You may not recognise him under layers upon layers of prosthetics, but Supa-Star Doug Jones has an ethereal touch to his performances that is unmistakable! Jones brought his sense of theatricality and mime artistry to his Goldnova panel this year.
He began by discussing all things Star Trek. “I was born in 1960, so I was around when the original series was on network television. I connected to Spock. He was tall, skinny and had a weird look, I don’t know why I connected to that,” Jones chuckled.
“Being an actor who has played a lot of aliens, creatures, and monsters over my career, I was wondering, ‘Why has Star Trek never called?’ Finally, when I was 56 years old, I got the call for Star Trek: Discovery. I just finished The Shape of Water, and I thought, ‘How much more rubber do I want to wear?’ Then that call came in, ‘Star Trek? I’m back in!’ I was offered the part; I didn’t need to audition for it. When they told me I’m like the Spock in this show, it was a full-circle moment for me!”
Wearing extensive prosthetics, makeup and playing unearthly creatures is a challenge Jones is accustomed to. How about portraying a human, played by an alien? Discovery posed him this unprecedented challenge.
“In the episodes where we were in the hologram program, when they turned Saru into a human. I was like…” Jones stretched his face and opened his jaw wide, “WHAT! Half of me was like, ‘All good, I don’t have to wear all that makeup.’ The other part of me was like, ‘I have no idea how to play Saru as a human.’
“The shoes were going to be flat human shoes, and his posture and how he walks presented a bit of a challenge. How do I put that into a human hybrid? On the bright side, instead of two hours in the make-up trailer, I was there for 20 minutes. Much better,” Jones smiled gleefully!
Speaking of the make-up trailer, how does one have the patience for sessions that can take several hours? “Most people want to do something all the time. I am not that person; I can stare at the wall and be completely content. I sit well while the make-up artists do their work. My real job happens when they are done, and I go to set, and film for 10-12 hours. I keep my energy up, and I keep my brain alert by rehearsing the dialogue while I am in something heavy, hot, and smelly.”
The costumes and makeup aren’t always uncomfortable, as he explained, “The farther you get from human, the harder it’s going to be. So, the closer you get to human,” Jones breathed a sigh of relief, “How nice! The Silver Surfer was rubber from head to toe, but I didn’t need to move much. [William] ‘Billy’ Butcherson from Hocus Pocus was glued on face and neck, wig and gloved hands; that was really super easy.”
Before the panel started, guests were treated to a highlight reel of Jones’ career. The reel started with a crescent-moon-shaped-faced lounge singer from a 1986 McDonald’s commercial. Remember Mac Tonight? Though voiced by Brock Walsh, Jones portrayed Mac Tonight, and it would prove to be a huge success for him and McDonald’s. How did he land this unusual role in the first place?
Jones recalled, “I got this call from my TV commercial agent telling me to audition for McDonald’s to play a Las Vegas-style nightclub singer, think Frank Sinatra. I went to this audition, and there were a bunch of grey-haired guys with bow ties; they looked like Vegas singers. I thought, ‘I was not going to get this.’ Then I saw the storyboards plastered on the wall, and there was this big moon-head, and I was like, ‘Oh, that’s why I am here.’
“They had the music playing in the lobby, so the singing voice was done beforehand. The lyrics of Mack the Knife were changed to Mac Tonight for McDonald’s, to talk about their burgers. We had to mime to it with an electric piano in the audition room,” he explained.
“I played along on the piano, and the casting director said, ‘That’s great, we’ll do it one more time. Because your face will be covered, can you please put this grocery bag on your head?’ I continued the audition wearing a paper bag with eye holes on my head. It was embarrassing, but that audition turned into 27 commercials.”
After spending many years in the industry, he recently had the opportunity to fulfil a longtime dream. “Not to be confused with Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu, Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror had a quiet opening in October last year on Amazon Prime and Apple TV+. It was a dream come true because it was a scene-for-scene replica of the original silent film, with dialogue, sound and new actors. We were in black-and-white, and they green-screened us into the original’s backdrops. I finally played Nosferatu, let’s play some humans now,” he laughed.
Jones’ charisma and storytelling skills shone throughout his panel. Just like the characters he plays, Jones is simply out-of-this-world!
LEAD IMAGE: Doug Jones at Goldnova 2025. Credit: Issaro Kayunsumrutket
