All dressed up, somewhere to go: Actress Chase Masterson talks 'Star Trek,' antibullying ahead of Tulsa stop

Get ready for what could be - and this is said endearingly - Tulsa's nerdiest weekend of the year.

The city is hosting a double feature of unconnected events that will appeal to gamers, cosplayers and lovers of pop culture.

The XPO Game Festival is scheduled Friday through Sunday at Cox Business Center, 100 Civic Center. It's a second-year event that celebrates all things gaming. Keynote speaker Chris Avellone will be among many industry pros who will participate in panel discussions. Information: xpotulsa.com

The Tulsa Pop Culture Expo will take place Saturday and Sunday at the Wyndham Hotel, 10918 E. 41st St. It's a first-year pop culture convention with a celebrity guest roster that includes Chase Masterson ("Star Trek: Deep Space Nine"), Gil Gerard ("Buck Rogers in the 25th Century") and Catherine Hicks ("Child's Play," "7th Heaven"), among others. Information: tpopexpo.com

Because of the rise of nerd culture, geeking out is more acceptable than in decades past. One of the people mentioned above has been active in paving the way for others to get as nerdy as they want.

Masterson, who plays Leeta in "Deep Space Nine," founded the Pop Culture Hero Coalition in 2013. The Pop Culture Hero Coalition (popculturehero.org) uses the universal appeal of comics, film and TV to create antibullying programs at pop culture events, schools and communities.

Masterson said she was "incredibly unpopular" and was bullied as a kid. She provided background details during a recent phone interview.

Masterson lived all around the world because her father was in the military. Her family settled in El Paso, Texas, when she was in the sixth grade. She used long hair to cover her face and glasses. She carried books in front of her so people couldn't see her "shape."

"I was really shy and part of it was because there was a lot of bullying at my high school and a lot of class-oriented exclusion," she said.

"I think part of me just didn't want to be a part of it. I didn't even want to engage, so I just hid. I could tell that those kids who were really into the class distinctions were not right. They weren't fair. And they weren't nice. But there's a duality. A part of me, I knew all that was not worth my time, but it still hurt. So it wasn't until I got to college that I really felt like I was free to be who I wanted to be and started coming out of my shell."

There was a window of opportunity for the new girl in town to be accepted by the popular kids. The window closed because Masterson befriended someone who wasn't in the clique.

"There was one girl they made fun of," Masterson said. "Her name was Patty. She was really nice to me, and I could tell she was lonely. I made friends with her, and that was it. (The popular kids) drew the line in the sand. I was not popular. I was not going to be. I stood up to them once without her. They were making fun of both of us, and I went over to them and I said, 'Shut your mouth!' And, from then on, that was my nickname, Shut Your Mouth."

Stories have said Masterson didn't go on her first date until she was 19. True? "I was a late bloomer," she said.

Masterson, asked if she founded the Pop Culture Hero Coalition because of her childhood experiences, said that's part of the reason. But there's a bigger picture.

Five years before launching the coalition, Masterson began working with Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles. Homeboy Industries provides hope, training and support to formerly gang-involved and previously incarcerated men and women, giving them an opportunity to redirect their lives.

Masterson said she never asked people there why they went to prison or what they did to be sentenced. But she asked them what caused them to become involved in a life of pain and crime. She said someone who was once a high-ranking gang member told her he was bullied on the playground in sixth grade. He and his friends formed a little gang to go after the bullies. Tactics kept escalating. The little gang was eventually absorbed into the Crips.

"And that was the story of almost every kid there," Masterson said.

And then there's Katie's story.

In 2010, when Katie was a 7-year-old first-grader in Illinois, she was bullied by kids when she carried a "Star Wars" backpack and water bottle to school. Among things said to her: " 'Star Wars' is for boys."

Katie's mom, Carrie Goldman, wrote a blog asking female "Star Wars" fans to show support. Within days, more than 80,000 people viewed the post. Thousands of people offered support, including Masterson. The story was picked up by the Huffington Post.

In the aftermath, Goldman interviewed Masterson for a book about bullying. Masterson was asked if she had actor friends who would be willing to be interviewed. That led to Masterson introducing her friend Peter Mayhew to Katie.

"Katie, who got bullied for loving 'Star Wars,' is friends with the real Chewbacca," Masterson said. "Don't mess with us."

