LeVar Burton experienced a touching moment while filming Star Trek: Picard season 3 when his daughter Mica Burton was cast to play his child onscreen.
The father-daughter duo was grateful to share the screen together for the first time on the Paramount+ series for the episode titled “The Bounty,” Entertainment Tonight reported. LeVar reprised his role as Next Generation character Geordi La Forge. Mica portrayed one of Geordi’s two daughters, Ensign Alandra La Forge.
After being asked to return for Picard, LeVar, 66, didn’t go into filming intending to secure a role for his daughter.
“Never would I have ever thought of going to them and saying, ‘Hey, what about my kids being in Star Trek?'” he admitted.
“And I would’ve said no,” Mica added.
However, the Reading Rainbow star spoke with showrunner Terry Matalas about making his character a “family man.”
“I never liked that Geordi, as the chief engineer, as the nerd, was discomforted by the presence of women. That pissed me off. I thought it was really lazy on the writers’ part,” LeVar Burton said.
“And even in [the Next Generation series finale] “All Good Things,” when it’s revealed that Geordi is married and has two children…the idea that he was married to Dr. Leah Brahms, the woman that he stalked in the episode, “Booby Trap,” creating a holo deck of her, was really creepy to me.
“And so I really wanted to rehabilitate that part of Geordi’s canon and Terry came through, above and beyond,” he continued. “I mean, I never would’ve dreamt this scenario up and I’m so grateful that he did.”
For Mica, it was an honor for the rising actress to share the screen with her dad, who has been a fixture on television for nearly 50 years.
“It’s interesting because every time I’m asked, “What was it like?” the first thing I can say is, professional,” she shared.
“I went to an acting conservatory and he’s been doing this his entire life, almost since he was 19, so he’s one of the most consummate professionals that I know. And I think that that’s what came first and foremost.”
Fans can get into Star Trek: Picard Thursdays on Paramount+.