Jess Bush discusses landing the role of Nurse Chapel in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

Jess Bush as Nurse Christine Chapel in STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS

JUNE 23, 2022 - Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ Jess Bush had hit a brick wall of career burnout and was thinking of taking a step back when word came that about a part in a Star Trek series, and the rest is future history, according to a recent interview with the Hollywood Reporter. Bush told her managers, “I only want to go for things that are exciting to us,” and thankfully for the franchise and fans, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds fit that bill perfectly. The exact way she’d be adding to the franchise legacy wasn’t even clear until she got the part, adding, “I didn’t find out that it was Nurse Chapel until I got the deal done!”

Although familiar with Star Trek, Bush remarked that she wasn’t fully aware of the scope of the franchise until entering the universe herself. “It’s like I entered this secret world that exists among us,” she said. “It’s been such a wonderful ride, learning about everything Star Trek and its context culturally and everything that it strived for, for more than 55 years.”

When asked how she seeks to both celebrate and extend the legacy built by Majel Barrett-Roddenberry, who originated the role of Chapel, Bush was reflective. “It’s a massive honor to be only the second actor to play Nurse Chapel,” she said. “It was a balance between honoring Majel’s Chapel and making her new. Majel’s Chapel definitely had a distinct essence about her, but there was still so much room to explore her backstory, […] and they gave me a lot of license to explore.”

Bush also shares in the interview the fun of doing physical, adventurous stories, her admiration of the show’s writing, and the developing triangle between Chapel, Spock, and T’Pring. Read all this and more at HollywoodReporter.com.