On paper Star Trek: Strange New Worlds sounds like a studio note-driven nightmare. It is a spin-off to a prequel, featuring a mix of new characters plus actors like Ethan Peck and Celia Rose Gooding doing the impossible: recreating the iconic roles of Spock and Lt. Uhura. 

But the Paramount+ series, now over halfway through its first season, is cruising at warp factor nine. (That’s good; if it went much faster, there would be catastrophic consequences.) Everything about this new show works: the stories, the sets, and, especially the performances. Led by Anson Mount as Captain Pike, and surrounded by Peck, Gooding, Rebecca Romijn, Babs Olusanmokun, Christina Chong, Melissa Navia, Gia Sandhu, Bruce Horak, Dan Jeannotte, and Adrian Holmes, the pre–Captain Kirk version of the USS Enterprise is an upbeat, lively place loaded with energetic and invigorating adventure. 

But should one get hurt (or need a shot of tri-ox compound prior to an away mission), there’s someone waiting for you with a smile in sick bay. That’s Australian actor Jess Bush as Nurse Christine Chapel.

Bush’s role is one of the trickier ones in Strange New Worlds. Chapel is a character from deep within the lore of Star Trek; she was originally played by Majel Barrett, later Majel Barrett-Roddenberry, wife of series creator Gene Roddenberry. She rarely got more than a line or two per episode, but if you watched closely, you saw there was great potential in the character. And now that potential has been realized. 

The Trek gig certainly represents a big break for the 30-year-old Bush, whose first television appearances were on Australia’s Next Top Model. Speaking to V.F. via Zoom from Toronto, where Strange New Worlds is shooting its second season, the self-taught visual artist (more on her project involving dead honeybees in a moment) told us about her favorite concert (Prodigy), her comfort movie (Ferngully), and made some observations about Canadian living that, perhaps, only someone from Sydney would make.

Vanity Fair: A Star Trek gig is a life-altering event. What was the audition process like?

Jess Bush: All on the internet, all digital. It started very mysteriously. The character name was false. I only could look at the audition pages for 24 hours; I couldn’t screenshot them or print them. If I did anything, I would self-detonate. 

So no “chemistry tests” with the other actors?

No. I met Ethan Peck at the airport. He was living in L.A., I was in Sydney, and I met him during the layover [to Toronto].

Was that intentional?

No, I recognized him in the airport lounge. We had a cast Zoom the morning before I left. He had a bright green mask on, and he walked into the lounge with the same bright green mask. I was feeling shy so I didn’t say hello, but he came up to me. 

Strange New Worlds is a neat trick, because some of the characters are brand new, and others are very well known. Some, like yours, are down the middle, with characters that were on the periphery, known mostly to hardcore fans. Did you do a crash course to watch earlier stuff?

I did a bit of research, indeed.

I looked up The Original Series, then saw how many episodes there are, but then saw Nurse Chapel is only in there sporadically. I watched “What Are Little Girls Made Of?” She’s quite present in that—and it was great! 

The one with the robo-girl, and that outfit!

The robo-girl’s outfit—totally impractical, I don’t know what it was holding onto!

But I tried to distill [Chapel]’s essence, even though she never got a lot of screen time. 

We always saw that Nurse Chapel had some sass in her, but it’s really in the forefront now. 

I’ve been nothing but encouraged by the writers and creators of the show. They’ve said, Here are the bones of the character, and they’ve trusted me to explore it. 

Historically, Nurse Chapel has worn light blue, but you are in crisp white. 

The white jumpsuit was a collaborative effort. At first they asked if I wanted to wear a tunic or if was I interested in a jumpsuit—and I said absolutely jumpsuit. This iteration of Nurse Chapel is all about agility. She’s active and gets stuff done. 

There was a blue one too, and we tried both. At first I wanted blue; then we did the camera test and white was way better. 

Plus it’s got little embroidered crosses on there.

Yep. It’s funny because when the first images came out, I was only seen down to my waist, and apparently some fans started making costumes and just assumed it was a tunic. They didn’t see I had legs. 

Have you always been a sci-fi fan?

I have not been, historically, but this has brought me into a whole new world. I love how sci-fi can take abstract elements of humanity and dissect them in a fantastical light. Star Trek does this so well. 

But I am getting more interested in space. I’m reading the book Extraterrestrial, about this object that passed through our solar system that has no other explanation other than it came from another place—it gives me tingles just thinking about it. 

You think there’s life on other planets that will visit us some day?

Whether they make contact with us is another question, but it would be the most insane idea ever to think we’re the only life in the universe. 

You mentioned the fans recreating costumes. Part of being on a Star Trek show and its 55-year legacy is the “convention circuit.” Are you prepared for all that?

I can’t wait, and I feel like this experience will not be whole until I experience conventions. This show exists because of the fan base. We’ve been building it all through the pandemic, and I want to meet the people that helped create it. 

Some of your colleagues have already dipped their toe in—Ethan and Anson were both on a Star Trek Cruise already. Have you gotten feedback of that scene?

I think it’s something that you can prepare for but…it’s gonna be different in person. 

Ethan Peck is a handsome man.

Mannnnnnn.

In episode five, you got to whap him across the head. 

That was really fun. That was one of the first times Spock and Chapel got to chat and play. The first smack I was worried—“is this too hard?” I didn’t want to get carried away. 

You are also with Dr. M’Benga, Babs Olusanmokun, a lot. I saw him at the premiere in New York City—he came into the party with shades on.

He was, hands down, best dressed at that premiere. Don’t tell anyone else I said that. 

I was poking around, and I see that you have done a lot of work in visual art, particularly jewelry and site-specific installations involving honeybees. What’s the deal with Jess Bush and bees?

Well, I don’t only focus on bees, but that series you are referring to, The Bee Totems, I’ve been working on for several years. 

I collect honeybees from beekeepers after they have died, and preserve each one in a sphere of crystal resin. Then I suspend them in hundreds or thousands in different formations. Sometimes a light artist designs a projection, other times it interacts with natural light. Sometimes a sound artist designs a soundscape, so it’s an immersive experience. I am super invested in it. I’ve been doing it forever, and probably will do it forever. 

But why bees?

It started by walking though a park and finding a dead bee in the grass. I was just taken by it. They make it possible for us to exist, and they fall into the background. The die by the thousand, they live by the thousand, and are hardworking animals. If you look at a bee, they are special—they feel like they come from another place. At least that’s how I experience them. 

If you say there are hundreds in these spheres, how long does that take?

It’s hard work, and difficult to get it right. A long process, but I love that, because when you get one perfectly centered with no bubbles, you can’t stop looking at it. And my friends and family understand. They are used to my mad-scientist ways. 

Are you able to keep up with this while working on Star Trek?

I don’t do visual art while I am acting, but I do have my materials with me. 

Wait, you brought a huge sack of dead bees to Toronto?

No, no, I did not smuggle dead animals into the country, but I have all my tools. 

What’s the biggest difference between Sydney and Toronto?

The weather, and the appreciation of the weather. When a day warms up you can feel it in the street. People are overcome with joy. There are festivals, there are cherry blossoms, it’s infectious. 

And the food scene is great here. And the tulips. And the squirrels! Squirrels are so great. Raccoons are so cute. We don’t have anything like that; so cute. The wildlife won’t kill you. Well, that’s not true. The coyotes might kill you, but it’s nothing like at home.