Jess Bush creates work that is wondorous, be it on-screen or through an art installation. Bush seeks to create work that questions; work that leaves a lasting impression. In doing so, she’s built an impressive resume in both realms, through her artistic practice and fronting a slew of roles back home in Australia (Home and Away; Playing for Keeps). Now, she’s taken the leap to Hollywood with Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. Feeling burnt out and intent on putting her mental health first, at the beginning of 2020, the Australian artist and actor told her manager she needed to take a little step back, and only do auditions she truly wanted. And along came Star Trek. Not that it was titled as Star Trek, nor did she know who she’d be playing until she booked the part. “The sides were going to self-detonate in 24 hours, all that crazy stuff,” she says with a laugh.

She headed to a friend’s place, hair a mess and feeling exhausted post a five-day art installation period, to put down her audition tape. Following three or so weeks of silence, Bush went through a round of Zoom calls (it was peak Covid, after all) until she got the call. She recalls, “finally, it was right around Christmastime, I was on the beach with my best mates on a holiday and I got a call from my manager—the casting director was on the phone in secret as well, in the background. I just face planted in the sand, like ‘aaah!’ It was the most incredible feeling. Then I had a month to pack my life up and move to Toronto.”

Flaunt caught up with Bush to get the latest on the show, her artwork, and the overlaps that emerge between the two.

How are you feeling now that the show is out there in the world for people to see?

Look, I’ve gotta say, before it came out—‘cause we finished the whole first season and half of the second season before the first episode of season 1 came out—for so long it was just ours. All it was was our experience of it, and thinking about the release in the abstract for so long. So when it was coming it was kind of like when you’re getting to the top of the rollercoaster and are about to tip over the edge. It was a bit nerve-wracking. But it’s just been so wonderful. It’s been so awesome. The Star Trek fan base is so warm and excitable and they’re just obsessed with it, which is so awesome. They’re just so pleased with the show. So it’s really wonderful to be part of something that is so loved.

Had you seen much of Star Trek already? As in, were you a close follower before you got the part, or did that come after?

No I wasn’t. I was aware of it, but the scope of its impact and cultural influence, I had no idea how deep that went until I booked it. It became apparent very quickly and the education was so wonderful. I think Star Trek is a really powerful vehicle for cultural messaging. And I think that the makers of Star Trek have always been very mindful of that power. And, as an artist, I couldn’t ask for anything more than that. To be part of something that makes an impact.

I also wanted to ask your favorite part about playing Nurse Christine Chapel. Do you feel any sense of added pressure playing such an iconic character?

I’ve never really felt pressure in the negative sense. It hasn’t felt scary, that part of it. It’s felt like an honor, that’s for sure. I’ve felt an immense sense of trust, which is really special. She’s a pretty fun character to inhabit. I think that she has a function in the team as kind of comic relief but also has a huge heart. It’s so fun to inhabit that character.

What’s been your favorite reaction to the show?

I’ve had a lot of messages from die-hard Trekkies saying that I’m filling the shoes of Majel Barrett and playing the character really well, and that is like, wow. They feel like I’m doing justice to this character and portraying her early years in a way that’s doing justice. Knowing that I’m doing something that people are relating to is, you know, it’s what we aim for.

You’re also a visual artist. You write that, in your art practice, you “reach for the 21st century’s consumerist weapons” and force such objects into new forms. Could you speak a little more about this?

I like to pull things from our reality that maybe, because we see them all the time, we don’t really notice them. Something that’s very banal, or has a very distinct connotation attached to it. A distinct narrative attached to it. Repeating it ad nauseum, using it to make something kind of grotesque because it’s so repetitive, so that we are forced to really look at what the narrative is that is attached to that object and why we have it. Kind of dislodge it from its ‘normal’ place to question how we relate to it.

And BEE TOTEM is your most recent work?

Yeah, I’ve been working on BEE TOTEM for a long time now. It’s really—practically it’s very difficult. It took me a long time to perfect the process.

Aside from the more obvious environmental impact considerations, what do you hope viewers will take away from the piece (in the context of what you were saying about taking the banal and dislodging and such)?

