'Star Trek: Lower Decks' Actress Reveals the Secret to Playing a Vulcan

Portraying a Vulcan to the satisfaction of the Trek fanbase can be an intimidating task. It’s even more intimidating when that Vulcan is unconventional, like T’Lyn, the token Vulcan in the Star Trek: Lower Decks squad. Luckily, Gabrielle Ruiz, the actress who brings T’Lyn to life, has discovered the secrets to playing a good Vulcan, even one as atypical as T’Lyn.

Star Trek Lower Decks’ T’Lyn joined the crew of the Cerritos after she was deemed unfit for duty on a Vulcan ship because she was too emotional. Though she was considered too emotional by Vulcan standards, T’Lyn was still very reserved compared to the exuberant Lower Deckers, and she had trouble adjusting. Over time, though, T’Lyn has opened up a lot, and in some very un-Vulcan ways. She’s developed great friendships with the Lower Deckers, learned the value of trusting her emotions, and frequently served as the necessary voice of reason during particularly anarchic missions.

Taking on the challenge of portraying such a nuanced character while staying true to the Star Trek canon was scary for Ruiz. But she’s clearly figured it out. In a recent interview with Inverse, she revealed her guiding principles for bringing T’Lyn to life — learn from the pros and be a little mean.

Learn From the Pros

All the alien species in the Star Trek universe provide the actors who portray them with a challenge. After all, who knows what it’s really like to be a Tellarite or an Andorian or a Klingon? Arguably, Vulcans present the biggest challenge, though. Capturing the blunt and restrained nature of a Vulcan without making them completely hollow and unlikable is a monumental task.

Luckily for Ruiz, a few amazing actors have tackled that task in the past. Whenever she was stuck on how T’Lyn would act or react in a certain situation or how she would say a particular line, Ruiz looked to the Vulcans before her for inspiration.

“My rule is simple,” Ruiz told
Inverse
. “I literally say it’s equivalent to ‘What would Jesus do?’ It’s ‘How would Leonard Nimoy say it? How would Spock say it?’”

It’s a good rule. Nimoy, the original Vulcan, has been a source of inspiration for all the actors who’ve played Vulcans throughout Trek history.

However, Nimoy definitely isn’t the only pro Ruiz models T’Lyn after. She also looks to Jolene Blalock’s portrayal of T’Pol in Enterprise. Considering T’Lyn is Lower Decks creator Michael McMahan’s homage to the character, drawing inspiration from Blalock’s performance also makes a lot of sense.

Be Kind of Mean

By getting to know the Vulcans that came before T’Lyn, Ruiz discovered something important about the species that shaped her performance. She realized that, in spite of the stoic front they present, Vulcans are actually kind of mean.

“There’s a menace to their honesty. They’re such snobs. They’re just so sophisticated and snobby…” Ruiz explained.

She added that she always thought of T’Pol as a “mean girl,” but the kind that she’d desperately want to impress.

Though it could be argued that Vulcans only come off as mean because they’re so honest, and they don’t understand the human need for tact, there are plenty of examples in Star Trek canon that support Ruiz’s assertion that Vulcans are just kind of mean and snobby. Just look at how pretty much every Vulcan in Enterprise treated humans like they were inferior buffoons. Then there’s the persecution Spock and his human mother Amanda faced while living on Vulcan. And those are just a few examples.

This snobby, low-key meanness is evident in Ruiz’s portrayal of T’Lyn, especially early in the fourth season. Seeing these parts of her personality soften and lessen is part of what makes T’Lyn such a wonderful character, and it’s clear that Ruiz really understood the assignment.

Though Lower Decks ends after the current season, Ruiz hopes that fans will get to see more of T’Lyn in the future, and Lower Decks fans seem to share that sentiment.

Star Trek: Lower Decks

Source: Inverse