Isa Briones played Soji, Data’s daughter, in Star Trek: Picard, and Brent Spiner worked with her to develop mannerisms to reflect Data’s legacy.

Star Trek: Picard actor Isa Briones reveals how Brent Spiner worked with her to develop Data’s famous head tilt for her character, Soji Asha. Picard season 1 established that Soji and her deceased twin sister Dahj were Data’s ‘daughters’; the synthetic twins were built from one of Data’s positronic neurons by Dr. Bruce Maddox (John Ales), Dr. Agnes Jurati (Allison Pill), and Dr. Altan Inigo Soong (Brent Spiner). Soji was programmed to believe she was human but when she was ‘activated,’ Soji remembered she was an android and began exhibiting certain traits of Data in Star Trek: Picard season 1.

Isa Briones was a guest on The Big Sci-Fi Podcast to discuss her career starring in Hamilton, Goosebumps on Disney+ and Hulu, and Star Trek: Picard seasons 1 and 2. When asked if Brent Spiner had feedback on Briones’ performance as Soji, Isa detailed how Spiner worked with her to develop Data’s head tilt as part of how Soji was meant to reflect Data’s legacy. Check out her quote and listen to the podcast below:

The creative team, they made it clear, ‘You are not supposed to be a remake of Data. You are not recreating anything that’s been done before. You are your own entity.’ But you do carry this legacy, and so, that’s more the vehicle that Soji is. So that doesn’t really mean ‘how do I become like him?’, but what are some things that I can bring to the character that honor that legacy?

One thing that they definitely wanted was the Data head tilt every once in a while. Not to hammer it away, but just to like… This is there. So you have this thing kind of anchoring you to Data… I think I didn’t even ask [Brent Spiner]… I was so embarrassed if I had to ask him, ‘Hey, can I have help?’ But he, I think, saw that it was in the script, and he was like, ‘Hey, do you need any help?’ He asked me. I mean, that would be amazing! And he just kind of did [the head tilt] with me, and he was like, ‘Make it your own. Do your thing.’

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Isa Briones’ Star Trek: Picard Season 2 Character Was The Inspiration For Soji & Dahj

Briones mainly worked with Brent Spiner in Picard season 2

Isa Briones role as Kore Soong in Star Trek: Picard season 2 reflected the isolation the world was undergoing during the Covid-19 pandemic. Kore was the cloned daughter of nefarious geneticist Dr. Adam Soong (Brent Spiner). Kore suffered from a disease where exposure to open air and sunlight is fatal. Briones told The Big Sci-Fi Podcast about what it was like to play Kore, who was the 21st-century inspiration for Soji and Dahj, as Picard season 2 was filmed during the pandemic:

I started season 1 very isolated because I was on the Borg Cube. So it was really just me and Harry Treadaway, and then eventually, me and Patrick. But I wasn’t with the rest of the cast until the last 3 episodes. Similarly, Kore is literally isolated. It was all with Brent. I mean, he was the only person I saw on set most days. It was interesting to kind of backtrack, because I had played these characters [Soji, Dahj, Sutra] who [were] modeled after this girl that I played in season 2… I’m going back to the original… It was interesting to like, whoa, I’m going back to the person who started all of these subsequent synths, and what does that mean? Who is she who everyone is modeled after?

Kore Soong was recruited as a Traveler by Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaton) at the end of Star Trek: Picard season 2. The destinies of all of Isa Briones’ Star Trek: Picard characters are open questions, as Briones wasn’t part of Star Trek: Picard season 3. Perhaps if Star Trek:Picard‘s proposed spinoff, Star Trek: Legacy, happens, Isa Briones can return to reveal what became of Soji and Kore Soong, and even reunite with Brent Spiner as Data.