It’s not really my aim to tell people what to feel when they look at my artworks, but I just wanted to—I think that honeybees are so intrinsically important environmentally and they live by the thousands and die quietly by the thousands. By focusing my crippling attention—it’s so hard to make one of those balls—that when you do get it perfect, you really feel the amount of effort that’s gone into it. I wanted to get a dead honey bee, preserve it in the moment after it died, so that when you put it en masse with a lot of other ones, you are drawn to look at every detail of that insect. It’s magnified, amplified, it’s kind of distorted. It looks bigger, it’s in a glass ball. So you appreciate the life that it was, but you are also forced to be present with the moment that it died en masse, and feel that impact of thousands dead at the same time. And I’m sure that evokes a lot of different feelings depending how people engage with it.

I’m sure—I’d love to see it in person one day. It’s impressive in photos but I imagine it would be quite a different experience actually being there in front of it.

The one that’s in the photos on my website [pictured above], that was the first major piece that I had done. I got a couple of rounds of government funding in Australia to build it. It took me five months. Towards the end of the building period—I was in a not-for-profit art organization, and there were a bunch of different artists working in the same building—I was getting towards the installing time and there was a light projection artist that was also working in the building. And I was like, ‘why don’t you come around and see what happens if we put some lights on it?’ And he came at night when I had been erecting it for like fourteen hours—I was so tired and so dirty and my eyes were barely staying open. And he came in at night and we started the projector, put some music on, and he put on a random placeholder that he had–nothing designed specifically. And the moment it hit it, all of us were just like, ‘oh my god. What have we made?’ I sat there for like three hours. Just colored light, hitting glass spheres by the thousands. It was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen, it was crazy. So I cannot wait for the chance to do it at scale.

So you’ve worked in the space of physical art which is incredibly tangible—like you said, you’re literally working with bees and glass. And now you’ve delved into acting. They’re two quite different art forms; how does the creative experience compare? Do you have a favorite?

They’re very, very, very different. I find it quite hard to do them both at the same time—they engage my system in such different ways. I don’t feel like I should have to choose a favorite because I don’t have one; they occupy different parts of my heart. The thing that I notice the most is that, I was doing visual art since I was a little kid. I’ve been doing that forever, and acting I came into later, but the main difference is that, when you’re a visual artist—at least with the art that I make—you get to decide when people see it. The process is very private. Whereas when you’re acting, you have to be seen in-process constantly. So that was the most jarring change for me when I was getting into acting. It was like, oh wow, this is so exposing. Holy crap. Which is another reason I love it. It was so terrifying to me; so new and unknown. That’s the main difference.

So there are those differences, but I also I also gather you see a sort of overlap in the messaging in BEE TOTEM and Strange New Worlds in terms of respect for different species and environments; could you speak a little about this?

I think just generally my work, although there may be some dark connotations and take-always from it, my work is always kind of wondrous. There’s always a sense of optimism and curiosity about it. I think so anyway—there’s that spark and curiosity in it, and I think that that rings true to Star Trek as well. You know, it may be a reason that the casting directors connected with me—that’s part of me. But yeah, I think that with Star Trek, we’re striving—it has high expectations and it wants people to be the best version of themselves. You know, it’s earnest and lovely, and I think that that’s something that’s really unique to Star Trek.

Strange New Worlds is your first foray into non-Australian film. What has been your biggest take away from your transition from Australia to Hollywood? What was most challenging about taking the leap?

That’s an interesting question. Just on a really practical level, adopting an accent every day is interesting. You know, in some ways it is helpful because it immediately transforms the physicality into the character. But in other ways it’s kind of challenging, because it creates another level of separation between you and the work. It’s not natural to you.

But I think the transition to this market has been really—apart from the impostor syndrome that comes with jumping into something so massive—the creative culture here is awesome. They celebrate newness. They’re really excited to hear what you’re good at. And just want to give you a go. Everyone’s open to new ideas. I think that sometimes in Australia that tall poppy syndrome is a bit of an issue. And that’s a big difference that I feel working in the American market. The lack of tall poppy syndrome.

I think that Star Trek is a pretty special production that I’m very lucky to have landed here. You know, shot out of a cannon into such a welcoming environment. The crew—and everyone, all the directors that come through, they all comment on how supportive the crew is. It’s just like a family. Truly. Really lovely.

You’re in the midst of filming Trek Season 2. But I also wanted to ask, looking forward, would your dream project be?

I mean, in this industry, you kind of have to be open to things that come to you and make decisions based on gut instinct as they come. But I would love to play—just from a creative perspective—I would love to play a heinous villain at some point. But other than that, I think that it’s quite hard to—I’d rather, at this point in my career, be open to what comes.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds airs every Thursday on Paramount+. Episode 6 is out today.