Mary Chieffo

Star Trek’s twinkle-toed feminist on playing the Klingons’ new Chancellor

- Ian Berriman

Pass Mary Chieffo in the street, and you might not recognise her – but you’d certainly notice her. Stripped of the layers of latex she wears as Klingon L’Rell, she still possesses an alien quality, thanks to her striking bone structure. Of all the Discovery crew, the statuesque actress seems the most ebullient, blessed with a laugh that practically makes the windows shake. You suspect she’d be the live wire on a cast night out; you can easily picture her dragging people onto the dancefloor. This will come as no surprise to any Twitter followers who saw a video of her strutting her stuff – in full Klingon finery – to the strains of Demi Lovato’s “Confident”. At the same time, she’s highly articulate and passionate, especially when talking about the subject of female empowerment – something central to her role now that L’Rell is struggling to be accepted as the Klingons’ new Chancellor…

You spend your days on set plastered in prosthetics. You must be used to it now, but was it surreal at first?

Yeah! I remember early on, Shazad [Latif ] and me were both sitting on the side, just trying to breathe, and we started talking about Friends – we both love Friends! We’re fully in Klingon make-up, going, “Oh and that episode with the so-and-so…” “And then Joey…!” “We were on a break!” I was like, “I wish someone could document this!”