Why Star Trek: Discovery's Ryn Actor Did A Lot Of Sleeping On Set

The character of Ryn (Noah Averbach-Katz) only appeared in three episodes of "Star Trek: Discovery," but he did leave an impression. Ryn, a blue-skinned Andorian, was introduced in the show's third season, shortly after the title ship flew through an aperture in time, and wound up in the year 3188 (having departed the year 2258). In the ensuing 930 years, the galaxy suffered through a massive spatial cataclysm that caused almost every starship in flight to spontaneously explode. This cataclysm, nicknamed "the Burn," cause the Federation to almost entirely collapse, resulting in a mercantile, capitalist system to rise in its place. The galaxy was now ruled largely by a mob-like entity called the Emerald Chain, a slave-based trading organization overseen by the vicious Orion Osyraa (Janet Kidder). 

Osyraa had Ryn in her employ. Ryn had signed a contract, making him Osyraa's slave for life. He previously tried to stage a rebellion, but the rebellion was quelled and Ryn's antennae were chopped off as punishment. He was subsequently forced to implant bombs into the necks of other slaves, making him widely hated by just about everyone. Ryn was a sad character without hope. It wouldn't be until he encountered people from 930 years ago that he would see that hope was available again. 

Averbach-Katz required a lot of extensive makeup to give him the blue skin and facial ridges required to play an Andorian. In his first episode, he had a beard, but the makers of "Discovery" nixed the beard to save time in the makeup chair. The makeup was so extensive, however, and the shooting schedule so busy that Averbach-Katz admitted to sleeping in his makeup. He described his daily routine on "Discovery" in a Reddit AMA from 2021.

Playing an alien on "Star Trek," even in a minor role like Ryn, took a lot of hard work, and a lot of early mornings. When asked to describe his day, Averbach-Katz announced that he was up before dawn. He wrote: 

"I would get up around 4 or 5 and head to set (transpo would drive me). I would then have a light breakfast and head to the prosthetics trailer. I'd get the mask on, which would take between three and six hours depending on the day, then head back to the trailer and try and sleep a little more. At some point a P.A. would call the cast in to block the scene (just figure out where we wanted to stand and walk)."

Although it mustn't have been comfortable sitting in a makeup chair for three to six hours (!), it's comforting to know that Averbach-Katz could sleep with his mask and wig on. As mentioned, the time in the makeup chair was greatly reduced by the elimination of the character's scraggly beard. The makeup on "Discovery" was so sophisticated  that each individual hair of the beard had to be glued on separately, a process that took hours to complete. Along the way, someone decided that Ryn, having been rescued from his bondage by the Discovery, should be clean-shaven. That saved everyone a lot of headaches. 

And that wasn't the end of napping for Averbach-Katz. After the blocking was set, the actors had to wait as the crew set up lights and took care of other technical details. This gave the actors a chance to run lines should they still want to, or, in Averbach-Katz's case, nap again. Then, after mealtime, more naptime. He continued: 

"We'd go back to our trailer as the crew set up the shots. I would probably fall back asleep again. Then we'd shoot, break for lunch (I didn't eat because it might ruin the mask, so I just slept), then shoot some more. Then, depending on the day we'd wrap at some point in the evening, I'd head to the prosthetics trailer and get the mask off and wash my eyes out (to clear any residue from the contacts) ... that takes about an hour. Then I'd get back into my street clothes, wolf down some dinner on the ride home, and be back around 11!" 

It's a wild sleep schedule. Perhaps for the sake of his sanity, it was good that Averbach-Katz was only in three episodes. One cannot imagine the sleep schedule of series regular Doug Jones, who plays a Kelpien, requiring a full-face makeup prosthetic, as well as alien hands. Although, when looking over Jones' career, one finds a lot of creatures and zombies and other jobs that required full-face makeup, so he was likely an old pro by the time he got to "Discovery." 

Prior to "Discovery," Averbach-Katz was in an excellent 2018 film called "A Bread Factory," which I highly, highly recommend.