On Wednesday night, TrekMovie spoke to members of the cast and crew of Star Trek: Section 31 at the junket and premiere in New York City. We got a few minutes with Sven Ruygrok, the South African actor who plays Fuzz, who talked about being a new fan of the franchise, his character’s backstory and future [spoiler alert], doing fight scenes with Michelle Yeoh, and more. The actor exuded energy, enthusiasm, and warmth in his interview with us.
How familiar were you with Star Trek before this?
To be honest, very little. I’m a baby Trekkie, as I’d say, and I’ll say it again. But I think as I grow in this, I grow in love, I grow in appreciation, and I go into it with deep respect.
So you didn’t have a moment of like, I’m a Vulcan, but not a Vulcan—
Oh no, no. I definitely had that. There was a lot of that and a lot of like eyebrow raising, and not [being] 100% sure of what’s going on, but I think the freedom and the joy that came with this character was given to me by the producer, was given to me by our wonderful director, Olatunde, and there was a sense of freedom like he is Vulcan, but he’s not.
Fuzz is a bit complicated. How did you get your head around exactly what was going on? Or was it simple, Like “I’m just a microscopic creature driving a Vulcan robot?”
I mean, the way you put it made it sound very simplistic. I think I made it way bigger than it needed to be. I did way more stuff that I just don’t think was necessary. But I think the great joy about being surrounded by good people and people who care about the show and people who love the show and family, was that they have your best interests at heart. So the response was really: keep it simple. You are just a microscopic creature driving a Vulcan conveyance, and then put personality and layer into that. And then it became pretty straightforward. And there were quirks and mannerisms and vocality that I got to just play with, because that’s just how we started to find Fuzz. He’s something that we’ve never seen before in the universe. So how do Nanokins react and speak and move and breathe and have their space? Well, I got the luxury and the gift of being able to play.
Who came up with the crazy accent?
Oh, it was a bit of a collaboration.
Sven Ruygrok as Fuzz in Star Trek: Section 31 streaming on Paramount+, 2024. Photo Credit: Jan Thijs/Paramount+
Your character’s an alien we haven’t seen before. So did you come up with ideas for his backstory, or his life?
I mean, for this, specifically, it was initially a TV series, so there was an entire episode dedicated to the Nanokins. And I had to rack Craig Sweeny’s, our writer’s, brain a little bit to be like, “Tell me more. Tell me more about this, right?” And what, what came out of that was this deep love for his his race. He’s deeply fond of them, and he will do anything for them. And I quite like that, and I took that into this. So people will be like, “Oh, what is his vibe here?” But again, he’s trying to do the right thing. What he feels is the right thing. And that sometimes can be dangerous relativism, right?
Because he doesn’t see himself as a villain.
Exactly, no no no, no. He sees it as carrying on his race. I think for him, it was: I want my species and my race to survive at any cost… I’m prepared to do that because I’m tired of big people who have stuffed things up for millennia. And I never needed Starfleet to begin with. I want control back. I want my life back. I want to be free to roam the galaxy. And that’s a simple concept, which I think has great power.
So were you were on Section 31 when it was a series, were they talking to you then?
No, so what ended up happening was this series, but then because of COVID and time and scheduling, it got whittled down to what we now see as the film, and that’s when I came on board.
But you did know there was an episode?
Yeah, I was told that, yeah.
Did you see any of the other scripts or stories?
None. I wish! I would have loved that!
So tell me about fighting, doing fight scenes with Michelle.
Oh, incredible, incredible. I mean, she is a performer of note, not just in her acting, but her physical ability. I mean, a story that she told me that I was just—this just marks the woman that she is. For two hours every single day, she would wake up and do stretches. So I knew that two hours before call time, Michelle Yeoh is up stretching for the day. So if there was ever that sense of like, you know, you come and you’re like, Oh, I’m feeling a little bit like [makes tired face] you’ve got, like, Michelle Yeoh is stretching two hours before you, buddy, get your butt there. And I think that brought out the A-game, and she elevates things, just by her nature, just by her being generous, she elevated. So like when we were doing the fight scenes, she is… She’s phenomenal.
