeah, of course awesome. So one
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  question I did have is, you know, now that you're you're out at
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  conventions, you'll be in Long Island, Like we said, what is some
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  of your favorite compliments to get from fans? My favorite compliments? I okay,
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  just today somebody left a message on my or I left a can on
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  my Instagram about they met me at the convention I just did in Long Poke.
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  It was for May the fourth be with you this past weekend. Had
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  a lot of fun, and they just were so thankful that I was multifaceted.
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  They had done the research and were like, Wow, you're a dancer
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  and you're an awesome actress, and then you also have a motorcycle, I'm
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  not afraid to get dirty, and you're just really real and down to earth,
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  And it just felt really good that somebody was so aware of all the
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  different parts of I'm not just you know in pocard or I'm not just a
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  ballet dancer. That was a really that was a really cool compliment and that
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  just happened today. That's awesome. Yeah, that's great. So I did
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  see another passing interviews that you did mention that you're into spooky stuff. Yes,
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  is that? Yeah? What did you mean by that? I was
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  curious? So my favorite TV show is The Monsters. Okay, okay,
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  the Monster is my favorite TV show. I have a production company I started
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  called Metal Swan Queen Nice, So all this stuff is kind of themed around
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  like metal and the skulls and the darker stuff. Yeah. My Like,
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  I have the little a little ballet figurine set and they're ballerinas and little black
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  tutuos, but their skeleton ballerinas. So that's kind of sounds like you like
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  the dichotomy of that Ying and Yang I do. I really like that a
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  lot. It's about balance, you know, absolutely, Yeah, I really
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  like that. So you've been in Star Trek. Now, is there any
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  other big franchises that you want to be part of that you're like you're shooting
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  for. Yeah, I would love to do Star Wars or I really would
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  love more so to do one of like the Lord of the Rings. Oh
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  anything, Lord of the Rings. I'm a big nerve for a Lord of
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  the Rings. Okay, okay, both of those. Both of those probably
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  are my favorite. I know a lot of people that did Star Wars and
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  Star Trek stuff like stunt people and co starring roles, and I just want
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  to know that I kind of want to know the difference or is there one?
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  I would say, you know, different galaxies sing problems. Fair enough,
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  Yeah, fair enough. So we've seen in past interviews with I think
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  Jonathan Frakes has brought this up before that when you first get into Star Trek,
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  one of the first things they teach you is the different levels of impact
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  when the ship gets hit, right, like, here's a one, here's
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  a two, here's a Is that something you had to go through as well?
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  Can you talk a little bit about that if you did, Yeah,
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  that's a really good point, you know. So in the scenes where there
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  is that impact, they didn't really talk as much about the levels, Like
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  they didn't like give us like, a, here's the corpse, here's what
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  level one is, level two, and then I'm a piece of paper,
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  per se. But there was when there's that initial impact, like you could
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  see in the scene when the anomaly shows up and the whole ship just kind
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  of shutters. They tell people kind of on a scale of one to ten,
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  like how much you need to give? Okay, and then at the
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  different you know, and then like Doug was the director at the time,
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  he gave us like okay, this is like you guys are getting thrown like
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  this is a ten, like boom full forward back. And then other times
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  there was minimal impact. It was just kind of mild shaking, or when
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  we're standing there with their phasers when the Bourg Queen comes up and the ship
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  is shaking a little bit, like that's probably like a little one or two.
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  It's kind of like an earthquake scale in a sense. Okay, okay,
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  yeah, that makes sense. So I did see another interviews that you
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  talked about wearing the prosthetics and what that was, like, what was something
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  maybe about where had you worn prosthetics before? Was that a new experience for
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  you? So I grew up doing ballet professionally and theater, so not really
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  prosthetics in that sort of like they were so professional and they're a part of
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  your face, So it was kind of a new experience for me. Yeah,
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  I would definitely say it was a new experience for me because I've worn.
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  I've warned some of like the theater type prosthetics, but those aren't not
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  to that level of quality. Yeah, and i'd seen that you had mentioned
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  that one of the challenges was emoting with them, like you had to over
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  remote mm hmm. Yeah, and I was directed to do that like the
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  Bianca my makeup artists and my prosthetics, hair makeup. She's awesome. She
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  kind of was the first, like you're gonna have to really move your eyebrows
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  and your eyes if you want so that these move with And then I was
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  also given that direction on set ahead of time as well. Okay, so
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  it definitely gave me quite the workout right on. Hmm. So do you
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  still keep in contact with any any of the other actors or people that you
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  worked with on Star Trek? I do, and that's thanks to like all
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  all the different conventions that you can imagine, we run into people all the
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  time. So this Lampot convention, I didn't run into anybody I have worked
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  with, but I ran to other Star Trek people like Tracy Coco. She's
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  been in so many different things. She was there. I share a table
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  a lot with Elima Dorsey and she was the Stanton double for Michelle Hurd.
