{"id":2085575,"date":"2025-10-12T10:27:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-12T10:27:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2085575"},"modified":"2025-10-12T10:27:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-12T10:27:09","slug":"what-brent-spiner-hated-the-most-about-playing-star-treks-data","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/what-brent-spiner-hated-the-most-about-playing-star-treks-data\/","title":{"rendered":"What Brent Spiner Hated The Most About Playing Star Trek’s Data"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Performing in the “Star Trek” franchise can define an actor’s career, as it did for “Trek” luminaries like Leonard Nimoy, Patrick Stewart, and Jeri Ryan. But “Trek” fame can have its downsides, too, from being typecast to frustrations with alien makeup. For actor Brent Spiner, who played the android Lieutenant Commander Data on “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” his biggest gripe wasn’t either of those. Nor was it working with his most challenging co-star, Spot<\/a>. Instead, he was at his most annoyed when fans on the street would call him “Data,” rather than “Brent” or “Mr. Spiner.”<\/p>\n

“Sometimes I think [playing Data] limited me in ways I wished it hadn’t, but I realize I don’t have any control over that,” Spiner told Vice Magazine<\/a> in a 2012 interview. “The only thing that bothers me \u2014 and it happens all the time \u2014 is when people see me and shout, ‘DATA! DATA’! I’m fine with people recognizing me. I just wish they shouted, ‘Guy who played Data’!” It’s a minor but understandable frustration, because it undoubtedly happens all of the time. Spiner is recognizable to sci-fi fans all over the world, and many simply can’t separate him from the character he’s played for decades. It probably hasn’t gotten any better for him, either. In 2023, the actor returned to the franchise for all three seasons of “Star Trek: Picard.”<\/p>\n

Read more: Star Trek Characters Who Look Completely Different In Real Life<\/a><\/p>\n

Data’s makeup was also a real problem<\/h2>\n
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