Armin Shimerman Would “Absolutely” Play Quark Again For New Star Trek… With Some Conditions
It’s huge news in the world of Star Trek that members of the Next Generation cast and more legacy Trek actors will be appearing in the third and final season of Star Trek: Picard. This has other actors from past Star Trek shows talking about maybe returning to their live-action roles, including Kate Mulgrew. The latest to discuss the subject is Armin Shimerman, who also had more to say about his time on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine playing the Ferengi bartender Quark.
Ready for more Quark, but wants the same deal as Michael Dorn
Earlier this month, Armin Shimerman appeared at the Fanboy Expo in Knoxville, TN. During his panel, a fan mentioned Picard season 3 and Mulgrew’s latest statements, asking the actor if he was interested in returning to Star Trek. Shimerman has talked about this in the past, citing wearing the heavy prosthetic makeup as a major factor in any decision. In Knoxville (via video from Fandom Spotlite), he told the convention crowd he would “absolutely” do it, but he had a few caveats:
The answer is yes. I would happily do it. I would not do a series regular again. I would not undergo that makeup for another seven years. I can’t live that long. But for a guest star or to do what they’re going to do on Picard with some of the characters coming back… Yeah, I would do that. But! They’d have to pay me like they paid Michael Dorn.
Before offering his caveat on returning to the role, Shimerman talked about the last time he wore the Quark makeup and how it took him back two decades:
At a convention right before COVID, someone paid me a ton of money to get dressed up as Quark one more time. And I would only do it if it was with my makeup artist [Karen Weserfield] who was with me the whole seven years… and they paid for Karen to come out to England… And when I put it on, Ira [Steven Behr], the executive producer, was there and we were all amazed because it was a good 20 years after I finished the show, and when I got into the makeup it was like a time machine. It looked like Quark 20 years ago.