Jennifer Morrisonspent seven seasons on the hit series Once Upon a Timeas Emma Swan, a woman reluctantly trapped in a town where fairytale characters are stuck in the real world with no memory of their original reality. Morrison, who had already made her mark on television in the show House, became synonymous with the show, and the rest was network television history. But when it comes to Morrison’s greatest high in an audition, it isn’t tied to the series. Instead, it is connected with a film franchise that allowed Morrison and Chris Hemsworth to star as James T. Kirk’s (Chris Pine) parents. During a conversation with Perri Nemiroff for the latest episode of Collider Ladies Night, Morrison talked about how 2009’s Star Trekdelivered her greatest audition high.
J.J. Abrams‘ Star Trekreboot film opens with the USS Kelvin crashing after an attack from Nero (Eric Bana), a Romulan villain who alters history on his quest for revenge. George Kirk (Hemsworth) ends up becoming captain of the Kelvin for one brief moment, making sure his pregnant wife Winona (Morrison), unborn son, and 800 crew members get off the ship. The 2009 movie set a different tone for this new Star Trek story quite quickly. In the original Star Trek franchise, George Kirk was there for his son and did not die on the Kelvin, and so it made the casting of George and Winona that much more important.
When Nemiroff asked Morrison about the highs and lows in some of her auditions, Morrison shared that one of her “high” moments came from her audition for Star Trek. “I would say the high was when I was reading for Star Trek to play Winona Kirk, to play Captain Kirk’s mother,” said Morrison. She revealed to Nemiroff that she’d been given a fake scene for the audition to protect the secrecy of the project, saying:
“It was back in the day when you actually went into the audition room, and I could sort of hear everybody through the wall. They’d given us these dummy sides, like they didn’t want to put the real characters out and all that stuff. So the storyline that they had given was like, I don’t know, we were in some sort of cave in water, and I was swimming with my husband, and the water was getting too high, and we were going to have to go under and swim out, but it was too far and I was the stronger swimmer, and we only had one mask, and I had to put the mask on. My husband is telling me, ‘You have to let me drown and resuscitate me when you get to the other side of the thing.’ And I was like, ‘No, no, no,’ but the water was getting too high, and I had to put the thing on and do the thing, and then drag him and then resuscitate him,”
Morrison went on to explain how the intensity of the audition scene would later match the devastating opening moments of the Star Trek reboot movie. Without the immersive environment of a set, auditions can feel a bit silly, and it was Morrison’s ability to commit to what was written on the page in the middle of a blank room that earned her the small but impactful role. “This is all happening with me in a gray room with a chair,” she told Nemiroff. “I was listening to it through the wall over and over again with other people, and I could just feel that they felt kind of silly doing it. I was like, ‘Man, I’ve got to own this.’ The only way to sell this is to go 1,000% in and fully commit.“
“So, I went in there, and I committed. I mean, I was shaking and crying by the end of it, and I’m lying on the floor and the whole thing,” Morrison told Nemiroff. “The casting director came up, and she’s like, ‘Are you okay? We think you should wait a little while before you drive home.’ I walked out, and I had the job by the time I got to the car, basically. It was such a quick turnaround. So, that was a high in terms of just feeling like I kind of had the opportunity to assess what needed to be done, and then was lucky enough to kind of be able to access that in myself in that moment and do it.”
Collider Exclusive · Sci-Fi Survival Quiz Which Sci-Fi World Would You Survive? The Matrix · Mad Max · Blade Runner · Dune · Star Wars
Five universes. Five completely different ways the future went wrong — or sideways, or up in flames. Only one of them is the world your instincts were built for. Eight questions will figure out which dystopia, galaxy, or desert wasteland you’d actually make it out of alive.
💊The Matrix
🔥Mad Max
🌧️Blade Runner
🏜️Dune
🚀Star Wars
01
You sense something is deeply wrong with the world around you. What do you do? The first instinct is often the truest one.
