How David Cronenberg ended up on Star Trek: Discovery: "I’m cheap and I’m available"

Variety

The 77-year-old iconoclastic filmmaker wasn't watching the CBS All Access series when he was first approached, but he had been acting sporadically. "I live in Toronto, and it’s being shot in Toronto," he tells Variety. "I think that’s my main qualification. But I just got a note through people that I know, casting people, saying that (executive producer) Alex Kurtzman was really thinking of having me do a spot on the show. I said, of course, I’d be absolutely delighted. Who wouldn’t be, especially as an original Star Trek fan — and for Canadians, too. I mean, because William Shatner, one of the lead actors on the (original) show, he was a very well known Canadian actor. To have him be in a successful U.S. TV series was quite thrilling. So it’s kind of come full circle that Star Trek should be shooting in Toronto. And so of course I was delighted to be a part of the multiple universes of Star Trek.”