Interview: Elias Toufexis on STAR TREK: DISCOVERY Season 5’s L’ak

Avery Kaplan

L'ak in Star Trek: Discovery's "Red Directive."

Red alert! Star Trek: Discovery: The Complete Series and Discovery‘s fifth and final season will be released on DVD and Blu-ray on August 27, 2024. To celebrate the impending arrival, Geek Girl Authority is connecting with some of the show’s stars to find out more about their experiences with the series. Our second interview is with Elias Toufexis, who played Discovery Season 5’s enigmatic antagonist L’ak, the first Breen to appear in the Franchise without a helmet.

L'ak and Moll standing in Fred's shop in Star Trek: Discovery Season 5's premiere episode.
Elias Toufexis as L’ak. Eve Harlow as Moll. Photo Credit: Marni Grossman/Paramount+

Over Zoom, we asked Elias Toufexis about performing with full-face makeup and prosthetics, how he relates to L’ak, which prop was his favorite and what he’ll take with him from the Discovery set.

RELATED: Read our Star Trek: Discovery recaps

This interview is condensed for length and clarity. Cover image credit: Grossman/Paramount+

Becoming L’ak

Avery Kaplan: In the special features for Discovery Season 5, Michelle Paradise brings up your performance as L’ak and says it takes an actor with a specific skill set to act with full-face makeup and prosthetics. Was there a certain point at which you realized you had an aptitude for this kind of performance?

Elias Toufexis: That’s a good question. They helped me get there. So I don’t know that I have an aptitude for it. Because without them, I couldn’t have done it. Any other work that I’ve done, particularly on camera, is very subtle and realistic. I like being naturalistic. My first takes on all of L’ak’s stuff was always naturalistic and realistic. And they would always have to push me to be bigger and more emotive.

Moll and L'ak broker a deal with a sketchy alien.
Elias Toufexis as L’ak. Eve Harlow as Moll. Photo Credit: Paramount+

I actually made a deal with Michelle and with Olatunde Osunsanmi. I said, “I’ll do what you want. But you have to promise me that I’m not coming across as melodramatic.” Because that was my biggest worry. If I wasn’t under the makeup, it would be melodramatic. And I hate that, that’s not the kind of actor I am.

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But, there was some sort of buffer that you had to get through. Not that I didn’t know that, but I wasn’t aware how to get there until they guided me there. So, I guess, yes: invariably I had the ability to do it. But I needed to be guided and molded to get there.

So it wasn’t like day one I was nailing it. We were trying to figure it out. In fact, there was some stuff where I wish I could do just that one line again. Because at this point, six months into the show, I would have done it differently because I know how his face moves. But, that’s nice of Michelle to say.

The Erigah and I

Kaplan: I also gathered from the Discovery Season 5 special features that Eve Harlow is a very different person than her character, Moll. I’m curious: do you feel like you have anything in common with L’ak?

Toufexis: I would say, I don’t think I’d do the things that L’ak did. But I don’t know, if I was in his position. I don’t know that I’d actively kill anybody. But for me, I’m very protective of my children. I have kids. So for me, I’d do anything… That’s what I played, really. Not so much the kids thing. But I played, “L’ak’s goal is to keep Moll safe and just be free.” That’s his goal. And it was easy to play.

L'ak (Elias Toufexis) and Moll, heavily armed.
Elias Toufexis as L’ak. Eve Harlow as Moll. Photo Credit: Grossman/Paramount+

She didn’t need my protection in any way, let me be clear about that. But I felt protective of Eve. Because I’m ten years older than her. It’s very interesting, because I felt like she was like a little buddy, like a sister to me. Except when we were in wardrobe. Then I was legitimately attracted to her and falling in love with her on set. And then it would kind of be, “Oh, hey, buddy.”

RELATED: 8 Star Trek: Discovery Episodes That Prove Disco Will Never Die

So the protection aspect of L’ak is something I connect to. No doubt, I like the idea of being a strong protector. For me, it’s for my kids and for my wife. Again, she doesn’t need that much protection. But you know what I’m saying, right? The protective aspect.

I don’t really have a rebellious streak like he does. But again, I’m not a prince, so I don’t really know. Maybe I would. But I do like that he thinks for himself, and I’m very much that way. And his protective streak, for sure.

Self-Sealing Stem Bolts ‘R’ Us

Kaplan: Over the course of L’ak’s appearances on the show, you got to interact with a lot of cool props. Were any of them particularly memorable to you?

Toufexis: Well, the phaser. The fact that I’m a giant Star Trek fan and I had my own phaser. I should have stolen it, but I didn’t. I should have had them send it to me or something. And then when I went and did Wil Wheaton’s show, The Ready Room, they had in the back. And I said, “Oh, I’m gonna steal it.” But I couldn’t get away with it.

And having my own Star Trek ship! That is like, the coolest thing ever. How do you not freak out about that? The helmets were amazing. And for me, being a Star Trek nerd, when I held a self-sealing stem bolt, I thought, “Oh, this is cool.”

RELATED: Star Trek: Discovery‘s Legacy Trek Connection, Explained

When we were on set, in the scene from “Red Directive” when Moll and L’ak are trying to sell the pieces. The props guy came up to me and said, “So this is the order you have to pull these out.” And I said, “Right. This is the tricorder, this is the self-sealing stem bolt.” I knew exactly what everyone was.

L'ak places the items he has to sell on the counter before Fred as Moll and Fred's guard look on.
Elias Toufexis as La’k. Photo Credit: Grossman/Paramount+

And I remember Olatunde saying, “I don’t think an actor ever has done that before, where you knew what the props were.” And I said, “Yeah, I know what a self-sealing stem bolt is, dude. I know what a tricorder is.”

What You (Don’t) Leave Behind

Kaplan: Is there any experience from your time on the Discovery set that you have found to be especially memorable?

Burnham and L'ak (Elias Toufexis) point phasers at each other in the sick bay of the ISS Enterprise.
Photo Credit: John Medland/Paramount+

Toufexis: I would take away two things from being on Discovery.

One is, now I know how to work through prosthetics. And I learned a lot about that that I didn’t know (obviously). Four or five months of doing that, really, you learn a lot. So now I feel like a vet in that, even though I’m not Doug Jones. But I get it.

RELATED: Star Trek: Discovery Finale: The Short Treks “Calypso” Connection Explained

And the other thing is I would take the way that Sonequa Martin-Green handles herself and her relationships and how she runs the set. And if ever I were number one or two on a call sheet, I would want to emulate what Sonequa did. Because she is fantastic.

Star Trek: Discovery: The Complete Series box set and Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 are available beginning August 27, 2024. In the meantime, you can catch up with the series on Paramount+.

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Avery Kaplan