HarperCollins Publishers bought Goldman's book, which was published in 2012. Goldman asked Masterson if she could get the book into San Diego Comic-Con.

"But let's do more than that," Masterson recalled. "Let's take the entire power of pop culture. These comic cons and these movies are so popular. Let's be heroes. Let's stand up for kids who need us and stand against bullying and racism and misogyny, and let's use these stories of heroism to be heroes in real life."

Masterson said the coalition's work resonates deeply with her because kids who are "invalidated" at a young age can be scarred for life.

"I do believe there is healing," she said. "But it doesn't come easy."

Did Masterson ever get over being bullied?

"It's still with me in some way," she said. "As an actor, the world really does a number on you. There are triggers that echo back to that behavior all the time. In this industry, there are always questions. Am I good enough? Am I talented enough? Am I pretty enough? Am I the right kind of pretty or do I have the right kind of look? They are always measuring us. And so, sure, it echoes back to that, so you have to be incredibly strong."

Masterson talked about additional topics during the phone conversation. Among excerpts:

Masterson was introduced to the "Star Trek" franchise because she had a boyfriend who liked "Star Trek: The Next Generation." When the show was on, she was permitted to call him only during commercials. The relationship didn't last, but she gained a love for the series.

"I started to realize, hey, there are good stories here," she said. "There's a lot of humanity in this show."

Masterson paid to audition for a Trek role.

"You think it was worth it?" she asked.

Masterson attended a pay-$30-to-meet-a-casting-director function. She didn't get the role she wanted, but the role of Leeta, a dabo girl at Quark's bar, was created for her. Leeta became a popular recurring character.

Among reasons Masterson wanted to be on the show was because loyal fans embrace Trek characters and the actors who play them. If she earned a role, she might get to travel on the convention circuit, which she is still doing 18 years after "Deep Space Nine" ended.

"This business is about longevity," she said. "If you can find fans who love you for the right reasons, that's a win, right?"

Leeta was initially "eye candy" (AOL once ranked her among the 10 sexiest characters in TV history), but she evolved.

"The character was shown to be somebody who cared about people and values, stood up for the Ferengi union, had compassion, loved the guy (Rom) who was only pretty on the inside, cared about her stepson deeply and was very committed to doing the right things," Masterson said.

"I will say this: It's a different kind of strength than people term as strengths. They see strong characters like Kira, who was a very strong character. Kira was also compassionate, but she wore her strengths on her sleeves. She was a soldier. The same with Dax. ... They had inherent strengths in their job capacity. Leeta was strong in an entirely different way."

If every Trek series has a flavor, what's the "Deep Space Nine" flavor?

"The flavor of 'Deep Space Nine' was boldly going into ourselves, into our humanity and each other's humanity," Masterson said. "It was boldly going into the depth of our character."

Masterson said "Star Trek: The Next Generation" had that quality too, but she said it was more so with her show.

" 'Deep Space Nine' was also one of the first serialized shows on television," she said. "So that meant that the audience had to watch it one week in order to understand what was going on the next week. It built on itself. It built on itself in a way that the other Trek shows - there were ongoing themes obviously and relationships - but this was way more so. That requires a lot of faith in the audience to show up, to keep showing up, and they did because they were ready to delve into these characters' lives more richly."

Masterson said that's a tribute to the writers.

Masterson said "Star Trek" fans are good-hearted people and they are the reason she got "evangelized" into the world of do-gooding and social justice.

"They are people who understand that we need hope for the future and we can build a better future," she said. "That's the whole theme of the show besides infinite diversity in infinite combinations, which also points to their lovely hearts saying that they are inclusive of people. That's why a lot of people who don't feel included in regular things from society are attracted to the show because they see this as a world where everyone is included. And there are also a lot of mainstream (fans) - teachers, doctors, lawyers, parent, kids, grandparents. The show does attract a wide range, but the commonality is they generally have really good hearts."

Masterson is a singer. Who is on her bucket list of singers she wishes she could have heard perform?

"I have to say, if I could go back in time, it would be Ella Fitzgerald. And obviously everybody loves the Beatles. Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme. I would have loved to be at some of the early concerts in the civil rights era. Obviously, we are still in the civil rights era still, but I would have loved to have been there when they were starting to open the doors so that performers who were black and were previously only allowed to enter through the back door could enter through the front door. It must have been an electric period of time."