Star Trek: Discovery's Sunday
premiere will introduce the franchise's first gay couple onboard a
ship.
The couple will be portrayed by Wilson
Cruz and Anthony Rapp.
Cruz plays medical officer Dr. Hugh
Culber, while Rapp portrays starfleet officer Lt. Paul Stamets. In an
interview with CBS News, the actors discussed their onscreen romance.
“This is the first time two human
beings who are in love with each other as the same gender. It’s the
first of that [on Star Trek]. Even the fact that he’s Latino
and I’m white,” Rapp
said. “These are just factors and then you get to know us as
human beings on the ship as all the other human beings on the ship
are. We are also colleagues. He’s a medical officer, I’m a
science officer, and our work intersects sometimes. All that stuff is
just part of the fabric of it.”
“The storyline affects our
relationship,” he continued, “and the relationship may affect
some decisions that are made, but the fact that it's two men in a
relationship is not the focal point of any storyline.”
Cruz added that their onboard romance
comes “into conflict at times.”
“It enriches the storyline,” Cruz
said. “The crux of my journey is how I balance my responsibilities
as the ship's doctor with my responsibilities to the person I love,
and how those two ideas can come into conflict at times.”
Cruz and Rapp previously worked on the
Broadway musical Rent. Rapp originated the role of Mark
Cohen, while Cruz played Angel.