L to R Sven Ruygrok as Fuzz and Michelle Yeoh as Georgiou in Star Trek: Section 31 streaming on Paramount+, 2024. Photo Credit: Jan Thijs/Paramount+
If there were a sequel, what would you see yourself doing in it? Because you could still be in it.
Oh, yeah, I could still definitely be in it. I’m hoping that the wife finds the husband and kicks his butt. And I definitely think that Fuzz survives. I mean, little things survive big explosions.
And it’s Star Trek, after all.
And there you go.
Sven Ruygrok at at the NYC Section 31 premiere event (Photo: TrekMovie/Cleveland Oakes)
More Section 31
Read more Section 31 coverage from this week:
- Interview: Michelle Yeoh Talks Georgiou’s Ongoing Redemption In ‘Star Trek: Section 31’
- New Preview Images Reveal More From ‘Star Trek: Section 31’ Streaming Movie
- 5 Clips From ‘Section 31’
- Watch: Michelle Yeoh Brings ‘Section 31’ Clip To Colbert, Talks Love Of Star Trek
- Interview: Alex Kurtzman On How ‘Section 31’ Embodies Star Trek Values, And The Future Of The Franchise
- Early Thoughts On ‘Star Trek: Section 31’ (Spoiler-Free)
- All Access Star Trek podcast review of Section 31
There are many more interviews to come from the premiere and from the junket as well as more analysis.
Keep up with news about the Star Trek Universe at TrekMovie.com
Avid site reader for many, many years. I have maybe commented twice on things before and that’s it.
I watched this movie today, thought it deserved a chance. And I won’t go into details. But this wasn’t just a bad Star Trek movie. It was one of THE worst movies I have ever had the displeasure of watching. And one of the absolute worst things was this poor actors character. Specifically talking about the Irish Vulcan, not a Vulcan robot. We fans deserve more than this pile of utter shit. What a waste. The entire plot, writing. Everything about it stunk the gaff out.
Just made me think none of these guys writing/directing had ever watched Star Trek before and just basically had a massive laugh and threw this in our faces.
Might as well have called it Section 69
Agreed
It’s Kurtzman desperate to spin off an MCU guardians of the galaxy clone with someone else’s IP.
I find it offensive. I find him offensive.
“Stunk the gaff out”. Brilliant, that made me laugh out loud, as they say.
Hard to disagree with that.
Olatunde directed it; he seems to have a keen knowledge of the franchise, as evidenced by his numerous Trek credits.
…not sure about the writers, though, so… yeah…
Ok Boomer
Fuzz is my favorite knew character and this micro alien species is so interesting to me. This aspect of the Section 31 was a delightful surprise for me.
Agreed. I really liked the MIB vibe about them.
I respect your opinion, but I don’t share it. He was my least favorite thing about the movie… other than the writing, the directing, the lack of story, the shallowness of the entire production, the mischaracterization of Georgiou, the meh effects, the terrible music, the lack of Star Trekness, and, well, most of the other actors.
There are so few standout non-humanoid characters in Star Trek. I did find this one quite enjoyable.
Well, at least we can say this movie has inspired some good internet snark. Well put.
I agree with your summary. Dreadful movie with some cringeworthy attempts at humour especially IMO from Fuzz. It’s the cast I feel sorry for.
The choice he made to give Fuzz what I can only describe as a piss take of an Irish accent made it very hard to get through this movie. As offensive and backwards as the worst of ‘Fair Haven’ and ‘Up The Long Ladder’.. I’m sure no malice or offence was intended, but it was like nails on a chalkboard. Have had friends messaging all day asking what the Hell was with it!
You’ve heard Miles O’Brien and Laris speak on screen, a mock accent from SNL was not needed. Genuinely disappointed to see this kind of mockery getting the go ahead.
Yeah, that Irish accent was so cringeworthy.
Up the Long Ladder and Fair Haven can finally be relieved of the distinction of having the worst Irish accents in a Trek production.
The worst character in the film and Irish accent was actively offensive.
This is pretty obscure, but if anyone is familiar with the Ghost of Christmas Past in Disney’s version of A Christmas Carol (voiced by Jim Carrey), his accent reminded me of that. And I agree, every time Fuzz spoke it took me out of the moment.
It is nothing short of a hate crime against the Irish, on a level that not even David Boreanaz as Angelus, Sean Connery as Darby O’Gill or Jim Malone, and Michael J. Fox as Seamus McFly ever achieved.
