There is little doubt that the latest episode of Star Trek: Picard was painful to watch for fans who were rooting for Hugh. However, it looks like the pain that Jonathan Del Arco felt while filming his character's final moments were more than just emotional. The former Star Trek: The Next Generation actor admitted he was also in physical pain while shooting that terrible scene.
In Nepenthe, Hugh was immediately punished for helping Jean-Luc Picard escape along with Soji Asha. Unfortunately, Narissa was not satisfied with simply extracting information from the former Borg through the usual torture methods. Instead, she chose to kill his companions one by one while asking about Picard and Asha's whereabouts. Needless to say, the scene should be painful enough but Del Arco admitted to The Hollywood Reporter that he was already hurt physically while filming.
"I got a cornea scratch from the contact lens I was wearing," Del Arco revealed, "so I was basically not supposed to be on set that day at all. But we had to get it done, though I was kind of blind. I couldn't really see anything."
Ouch, that must have hurt. On the other hand, Del Arco did a brilliant job playing Hugh in his final moments so all the pain may have been worth it. We're just hoping that it also pays off in the end for Picard and Soji.
The seventh episode of Star Trek: Picard is titled Nepenthe and is currently streaming on CBS All Access.
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