One Major Thing About Paul Giamatti's Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Costume Changed His Performance [Exclusive]

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"Star Trek: Starfleet Academy," the twelfth series in franchise history, has assembled some serious star power for its first season. Holly Hunter stars as Captain Nahla Ake of the USS Athena, Tig Notaro is onboard as engineer Jett Reno, Oded Fehr is Admiral Charles Vance, and Stephen Colbert is the voice of Starfleet Academy's Digital Dean of Students. But it's a special thrill to see genuine "Star Trek" fan Paul Giamatti in heavy makeup and a wild costume as part-Klingon, part-Tellarite wildcard Nus Braka. And, by his own admission, he's having a thrill playing him.

This will hopefully help longtime fans acclimate to what /Film's Jacob Hall calls "a weird show, a funky one even." With its focus primarily on young Starfleet recruits, it's essentially a YA drama, which might turn off hardcore Trekkies who generally don't watch shows like "Beverly Hills 90210" or "Riverdale." We'll have to wait and see how the rank-and-file fans respond over this first season, but Giamatti going ham as a nasty space pirate could be awfully enticing.

Giamatti hasn't done a lot of heavy makeup work throughout his career, so when /Film's Hall spoke with the actor at a press junket for the series, he asked him how his physical appearance, along with his costume, impacted his performance.

Giamatti loved feeling like he could literally crack skulls with his bare hand

For Giamatti, the makeup and costuming made "a huge difference." As he told Hall, "The makeup is one thing. I have to say that was fantastic and it's wonderful to watch your face change that way and to feel everything that gives you."

But he was especially knocked out by his costume, which included rings and steel plates on his hands. This was integral to capturing the menace of Nus Braka. Per Giamatti:

"They gave me a lot to do and they actually made my hands, each hand, feel like it weighed about 15 pounds so I could break somebody's skull open with just my bare hand. So it was really a powerful costume and it really felt really... It gave me a lot of juice. And so that stuff is always wonderful. And this was particularly inventive and fun and strange and really helpful."

If anything, I'm glad Giamatti got to once again scratch that pulverizing Rhino itch that was denied him by the collapse of Sony's "The Amazing Spider-Man" reboot. There's so much Giamatti can do as an actor, but I really love it when he gets to sink his teeth into a truly disgusting character. Hopefully, we'll get to see more of him as "Star Trek: Starfleet Academy" boldly goes into areas Gene Roddenberry's universe has never gone before.