Star Trek: Discovery's Wilson Cruz on his astounding resurrection

[MUSIC] Do you hear that? [LAUGH] I sent you my favorite aria, so that you would reconsider your wildly lame position on Kasseelian opera. And to add insult to injury, I got us actual tickets. I know, I know you say you hate it and that you only do it for me, but, [BLANK_AUDIO] I do love it when you only do things for me. I'm about to sit down with Wilson Cruz or Dr. Hugh Culber from Star Trek Discovery. We're gonna talk about that big resurrection, and maybe in some spoiler territory. Wilson, thanks for joining us. Thank you for having me. The big news is you're back! You're alive! I'm here! He's alive! Well look, the way you came back was a little complicated, and suddenly, I was smart enough to understand it completely. But for everyone else, you kinda break down How the resurrection happened, and how you got back on the ship? Okay so, after Stamets and I have our reunion, Michael asks, how did they happen? How is he here? And Paul explains that moments after Ash killed me Which sounds weird. Throughout season one, Paul was in and out of lucidity. Mhmm. And, he has a moment of lucidity, where he wakes up, moments after I was killed. He finds me on the floor, almost dying. And, he obviously has emotions about it. And, I'm having my last breath I know that I'm gonna lose him forever, and a tear falls down my face. And as that tear falls down my face he kisses me. And part of that tear ends up on his lips. And so, in order to get me back Tilly Is like, wait a minute, the thing that was missing, the thing that we need is, Culber's DNA. You know if you join Culber's DNA to the matter in the cocoon that was left over in our world- Right. Then you can recreate. Culver's body with that DNA with the material in our real world. So you're back. Yes. A little less facial hair. A little [LAUGH] yeah. But can you tell us what's different? You're sort of a moral compass of sorts for Stamen's last season. How are things different this season when you're back? Well. He's been through a trauma so when he comes back he very much has to deal with that trauma. And there are consequences and ramifications to that. There's no cute little pink bow that we've tied around the situation. You're not back to normal the next episode? No we have to deal with what happened. And We really have to honor that terror and how that changes someone. And if you are different what does that mean to the people who love you and that you love. How does that change your relationship to them? How does your life change when you think your life is over and you've been given a second chance? Do you continue to live the same life? Would you make different choices. I want to go back to season one, and you guys were in a lot of praise for being the first gay couple on the Star Trek television show, and then your neck got snapped, and then you died. Take me through, what was the reaction like? Especially the sort of immediate gut reaction because it was definitely a shocking death. especially given sort of the build up of this couple mmhmm. How did fans react? What was your reaction? There were a lot of tears, my own. And some fans, a lot of fans apparently. Which was really moving to me, excuse me, and, [BLANK_AUDIO] I was devastated, I'm not gonna lie to you, when I got the phone call, because I had become really attached to this guy. I liked him, I liked this relationship, I loved these people I got to work with. I'm a Star Trek fan, so I was grateful for the opportunity. I just wanted it to last longer. Something I'm familiar with, in my career, cuz it happened to me very early on, when I was doing My So-Called Life. So I started to start the process of grieving, losing this person, but very quickly. I was told that I Was returning. I returned in 11 for a brief moment, and I was told while I was doing 11 that I would be back in 12, which was the big goodbye scene in the network with Paul. And then while shooting that scene I was told, you will be back in the second season, more news to come. So I was excited. I was like great. I don't know what that means. But awesome. And we were allowed to tell fans that I would be coming back. And we started to discuss different ways that could happen. But I didn't really know for sure how to what extent. I knew I was coming back. But I didn't know to what extent I would be coming back. And so what was explained to me was that his death, believe it or not, was just a chapter in his story. And what we're going to find out this season is, in order for him and Paul to go and do what they do in this season and beyond, he had to die. [SOUND] and you'll see why. You have to save us by saving the network. How? I can't even find my way out. You're in a coma on the discovery, and the simplest way back is just to open your eyes. I don't want to say goodbye. It's never goodbye. Isn't that what you've been trying to teach all of us? Nothing in you is ever truly gone. I believe in you Bob. I love you. [MUSIC] How important was it, just in general to you, was it for Stamets and Culber to get back together? It was really important. There are very few opportunities On television, even in film, well, I'll say on television, [COUGH] where we get to see two men whose relationship isn't a joke, whose lives are taken seriously, whose relationships Spans such an epic journey. Mm-hm. And so I wanted to see that, I wanted to see these two people struggle, find joy, just like any other couple on TV [BLANK_AUDIO] Because we deserve that as LGBTQ people. Mm-hm. We deserve to see our relationships mirrored back to us and we deserve to question what those relationships are and how they affect us and And we deserve to be inspired by those stories. Right And so I haven't had very many opportunities in my career just because of the way that the world is- Yep. To tell those stories and here is an opporutnity to do that. I love it. [LAUGH] All right I'll see you later. [MUSIC]