Actress Jeri Ryan is best known for her role as Seven of Nine in Star Trek: Voyager. She won the Saturn Award for the role twice, once while on Voyager and the second when she reprised her role in Star Trek: Picard. Ryan’s character is an ex-Borg who is adopted by the Voyager crew and joins them on the journey back.
While the Star Trek franchise has seen many present-day stars play small roles at the beginning of their careers, no one is as surprising as Dwayne Johnson. While he was still miles away from his status as a star, The Rock was reportedly already a known name in the WWF. However, Ryan was reportedly unaware of his fame when they shared the screen.
Jeri Ryan Was Unaware Of Dwayne Johnson’s Stardom When He Appeared In Star Trek: Voyager
Jeri Ryan’s Seven of Nine is different from the rest of the crew in many ways. The former Borg member tries hard to move away from her programmed ideology and tries to become more human with the help of the Star Trek: Voyager crew. After playing the role in four seasons of the show, she reprised her part in Star Trek: Picard.
The Star Trek franchise has seen prominent stars such as Tom Hardy, Kirsten Dunst, and Jonathan Banks make appearances early in their careers before becoming huge stars. The most famous among these is probably Dwayne Johnson, who appeared as a fighter in the season six episode ‘Tsunkatse’ of Star Trek: Voyager.
Johnson played a Pendari challenger who had to fight Jeri Ryan’s Seven of Nine in an arena match. Seven uses her Borg powers to fight Johnson in the episode and defeats him. When asked if she knew who Johnson was when they starred together, Jeri Ryan said to Big Issue Magazine that she did not. She said,
No, I had no idea. It was his first or maybe second acting job ever. I didn’t know who he was. I didn’t watch wrestling. I wasn’t aware of his character of ‘The Rock’.
The actress mentioned that she just knew him as ‘Dwayne’ and that she found him to be charming on set.
Dwayne Johnson Left A Signed Photo Of Himself As A Gift To Jeri Ryan
Dwayne Johnson is one of the highest-paid actors in the world and has starred in many blockbusters. However, when he made his Star Trek appearance, he was yet to make a mark in Hollywood and was only known as The Rock in the WWE. His sole acting role until then was playing his father Rocky Johnson in That ‘70s Show.
However, his Star Trek co-star Jeri Ryan was reportedly not aware of his The Rock persona and was wholly confused when he left her a signed photo of himself with his signature catchphrase. She said to Big Issue,
When I got to my trailer he had left a signed picture in character as The Rock – and it said ‘The Rock smells what you’re cooking’. Like, what?! It’s the weirdest thing I’d ever seen somebody write. The makeup guys in the prosthetic trailer were like, ‘Dude, it’s The Rock, that’s his thing! He smells what you’re cooking!’
In only a year, the whole world would know who he was as he made his big screen debut with The Mummy Returns.
Star Trek: Voyager is available to stream on Paramount+.
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