Close-Up with George Hawkins
Close-Up is Stardust’s short-form digital cover series spotlighting talent through what feels most revealing: current obsessions, routines, creative process, and a few wild-card hypotheticals that capture them in the moment.
George Hawkins has been moving with intention for a minute now. In Tell Me Everything, he slipped into the show’s orbit as Dylan with a directness that matched its messy, youthful honesty. In Gassed Up, he took a different lane as Adam, trading teen-drama volatility for the tighter, street-level tension of a London crime story. Put those together and you can feel the momentum building, but his latest role is the one that takes him to a different level of visibility.
That next step comes as Darem Reymi in Paramount+’s Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, a new adventure set in the 32nd century as Starfleet rebuilds and a new generation steps into an institution that’s been dormant for more than a century. Naturally, the restart adds urgency from the jump. Classes, training, and ambition unfold alongside real missions with real consequences, forcing the cadets to figure out who they are once the stakes stop being hypothetical.
Darem enters that world with a clear objective and his sharp edges intact. He’s an aspiring captain from a wealthy home world, and he’s also Khionian, the first of his species to appear in the Star Trek universe. In an ensemble, he reads instantly as one of the more brash cadets. He speaks like someone used to being heard. He moves like someone convinced he belongs at the front of the pack. Even that certainty has a tell, though, a sense that he’s choosing what to show and what to keep tucked away. Hawkins makes that choice readable, keeping the confidence entertaining while threading in nuance that gives it depth, balancing bite with real feeling.
That control is also what makes him play so well off everyone around him. Put him opposite a rival, and competitiveness turns into sport, with the occasional flash of sharpness he’s learning to rein in. Put him with someone he respects, and the energy tightens into a carefulness that feels rare for a big personality. Put him next to someone he can’t quite read, and you get that volatile spark, the push-pull that keeps scenes from settling. Across all of it, Hawkins keeps Darem emotionally clear. You always know what he wants, you often sense what he’s afraid of, and you can even track the split-second decisions that shape which version of him shows up in the moment.
So if Starfleet Academy is designed to introduce a fresh class of faces and make them matter, Hawkins is already doing that work. Darem may enter a scene unapologetically, but Hawkins consistently gives him something sturdier underneath: a pulse, a conscience, and a sense of possibility that fits the franchise’s optimistic DNA while still feeling specific to one young man with a desire to lead.
Now, as the subject of our first Close-Up, we’re getting to know the multifaceted actor behind one of Starfleet Academy’s most instantly compelling new cadets.
Stardust: After a long shoot day, if you know you’ve got the next day off, what’s your default: a quiet night in, or staying up and keeping it moving?
George Hawkins: I am going straight to bed as soon as I get home from filming. I can’t live without my sleep.
Stardust: What’s something you currently can’t go a day without?
George Hawkins: We’re filming in Toronto, and it’s currently the coldest place on Earth, so I’ve been going to a Sauna almost every day just to remind my body what heat feels like.
Stardust: What’s the last show you binge-watched, and how did it leave you feeling when it ended?
George Hawkins: The last show I binged was Shōgun. It’s probably my favorite show. Each episode is an individual project, overflowing with culture and detail. It feels like an album full of platinum singles, each winning Best Song at the Grammys.
Stardust: What’s your favorite comfort movie?
George Hawkins: I watched it last night, that’s how much I love it. It’s Crazy, Stupid, Love. The writing is perfect to me, and how improvisational a lot of the scenes feel is so impressive. It’s such a beautifully human film.
Stardust: What primarily shaped your path as an actor—a person, a performance, a film—anything specific?
George Hawkins: I think a few people have helped me paint a picture of the career I want to try and pursue. They’re mostly actors; actors who have been able to build portfolios of work by taking huge swings in style and genre. I love it when an actor takes risk in character choice, it has the potential to change the trajectory of someone’s career. There’s a risk and reward in this work that I have an unhealthy addiction to.
Stardust: What’s the best advice you’ve been given, either in life or the industry?
George Hawkins: When we were a few weeks out from starting production on Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, I sat with Holly Hunter, who plays our Chancellor and Captain, Nahla Ake. She gave me a piece of advice that Harvey Keitel had given her during filming The Piano, which she won her Oscar for. She said Harvey would tell himself just before action was called, ‘nothing I do is wrong.’ This was a way to remind himself and to reassure himself that he is the character—George Baines—and George Baines was him; there is no gap between them, and when the audience sees you, they see the character. This reassured me and made me feel like I could breathe whilst playing Darem.
Stardust: What was your first exposure to the Star Trek franchise?
George Hawkins: I can’t say I was an avid Star Trek fan growing up, but that’s not to say I wasn’t aware of it; it’s quite hard not to be. I distinctly remember seeing the JJ Abrams films and being really impressed by their intensity. I loved the characters. But once I was cast, I knew I had a lot of homework to do. I started with Enterprise and then moved around from pre-Kurtzman to Discovery and Strange New Worlds.
Stardust: Did you feel confident going into the audition process—and how did you find out you’d been cast?
George Hawkins: I remember I hadn’t had an audition for a while and was feeling antsy about life and work. So, when this opportunity came through, I put so much behind my scenes and really went for it. Alex and Noga, the showrunners, called me on Zoom and welcomed me to Starfleet Academy! All I felt was relief. The audition process went on for around two months, and I couldn’t help but hope for the best when I got closer and closer in recalls.
Stardust: As you’ve spent more time with the role, what’s one way you relate to your Star Trek: Starfleet Academy character?
George Hawkins: I have a very similar character trait to Darem, and that’s pressure. I put so much pressure on myself. Whether that’s to make something of myself or to become something that people are impressed by. Playing Darem has really helped me study that part of me; it’s helped me ask this question honestly: ‘How far can fear take you in life?’ I’ve made a lot of decisions out of fear, motivated myself with fear disguised as ambition. But it can only produce disappointment because that image you’re chasing and therefore running away from is an unachievable depiction of life; it’s truly unfair to live under that weight. Darem has helped me get rid of that.
Stardust: Where do you and your character diverge the most?
George Hawkins: I think the most obvious answer is his intelligence and his physical ability; he’s an alien, an alien that goes to the most impressive and highly demanding school to ever exist. I’m smart, but not that smart.
Stardust: The cast is stacked—who have been your favorite scene partners so far?
George Hawkins: You know what, one moment that I’ll never forget, watching Paul Giamatti and Holly read together for the first time, it felt like discovering a new species of bird or something. It’s been such a privilege to be a witness to two titans of this industry and have eye-witness accounts of their personal processes.
Stardust: If you had a role on a ship or crew, where do you think you’d thrive?
George Hawkins: This is a big swing, but I think I’d be a good captain. This is my application! I want to feel what that’s like.
Stardust: Finally, if you’re going to space, what are three things you’d insist on bringing?
George Hawkins: I’m going super practical. Telescope, sunglasses, and a camera. I want to be able to see it all!
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Photographer: Jenny Anderson
Words/Editor-in-Chief: Aedan Juvet
Covers: Laramie Cheyenne
Publicity: Sunshine Sachs Morgan & Lylis
