Jeri Ryan on finding Seven of Nine’s voice again for Star Trek: Picard

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

I am hugely excited for Star Trek: Picard, CBS All Access' upcoming series which will find Patrick Stewart returning to the role of Jean-Luc Picard. We got a great look at the new series in a trailer released at San Diego Comic-Con last month, where it was revealed that Stewart would not be the only franchise veteran returning for the new series. In addition to Stewart, Star Trek: Picard will also see the return of Jonathan Frakes as William Riker, Marina Sirtis as Deanna Troi, Brent Spiner as Data, Jonathan Del Arco as Hugh, and Jeri Ryan as Seven of Nine.

For some, stepping back into their old roles was just like riding a bike, but Jeri Ryan had some concerns, particularly as her character seems to have experienced some significant growth since her days on Star Trek: Voyager. During the Star Trek Las Vegas 2019 convention (via TrekMovie), Ryan explained her initial discomfort.

Honestly, it was freaking terrifying, and these two [Frakes and Del Arco] can attest to that! They both saved my ass! I was freaking out. She was a very specific character for four years on Voyager. There was a lot of growth, and all of that. She went from being a machine to learning to be human. But, particularly the way she moved and her voice, that was what I was really hung up on. Her voice didn’t change that much in four years. So, she had a stilted, very formal, very stylized way of speaking, at the end of Voyager. So, when I got the initial script, and from I knew from the original pitch with James [Duff] a year and a half ago, she is not the same Seven. She is much more human. She been on Earth for a long time, she has been through a lot. So, when I saw that initial script and as you saw “what the hell are you doing out here?” It’s a very, very different voice. And that is what was freaking me out.

Jeri Ryan explained that it was Jonathan Del Arco, who also plays a Borg, who helped her through it. "He said: 'once you get in costume, it helps.; And it does. It informs the way the character moves and the way the character stands and that kind of thing," said Ryan. "But, I was having a real hard time with her voice. I just couldn’t hear her in these lines. I couldn’t find it and it was really freaking me out to the point where my husband was like: 'I have seen you get freaked out by a script, ever.'" As Jonathan Del Arco had already filmed one of his episodes before Jeri Ryan's first episode, he was able to give her a way into this new take on the character. "I was so freaked out I couldn’t think clearly about it – [Del Arco] said after an hour: 'just try this, what if…' The Borg have always been hated, they are universally hated because they were bad guys, they were tough. But, there’s other elements in this world with the Borg. And, what if she had to make the choice to be as human as possible, to survive, to sound as human and act as human as possible. Clearly, she is always going to look like a former Borg, because she has these implants that cant go away. So, what if she had to make that choice – a conscious choice – to sound as human as possible. And that’s all I needed," explained Ryan. "That’s what I needed! I just needed something for it to make sense as an actor as to why she would have that huge of a chance. Then it made sense to me. I was still freaking out in my first scene."

Star Trek: Picard is expected to launch on CBS All Access in early 2020.