Original-Cin Chat: Starfleet to North Bay, Cecilia Lee is Ready for Action
By John Kirk
Whether it’s flying an air ambulance through the Northern Ontario skies in the action-drama SkyMed or portraying the first Romulan cadet to be admitted to the War College in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, Cecilia Lee is ready for anything.
Original-Cin sat down for a conversation about what she brings to action roles and what she’d like the audience to remember.
Cecilia Lee (bottom left) joins the high-flying gang on SkyMed
“A lot of times how you present yourself shows up in your characters.” Lee tells us when asked about her character process. Both War College Cadet Dzolo in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy and Maya Chang in SkyMed are pretty bad-ass characters.
“They are! Maya has this high-level energy and Dzolo always looks mad! It’s the prosthetic forehead that does all the work for me. Even in the green room, I’m just chilling and people will pass me and ask if I’m okay because I look so angry!”
Lee as Romulan cadet Dzolo in Starfleet Academy
(This interview was conducted in the wake of the decision by Paramount to end production of the series. A second and final season was filmed and is set to air in 2027. Lee declined comment on the subject).
Dzolo is the first Romulan in Star Fleet, even by way of the War College. Either way, it’s pretty unique. We asked Lee about the casting for the role.
“When it comes to something that’s Trek – you don’t know what it is. I had to rely on my agent’s guesses. I got a breakdown like it’s a jock from a rival college and they have a prank war. I sent in the tape and the next thing I heard from my agent was, ‘Hey – you booked Star Trek! When can you come in for prosthetics?’ So cool!”
With that sort of entry point, we asked about the mindset needed to play a Star Trek character.
“You know, it was a daunting task. Sixty years of Star Trek. To step into a franchise that has a passionate fanbase. I have to sit down and do my research. I have to know what I’m stepping into. It was really fun to do research. I’m a fan of sci-fi. I watched the movies, the shows – I watched Discovery because that was the launch. I watched Picard because there was a major Romulan storyline. But the great thing about Trek is that there is such a wealth of resources.”
It’s always interesting to learn what someone’s inception point is for Trek. Her entry point was a shotgun approach.
“Shotgun approach is really apt. I went: Romulan: Google Search and started going down rabbit holes! I found out who played Romulans and what were their characteristics, the history of Ni’Var (the unified planet of the Vulcan and Romulan races in the 32nd century) and understanding the history of the Vulcans and Romulans. I needed to know them to their fullest. I researched the Way of Absolute Candor promoted by the warrior nuns, the Qowat Milat and they really spoke to my character.”
Quite the rabbit hole! Speaking more generally though, I asked if she had a favourite Trek character.
“Oh, that’s hard! Goodness. Saru in Discovery – the incomparable
Doug Jones. Seeing his work in prosthetics was definitely inspiring for Dzolo. I mean, obviously not as intense, but the eyebrows and forehead convey so much emotion. My forehead is covered by so much unbreathing silicone. For Doug to be able to work through all what he had was so impressive.”
Fans have mentioned on social media how taken they are with Dzolo, but disappointed in the limited screen time she has had; particularly with the death of her Vulcan friend, B’avi (played by Alexander Eling). Would there be more of an exploration of her character in the second and final season of Academy?
“Well, you’ll just have to watch Season Two and find out.” Lee said, with a smile.
Lee has an interesting personal background. Home-schooled until her early teens, she was allowed early acceptance to McMaster University’s Life Sciences program when she was 16.
“This was in anticipation of me becoming a doctor.” She tells us.
Were you some sort of genius?
“No,” she says with a laugh, “but I was gifted kid and I’ve always been strong-willed and independent. I have my parents to thank for that. But I think that might have worked against them and I moved out when I was 18. I changed pathways and paid my own way through film school. My mum still says that there’s always time to be a doctor!”
Moving on to SkyMed, the emergency medical drama about air ambulance pilots in Northern Ontario, Season Four sees the introduction of Lee’s character, Maya Chang. We asked about her joining the cast of this show.
“Maya Chang is one of the new pilots joining SkyMed this season. She is spunky, fun-loving and maybe a little bit out of control – and that gets her into trouble!”
I noted the Life Sciences connection to the role. Would her mother be happy with this role?
“Not quite satisfied, I’d say. It’s adjacent! And it is one step closer!” She laughed. “But I’m a pilot in this show, not a medic. It counts a little and it is a doctor show!”
But there had to be something from Lee’s medical history that would lend itself to the show.
“I did take the second-year Medical Terminology course and it really comes in handy for auditioning for medical roles. I’m itching for a role that would let me put all that jargon into places!”
Lee gets to share the camera with Aaron Ashmore, who plays “Wheezer” Heaseman, chief pilot and mentor to the crew of medics and pilots in the show. We asked what it was like acting with him.
“It’s daunting to step on to a set. It’s Season Four, already established. Everyone, Aaron included, welcomed me and it seemed like a seamless transition. We were a crew. We’d be hanging out on the weekends outside of work. Yeah, he’s a lovely person to be around.”
What do you do for fun in North Bay?
She laughs and says, “There’s plenty to do! We go to the beach, there’s skiing, mountain bike riding – lots of hiking and the thrifting is surprisingly good in North Bay! It’s a great time!”
And those great times included pilot training.
“She is so fun. I love the prep of getting into character. The prep for this character is especially fun because there’s an aviation school up in North Bay and we had flight training. They took us to learn how to fly planes. There were flight simulators that were replicas of the planes we fly on the show (The Beechcraft King Air 200). We learned how to fly, to land, and in adverse conditions like 50 km crosswinds – feeling very Top Gun Tom Cruise!”
When approaching character roles, or in this case, moving from Romulus to North Bay, what is the common denominator?
“I approach all my characters asking what do they want? Who do they want to be and how do they present to the world? Both of these characters are so much fun in aesthetics. With Dzolo, it’s the prosthetics and the uniform and all of them informs who they are. The War college uniforms look sick. They keep you in a War College posture: the discipline and the duty, which are all part of the Romulan culture.”
And Maya?
“With Maya, I got to have a whole makeover. Her hair is a hot pink, and I got to chat with hair and make-up about what I wanted to do with her. While she is still a pilot and has to be utilitarian in the way she dresses, she is fun, spunky and likes to mix it up. She has a dash of colour around her eyes. She is whimsical, and that’s what she presents to the world. She’s loud, confident and enjoys life.”
If there was something that Lee would want an audience to remember about her performances, what would it be?
“I love Dzolo for the antagonism in her. I don’t get to play that a lot. I come across as sweet and high energy and I go for high energy and girl-next-door a lot in my roles. But it’s fun to let loose and just give ‘er!
“It’s so fun to play Maya for her how intensely she wants to live life. I love playing characters that are larger than life. That’s what I aspire to be in life. If an audience can see that? Done my job.”
Season Four of SkyMed streams on Paramount Plus on May 21. The second and final season of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is to stream in 2027.