Beloved ‘Star Trek’ Actor Reveals the Surprising Way He Landed Iconic Role originally appeared on Parade.
While John De Lancie is best known as the super popular character Q in Star Trek: The Next Generation (as well as several of the subsequent Star Trek series), the actor almost didn’t get the part because he was too busy to attend the audition, as he explained in a recent interview. So how did he end up landing the role?
In an interview shared to TikTok this week, De Lancie, 77, opened up about the audition process for Star Trek, revealing that he was in rehearsals for a play called Terra Nova when he got the call from his agent to try out for the iconic sci-fi series, so he didn’t go. However, a certain producer kept calling for him, so he finally agreed to audition during his lunch hour.
“And I did the audition, and a large man walks out,” De Lancie recalled. “I mean, a big tall man. And after my audition, he put his hand on my shoulder and he said, ‘You make my words sound better than they are.'”
As it turned out, the “big tall man” was legendary screenwriter and producer Gene Roddenberry, but De Lancie didn’t know who he was — all he knew was that he needed to get back to rehearsal. Then, he was stopped at the door by another man, who told De Lancie he was the producer who kept calling for him.
“You did a show about four or five years ago,” the producer said, “and I was flat on my back in the hospital with a quadruple bypass operation. And you made me laugh when I thought I was going to die. And I thought if I ever got out of this, I would give you a chance, and they’re going to hire you.”
“And that’s how I got the job,” De Lancie added.
Fans in the comments were quick to rave about the actor’s contributions to the Star Trek universe.
“Star Trek is full of brilliant actors but John is one of the very best,” one person wrote, with a second adding, “He is EXCEPTIONAL as Q.”
“One of the best Star Trek characters in the entire ST world! Any episode with him is worth watching,” gushed someone else, as another praised him for being a “hugely underrated actor.”
One thing is clear, after all these years…De Lancie definitely made the right call when he decided to go to that audition on his lunch break.
Related: Beloved ‘Star Trek’ Actor, 76, Is Virtually Unrecognizable in Recent Video
Beloved ‘Star Trek’ Actor Reveals the Surprising Way He Landed Iconic Role first appeared on Parade on Aug 14, 2025
This story was originally reported by Parade on Aug 14, 2025, where it first appeared.
