Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 includes its feistiest and most unpredictable antagonists yet: the criminal duo of Moll (played by Eve Harlow) and L'ak (Elias Toufexis). Stealing a piece of Progenitor technology capable of reshaping the entire galaxy, Moll and L'ak are pursued by the USS Discovery to prevent this new power from falling into the wrong hands. However, Moll is more connected to Discovery hero Cleveland "Book" Booker than the crew anticipated -- complicating the hunt for this interstellar Bonnie and Clyde.

In an interview with CBR, Harlow and Toufexis talk about finding their Discovery characters between the science fiction stakes and prosthetics. The duo recalls how they played off each other throughout Season 5 -- and explain how Moll and L'ak are different from past adversaries that the Discovery encountered before.

CBR: Moll and L'ak aren’t passive antagonists in Star Trek: Discovery Season 5. They're in the middle of space gunfights and big chases. How did you exploring that physicality in your performances?

Elias Toufexis: That was one of my favorite things -- [Star Trek's] action set pieces. Being a giant Star Trek fan, with every script, I'd leaf through and go "I get a phaser battle in this one! I get to ride on a sand speeder! I get to have a ship chase and a fight!" All of those reasons are the things you look forward to as an actor being in something like Star Trek -- having fun doing all these cool things. L'ak's gun and ship are so cool. It's just a 10 out of 10 on the coolness factor and something I looked forward to every day. It's exhausting! The days were long and the prosthetics make it difficult, but it makes a huge difference when you see it.

Eve Harlow: I will say, I'm a pacifist in real life, but I get the platform boots and gloves on and I feel like a fucking badass. [Laughs.] It's like "I am no longer Eve, I am Moll, and here to kick ass." It was very fun embodying a completely different kind of person, and you get to do it on these beautiful sets with these really talented people who are showing you how to look cool. [Laughs.] We had an entire group of people who were supporting us, like the stunt team, who were incredible and such kind humans and very patient.

All that Moll and L'ak have in this crazy universe is each other. How did you form that rapport and build their backstory that Star Trek viewers don't get to see?

Toufexis: Well, we will see why they're doing what they're doing. When we were shooting the first several episodes, we were given hints about why they were doing what they're doing, but we weren't given their full backstory. Eventually, we give their full backstory and that was [another] one of my favorite things. I play a lot of bad guys on TV, but they're always like, this is why this why this bad guy is evil, or I get a line where I'm like, "My dad was bad to me and that's why I’m evil."

But with these characters, everything is explained about what they're doing, why they're doing it, and we get to play it. That and the love story [between Moll and L'ak] are my two favorite things about these characters. The fact that I get to play with the background, play a whole thing and the audience will know exactly why L'ak and Moll are doing what they're doing. Hopefully, they won't be looked at as villains, because they're not really villains. They're antagonists, for sure, but they're the heroes of their story, no doubt.

Harlow: They just do things a little differently!

Toufexis: A little murder, but they mostly murder bad people. [Laughs.]

Harlow: They were in our way! What were we supposed to do?!

Toufexis: If you leave us alone, everything will be fine. [laughs] That was my favorite thing about it -- getting to play the background and showing everyone why we’re doing what we’re doing.

Fans learn that Moll is connected to Book in Star Trek: Discovery Season 5, Episode 2, "Under the Twin Moons." Eve, how did you want to play into that, and what happened to Kwejian, and explore that aspect of the character?

Harlow: I think that yes, she has a family, but Moll has been living the kind of life where there are no other ties aside from L'ak. I think to drop all of that and change the behavior that's gotten her to where she is is very difficult. I think even though she understands who Book is and all of that stuff, you'll just have to watch the show to find out! I will say, I fucking love David [Ajala] as an actor! [Laughs.]

Elias, how would you describe the prosthetics and makeup applied that you were locked in as L'ak?

Toufexis: There was always a specific point in the makeup process. For the first two and a half, three hours, I wouldn't look in the mirror. I would just be in my own space or trying to fall asleep at times. But right when everything was on, and they started detailing, I would look in the mirror and get into the zone, because it was almost fully formed. I almost always had to do the wardrobe first, because you can't put the wardrobe over the prosthetics; [otherwise] you'd damage it. So I was always in wardrobe for the most part.

The contacts were always the last thing to go in, because they were a nightmare... They were big and thick. I could see through them, but it was very uncomfortable. Once I got those in, I would always take a minute to stare in the mirror, which I would never do if I wasn't wearing prosthetics – I'm not an actor that stares into a mirror to get into character. But in the prosthetics, because I can lose myself in the character easier, I would stare in the mirror for a few seconds and get in the zone.

I'm not a super-tall guy -- I’m 5'11" -- so I had little platforms on that made me six feet [tall]. Walking in these big boots past everybody, with everyone looking, I started feeling like I was this brute of a character, because he is kind of a brute. But there is so much vulnerability that happens with L'ak as we go through that it was easy to drop back into that vulnerability, especially working with Eve, because she gave me so much. I would be able to lose myself in her performance and become vulnerable with it. I haven't really paid attention, but I probably shrunk my body a little bit at times when I felt more vulnerable, if I could in the wardrobe.

Harlow: Also, when you're in a world, everything kind of helps... There were several times when I'd walk on set, and it was breathtaking to see all the work these people did on [Star Trek: Discovery's] set design, because you read something on paper and you have no idea what it's going to look like. You arrive and it takes your breath away -- like yes, I'm in this world and stepping in these shoes on this ground. Sometimes you look at yourself in the mirror and see what your hair and makeup looks like. On different days, different things will ground you and the character.

Toufexis: Eve and I knew each other a little bit, and then we spent a bunch of time together. We drove for three hours to Barrie, Ontario at one point. I don't want to sound condescending, but I looked at her like my little sister because I'm 10 years older than her. She's this really amazing person and friend. I remember the first time [she] walked on set as Moll -- it was like all of that went away, and I was a little in love with Moll. I was really into this person.

There's a thing [Eve does], where [she switches] from Eve to Moll, which is incredible. It is a switch, and it's just this different person, and it was easy to fall in love with this character. It made my job really easy because there is just something about Moll that is attractive, cool, sexy, badass and smart. [She] encapsulated it all, and it was amazing to see live. The fact that it works on the show really made me happy.

Harlow: I'm telling you, it's the boots! [laughs]

What do you think Moll and L'ak uniquely bring to the table to challenge the Discovery crew?

Toufexis: True passion and a goal that they will not be deterred from. They don't care about Discovery, the Federation or whatever Rayner wants from them. They just want to be left alone and they want freedom. They will do whatever they need to do to get that. The Discovery going "We're the Federation. We can help you! You don't know what you have!" We're like "Leave us alone. That's what we want."

What ends up happening early in the season is that we have to make sure that we're ahead of Discovery. That's the only reason we care about them. We've got to be ahead of them, so we can sell whatever this tech is to make enough money to be free. What makes them original is that they're not trying to destroy Discovery, not trying to ruin the Federation or take over a planet. They just want to be left alone. They want freedom, and they'll do whatever they have to do to get that freedom.

Harlow: It's a go-with-the-flow kind of attitude, like "This obstacle is in my way? I'm going to get past it." There is this final goal that we want to achieve, but we don't have a grand plan of how to get there and it's so crazy, with all of these things that keep coming in our way. We don't have a five-year plan, we have "What are we doing tomorrow?!" [Laughs.]

Created by Bryan Fuller and Alex Kurtzman, Star Trek: Discovery releases new episodes Thursdays on Paramount+.