Star Trek: Discovery: Elias Toufexis Discusses Breen Culture and L'ak's Fateful Choice

Star Trek: Discovery's Elias Toufexis discusses being the first Breen face fans have ever seen.

By Jamie Lovett - May 9, 2024 04:10 pm EDT

Star Trek: Discovery Season 5, Episode 7, "Erigah" debuted on Paramount+ on Thursday and it proved to be a momentous episode for new characters Moll and L'ak. [SPOILERS for the episode follow.] A previous Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 episode revealed that the mysterious L'ak is Breen, the first of his kind shown without their helmeted refrigeration suit in Star Trek's history. (The Breen first appeared in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine nearly 30 years ago. The apocryphal Star Trek novels universe revealed the Breen as a society of multiple alien species rather than a race unto itself.) Not only that, but L'ak is a member of the Breen royal family and a potential heir to the mantle of the deceased Breen emperor.

That lineage catches up with Moll and L'ak in "Erigah." With L'ak badly wounded, the couriers are forced to allow themselves to be taken into Federation custody. That's when the L'ak's uncle, the Breen Primarch Ruhn, comes calling, hoping to resolve his blood debt on L'ak. L'ak takes desperate measures to find a means of escape for himself and Moll. He perishes as a result.

ComicBook spoke to Elias Toufexis, who plays L'ak, about his time on Star Trek: Discovery. Here's what he had to say:

Can you tell me what kind of conversations you had about L'ak and the Breen with Star Trek: Discovery's creative team? Did you get into it with writers and producers about how Breen culture informs the character?

Elias Toufexis: Only in the sense that I already knew everything about it because I'm a giant DS9 fan. I don't know if I talked to you about this before, but when I got the concept art was the day, I went to get the plaster mold put on my face, that try not to panic thing, and right before I get poured into a plastic cast, I asked for some concept art to see if they had anything about L'ak. And they showed me a picture and I said, "What race is he?" And they said, "He's the Breen." And my first instinct was to say, "The Breen don't take their helmets off." And they said, "Oh, you know about that?" And I said, "Yeah, I know everything about Deep Space Nine."

I was very excited because the first thing I thought was, "Oh, I'm going to make history, I'm going to make history. The first face you see as a Breen is going to be me" and that was very exciting. And then we talked about the Breen and their culture and stuff, and they get into it more in Discovery than, they were more mysterious in Deep Space Nine. We talked about that and the hierarchy and where L'ak fits in directly. But in terms of historically, I kind of already knew everything because I'm a big Star Trek nerd.

Was there any worry on your part -- and maybe this is a question better suited for the writers -- but when you're dealing with someone as mysterious as the Breen, there's always the possibility that if you dig deeper, you could demystify them an inadvertently making them less cool afterward. Was there any worry for you on that end?

Nah, it was really cool for me. I think Leonard Nimoy said it once unless that meme is lying, but Leonard Nimoy said -- I don't remember what he said about canon, but basically, he said, "Canon is important, but don't let it limit you." And canon is important, but you have the Breen from Deep Space Nine. This is, what is it, 800 years later or even more, a lot of centuries later. And why not? If you're going to tackle something and make it interesting, just being a fan, I was excited about it. I don't care about stuff like that, just whatever tells the best story. I never really even thought about it.

Maybe it's also today's culture of the way TV and movies are now, they do demystify a lot of things that we grew up loving, but it's part of what they're doing now. These things have to last 30, 40, 50 years, these Star Trek shows, so I suppose you could always invent more stuff, but you also can demystify or explain stuff that has happened before, and, as a fan, I think it's great.

What can you tell me about what sets L'ak apart from the other Breen? It's clear he fell for Moll and it's clear he was unhappy with his uncle, the Primarch. Was he, in your mind, already dissatisfied with his place among the Breen or was it Moll that set him on this path?

I think Moll set him on the path of freedom, but he was never happy with his place in the family. I played him like, I didn't invent what happened to his father or anything like that, but there was a little bit of Hamlet in him. Like, "My uncle" and "I don't want to be this prince. I just want to do what I want to do," and "I want to contemplate my own life and these guys are forcing this thing on me." And everyone's saying, "You should do this, and you should do this." I mean, it's your classic character. It's your prince, princess, whomever, who does not want to be in the royalty, wants to be normal, whatever normal is for Breen. But that's what he wanted.