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  I'll be sharing a table with her at Trek on Island. Okay, so
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  so cool. People need to combine and say hi to her. And I
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  do keep in touch with Terry Matteaw and I keep in touch with Doug the
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  director from the I believe he did the last Yeah, he did the last
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  episode in season two Aaron Kiowski. I think that's how he say his last
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  name. We're good friends, but I always say his name is so wrong.
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  Yeah, yeah, so yeah. I keep in touch with quite a
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  few people. And then, of course there's the occasional green room at like
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  It the Star Trek in Vegas convention with Creation and Jonathan Fraakes and Rett Spriner
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  and all of them were in there being silly and hamming it up. And
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  they are amazing group of people, just so fun to be around. Their
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  energy. It's a blessing. It's like a it's like a family. Oh
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  that's really cool. Yeah, A lot of people kind of put it that
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  way. You know. One thing I was curious about is so you were
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  in season two. You were in the first episode and the last episode.
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  Correct, Yes, well towards the end. Yeah, what was that like
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  shooting to be so far apart in in the season it was. It was
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  actually really easy because of the continuities there. We did a right away,
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  so I was on set two weeks in a row, and we just did
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  both of those episodes within the same two weeks, and we would kind of
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  it wasn't like a linear way of shooting because because of continuity, because of
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  when the explosions were going to go off, and certain things and people in
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  their makeup and you know, now this person's this character when before they were
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  here, and well the ship looked like this before, And because if you
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  know Season two and how it has that kind of time loop, it was
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  shot in the way that like it would save obviously time and money and show
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  the best showcasing to the audience and the fans of how it's changed from the
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  first episode to the last episode when they all come back and then they have
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  that moment with the board queen. Oh okay, okay, yeah. I
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  was just curious about that and the logistics of that, so okay, yeah,
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  it was cool. It was very well organized. I was very impressed
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  right on. And then you were saying before we started in the interview that
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  you've got some new projects going. I do have some new projects going.
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  So I have my production company, Metal Swan Queen, and that's me kind
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  of taking my spooky love and my ballet love and like my metal love and
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  putting them in films. So I have a metal ballet video coming out.
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  Oh nice. I just got to actually preview a rough color grading cut of
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  it from the director, and so he was the He's a director for most
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  of like Zach Wild's music videos and Black Label Society. So I'm really excited
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  for people to see that because it's a different it's a different kind of little
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  short. Not a lot of people see Ballet to Medal. And then I
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  have a couple other projects. One's a documentary being filmed. We've got some
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  interviews coming up for that, and then I've got a couple of treatments for
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  some more like TV shows and films. And I did just wrap which I'm
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  really excited. I wish I could talk more about it. And brand new
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  Amazon Prime TV show I just did the first season in January out yet.
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  Yeah, you know, you've brought up metal a few times. I got
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  to ask, because I'm a big music fan, what are some of your
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  favorite metal bands. Favorite metal bands. Okay, so I'm a big Pantera
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  fan. I like Slayer. I've got my Slayer wallet. There's like photos
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  of me with my Slayer wallet all over the place. And yeah, and
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  then I like Alien Weaponry. They're really cool. They're like a Norwegian metal
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  band. Okay, that's a newer one. I'm kind of into the early
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  two thousands, y two k metal, so Slip Knot, Corn Down,
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  Static, x popa Roach, rob Zombie, Powerman five thousand. Yeah,
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  those and in this moment I love in this moment, I'm friends. Oh
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  yeah, the dancer and in this moment and I kind of like dangirl Howner
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  when I met her. So now I feel like, oh, yeah,
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  that's so cool, that's awesome, that's awesome. Well, you know,
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  we're really excited to see you at the convention. I will be there,
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  and so one of my co hosts, Dan, So we're very excited to
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  be there as well. You're going to be there all the days? Is
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  that correct? Or I think so? I think maybe I think I think
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  all the days. I should know, I don't know. I think I
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  think at least Friday, Saturday. No, Yeah, I'm there all the
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  days. Oh my gosh, don't let my rep know that I don't know.
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  It's okay though, I'll be there no matter what. There you go,
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  there you go. Well, that just means people have to be there
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  every day, just in case. So yeah, just in case, you
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  know. Yeah, yeah. So the dates are are May thirty first through
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  June second for those people who want to know, and tickets are available at
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  Treklong Island dot com. It's been great talking to you. It was a
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  ton of fun. Yeah, anything else you want to bring up before we
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  wrap up? Now, I'll just live Long and Cross for my friends.
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  There you go, well, thank you so much. Attention all Starfleet personnel.
• 17:15
  New York's only fan run Star Trek Convention, Trek Long Island, is
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  back this summer. Get ready for three days of sci fi fun, celebrating
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  your favorite franchise in the Empire State. Meet the stars from Trek shows spanning
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  different eras, including Melissa Navia and you, Titi Padaki from Strange New Worlds,
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  Star Trek go at warp speed. Trek Long Island takes place from May thirty
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  Visit Treklong Island dot com for tickets, exclusive packages, and more information.
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  Treklong Island going kindly this summer