Movies - TV
The Origin Story Behind Gowron's Famous Star Trek Stare
By WITNEY SEIBOLD
Gowron, played by Robert O'Reilly, only appeared in four episodes of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" and eight episodes of "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" but left his mark on fans.
Introduced as a potential successor to the now-fallen head of the Klingon High Council, Gowron ascended in the place of Duras and was seen traveling through the franchise at times.
O'Reilly's performance involved a lot of mugging, growling, and his much-loved wild, wide-eyed stare, all of which stemmed directly from O'Reilly's initial audition for the part.
As O'Reilly noted on the special features for season 6 of the "Star Trek: The Next Generation" DVDs, "I read the […] scene almost as myself... And they were totally bored by that."
"And what I did was I just turned around, and I just went [Gowron eyes] 'Ahhhh!' And you could see everyone just backing off, and then I went crazy," the actor recalled.
That amazed occasional director Jonathan Frakes. "[Frakes] understood what I was doing [...] and when we got to the set, he said, 'I want you to do the eyes thing,'" O’Reilly said.
Frakes knew how to wield cameras and lighting to assure Gowron's eyes would pop. O'Reilly's naturally expressive eyes, with sclerae surrounding its blue iris, likely helped, too.