Star Trek: Discovery has introduced a number of new alien species in its three seasons of existence. (We're three episodes into Season 3, by the way, and it very much is worth getting caught up on.) And with Season 4 just starting production, we're getting a look at what actor Doug Jones has to go through to become the Kelpien Saru.
Jones, of course, is no stranger to prosthetics and makeup. While he maybe doesn't have a household name quite yet, the 6-foot-4 actor has played a number of memorable lanky roles including the Pale Man in Pan's Labyrinth, Abe Sapien in Hellboy and Hellboy II: The Golden Army, and the Amphibian Man in The Shape of Water.
Jones has shared on Twitter a secret to becoming Saru, and it's something that perhaps not every actor is willing to do for a role:
Back to my under-Saru look, as season 4 of @startrekcbs Discovery begins filming this week! . No one makes me do this, it’s my own decision to save the extra step and time of bald capping before my Kelpien prosthetics are applied. pic.twitter.com/x58cDyOJ7ENovember 2, 2020
Shaving your head just to cover it with prosthetics perhaps seems a bit much. But on the other hand most of us probably haven't had to undergo a few hours in a makeup chair just to do our jobs every day. So in that sense, it makes sense. No hair, no need for a bald cap. And that makes the whole processes that much quicker and easier. (Or at least less slow and not quite as difficult.)
And Jones, for his part, dives on in.
BEFORE/AFTER RESULTS IN NEXT TWEET.... pic.twitter.com/IhNWBolIc2November 2, 2020
Star Trek: Discovery is available on , which runs $5.99 a month after a free trial. For $9.99 a month you can get rid of most advertising, and you can save 15 percent if you pay annually instead of monthly.
Season 3 of Discovery has found the ship and crew some 930 years into the future, where little of what they left behind remains. New episodes drop on Thursdays, and you can read our review of the first four here.