02
In a world of scarcity, what resource do you guard most fiercely? What we protect reveals what we believe survival actually requires.
03
What kind of threat keeps you up at night? Fear is useful data — if you’re honest about what you’re actually afraid of.
04
How do you deal with authority you don’t trust? Every dystopia has a power structure. Your approach to it determines everything.
05
Which environment could you actually endure long-term? Survival isn’t just tactical — it’s physical, psychological, and very much about where you are.
06
Who do you want in your corner when things fall apart? The company you keep is the clearest signal of who you actually are.
07
Where do you draw the line — if you draw one at all? Every survivor eventually faces a moment that tests what they’re actually made of.
08
What would actually make survival worth it? Staying alive is one thing. Having a reason to is another.
Your Fate Has Been Calculated You’d Survive In…
Your answers point to the world your instincts were built for. This is the universe your temperament, your survival instincts, and your particular brand of stubbornness were made for.
The Resistance, Zion
The Matrix
You took the red pill a long time ago — probably before anyone offered it to you. You’re a systems thinker who can’t help but notice the seams in things.
You’re drawn to understanding how the system works before figuring out how to break it.
You’d find the Resistance, or it would find you — your instinct for spotting constructed realities is the machines’ worst nightmare.
You function best when you have access to information and the freedom to act on it.
The Matrix built an airtight prison. You’d be the one probing the walls for the door.
The Wasteland
Mad Max
The wasteland doesn’t reward the clever or the well-connected — it rewards those who are hard to kill and harder to break. That’s you.
You don’t need comfort, community, or a cause larger than the next horizon.
You need a vehicle, a clear threat, and enough fuel to outrun it — and you’re good at all three.
You are unsentimental enough to survive that world, and decent enough — just barely — to be something more than another raider.
In the wasteland, that distinction is everything.
Los Angeles, 2049
Blade Runner
You’d survive here because you know how to exist in moral grey areas without losing yourself completely.
You read people accurately, keep your circle small, and ask the questions others prefer not to answer.
In a city where humanity is a legal designation rather than a feeling, you hold onto something that keeps you functional.
You’re not a hero. But you’re not lost, either.
In Blade Runner’s world, that distinction is everything.
Arrakis
Dune
Arrakis is the most hostile environment in the known universe — and you are precisely the kind of person it rewards.
Patience, discipline, and political awareness are your core strengths — and on Arrakis, they’re survival tools.
You understand that the long game matters more than any single victory.
Others come to Dune and are consumed by it. You’d learn its logic and earn its respect.
In time, you wouldn’t just survive Arrakis — you’d begin to reshape it.
A Galaxy Far, Far Away
Star Wars
The galaxy far, far away is vast, loud, and in a constant state of violent political upheaval — and you wouldn’t have it any other way.
You find meaning in being part of something larger than yourself — a cause, a crew, a rebellion.
You’d gravitate toward the Rebellion, or the fringes, or whatever pocket of the galaxy still believes the Empire’s grip can be broken.
You fight — not because you have to, but because standing aside isn’t something you’re capable of.
In Star Wars, that willingness is what makes all the difference.
The Kelvin-Verse Was a Fascinating New Star Trek Story
Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldaña, and the cast look anxious on the bridge in Star Trek, 2009.Image via Paramount Pictures
Abrams made something special with the Kelvin-Verse. It posed an interesting question for fans of the original franchise: What would happen if James T. Kirk did not have the guidance of his father and older brother as he went into Starfleet? Luckily, Spock (Zachary Quinto) quickly learns how important the friendship between him and James Kirk is thanks to an older version of himself (played by Leonard Nimoy), and it leads to the franchise’s three films being a unique take on what Gene Roddenberry did with the first seasons of the Star Trek franchise.
You can see Morrison as Winona Kirk in 2009’s Star Trek and watch her full episode of Collider Ladies Nightbelow.