And then when he met Moll, not only did he fall in love with her, but it ended up being a way out for him also. I don't think, initially, that was his plan. He just found Moll, fell in love, and thought, "Well, if we can keep this up, it gives me at least some freedom inside of my life that I don't like." And then when Moll invites him to leave or escape with her, he doesn't have a lot of time to debate. But that decision, I think, is one that he would've made even if he had the time because she represents love and freedom, which is what they're chasing throughout the whole season.

Hearing you say, "whatever normal is for a Breen" makes me now want to know what the most mundane Breen life might look like

Yeah, is it all military? I didn't discuss if there are average Breen. Are there Breen that work 9-to-5 and are there Breen grocery stores where the Breen work? I have no idea.

What's a Breen restaurant like?

Yea, what do they eat? And I remember thinking, because as an actor I often find when I do a scene, I think I do this unconsciously, but I'll find a breathing pattern for whatever I think the energy of the scene needs. But I was doing it once and I was going, "Do the Breen even have lungs? Am I breathing, really breathing, here? What do I do?" So those are the type of things, you set it and forget it when you're working in a fantasy or sci-fi like Star Trek.

Your decision to breathe has now made it canon that the Breen breathe.

There you go. We breathe. I don't know how they form their lungs or if they have one big lung, or whatever, I don't know.

Is there a singular moment, a souvenir, or something from your tie on Star Trek: Discovery that stands out to you as codifying it? Was it that moment when you realized you were playing Breen?

It depends on who you're asking. If you're asking Elias, the fan of Star Trek, then there were plenty. It was when I figured out I was playing Breen. It's when I showed up on -- I had heard through rumor that we were going to be on the Enterprise, the ISS, when I was shooting the first episode, because they keep a lot of stuff from actors until the very last minute, and I got so excited, and then just showing up on that. I know it was technically the Strange New Worlds set. I could have gotten to visit it anytime I wanted to because while I was shooting in Toronto, I'm sure I could have organized that, but the fact that I was working on it and being on the ship and all that kind of stuff, that freaked me out as a fan.

If I look at it as an actor, all I really wanted was to make sure audiences empathize with L'ak and Moll. That was my goal from the beginning. It was our goal, I should say, Eve and me. We wanted to make sure that, not that murder is ever justified or violence or anything, but what they were doing was justified, and if Starfleet would just get off their backs, and if Breen would get off their back, everything would be fine. But in order to escape it, they had to do some pretty rough things.

But what I really, really wanted, the thing I was really focused on I guess is the best way to say it, is trying to make sure that the audience empathized with both Moll and L'ak. And I say that because Eve and I really worked together. I can't think of this as singular. I can never really think of L'ak on his own, I always think of Moll and L'ak. What is our story? I know they both have their separate pasts that come together, but for me, it was always, what is their story together? As long as that comes through, that their love comes through, that was important, and that you empathize with them.

L'ak makes a sacrifice in this episode. In that moment, do you feel like he knew that he was making that sacrifice, or do you think he thought he was also getting out and miscalculated?

I played it as a bit of both, to be honest with you. I played it as, "This could go very wrong, but I'm willing to make that sacrifice. But maybe I'll be okay." That was how I played it. Maybe that's too middle-of-the-road. Maybe I should have made a stronger decision either way., but I definitely played it like, "I'm going to do this. It's very risky. I could die, but at least she'll get away. But maybe it won't. Maybe I'll be fine, and then she'll beam me aboard." It wasn't the greatest plan. His idea to distract them is a great plan, but it's like, "Go steal a shuttle and then beam him aboard." That's why I like that she goes, "That's it?" And he says, "Well, I mean, what else? You got a better idea?"

But yeah, I played it like he knew it could happen and he was willing to make that sacrifice. But it wasn't an outright sacrifice, or at least you hoped it wouldn't be.

Last question I have for you: If you got to pull the whole Jeffrey Combs routine, and came back as a different character, is there a particular species you would like to get to inhabit on a return trip to the Star Trek Universe?

It's true, I would have to be a different species, right? I've already been a man and I've been a Breen. I mean, there's so many. I would love to be a Klingon, of course, everyone wants to be a Klingon. I guess I can't be any sort of thing that you see my face, so Vulcans and Romulans are out.

A Gorn. Except the Gorns are all CG now. No, I'm going to performance-capture a Gorn. That's what I'll do, I'll performance-capture the first Gorn that has a long conversation with somebody in Star Trek outside of that "Arena" episode. That's what I want. I want to play the first Gorn.

Star Trek: Discovery Season 5, Episode 7 is streaming now streaming on Paramount+.

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