I agree Paul. As a Brit, I found the Irish accent coupled with the leprechaun type zaniness and whimsy utterly cringe worthy and borderline offensive.
The movie has enough issues. At least this one I can explain away: I just assume that accents have developed since the beginning of the 21st century, and this is what Irish sounds like in that century. Just compare the US-English accents to the British. Of course that invites back the nit-picky question why a universal translator even translates with accents. No clue on that one.
I’ll buy that logic if I ever hear characters like Picard and Bashir sound like Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins.
You won’t find an accent like the one this actor chose to use on the island of Ireland.
Star Turd Septic Tank 31 a waste of time.
That was a waste of an hour and 30 minutes.It should have been call Septic-tank 31
Alex Kurtzman needs to leave and just write Bounty commercials, because the future of Star Trek he is not.
See? Writing good one-liners is hard!
Considering this atrocious writing, I wouldn’t even suggest you write *anything*.
Yikes. That was…. not good, man.
“wonderful director”
I get the sense he runs a great set and is collaborative and respectful and full of energy etc. All the things you want from a director.
But man, his instincts for what looks good and what makes for a great performance… not great. He’s done work on a lot of decent shows, but he was completely out of his depth for this show. He clearly doesn’t have a strong vision for what this was supposed to look like, has the same camera tricks that add nothing, and it still looked incredibly cheap despite having a good budget and all the high tech tools like an AR wall stage to play with.
🙈
Cringe.
Without commenting on things overall I’ll say it was clear from the movie that Sven has a lot of talent. I sought out clips from other performances and would be excited if I saw him pop up while watching something in the future.
Trolling Star Trek has reached new depths. Kurtzman has been a wrecking ball to all of the good that this franchise achieved over so many decades. Terry Matalas gave me hope, but they let him slip through their fingers because he gave fans what we wanted. Paramount have utterly mismanaged a once beautiful thing.
I agree about Matalas. Not giving him the green light to produce his version of Trek was big mistake. Doesn’t mean you have to give him the keys to the entire franchise, but they should at the very least have allowed him to play in the sandbox.
It was hot garbage from the start. Bad editing. Terrible acting. The story is worn out trope after trope and it doesn’t feel like Star Trek for even one second. Discovery is done. Dead and buried. Paramount needs to leave it and that travesty of a universe in the dirt where it belongs. They spent how many millions on this when they SHOULD have been making Star Trek Legacy?!?
Anthony Pasquale, will we see the Trekmovie full review? It’s Saturday and can’t wait to read it
I, too, am curious about this. TrekMovie’s writers must find themselves in a bit of a pickle at the moment, and I can’t blame them.
…was wondering the same.
One final point I want to make is the fact this is supposed to be Section 31. Introduced brilliantly during DS9 and appearances since have been consistently dark and clear that they pull the shots, adhere to no-one. Working in the shadows with a very limited team to get the job done.
Here we have Starfleet seemingly fully engaged and making it clear that it is their mission… But it’s outside the Federation and whatever directives they give are clearly thrown out the window anyway. Main characters dying left right and centre and on top of that, one of the oldest, trusted members of the team is a mole. It’s disgusting.
Don’t get me started as to why Georgiou and the Augment fella didn’t die holding the artefact when they transported, and why the Ship with shields down wasn’t destroyed by the supposed super weapon galaxy killer!???
They have made an absolute mockery of a shadow organization who up to now was portrayed similarly to the Tal Shiar and Obsidian Order.
This movie could have been so much more. If I was in control I’d have picked a classic spy novel from the cold war era, something like The Spy Who Came in From The Cold, used it as a blueprint to create a spy sci-fi movie.
I’m just glad it wasn’t Bashir as Control at the end. That would have been the nail in the coffin.
Loved it.
Sadly I am brutally distracted by the woeful Irish accent of the Vulcan… I really want to get into this Star Trek as I have with most of the others.. let the actor gently move back into,his South African accent, please! Or find an Irish actor doppelgänger… it’s so bad omg. As an Irish person all I’m hearing is the dreaded Lucky Charms mascot who turns my stomach as every person uses that accent when they talk to me on Paddy’s or or or. Maybe an accent coach?