If a man's difficult it's artistic temperament.
If a woman's difficult she's a bitch.
Right.
You will no longer be an officer on this crew, is that clear?
My first guest tonight has already built a fine reputation as an actress, and then she
innocently found herself sitting on the bridge as the first female starfleet Captain on the
hit TV show Star Trek Voyager.
Ladies and Gentlemen stand to attention for Kate Mulgrew.
You did a pilot with me a couple of years ago.
We all thought it was going to take off.
What was it called sweetheart?
Gremlins.
It was called Shenandoah at the time, you get very excited.
Yeah.
You get all hyped.
You think this is possibly a key to the future.
Well what was the whole, what was the whole idea behind Shenandoah?
It was a period piece, it was civil war.
Anyway it failed, and you go through your entire career
thinking perhaps this will be the one.
Right.
You adapt to the role, right.
Hmm.
And all your friends say just wait, the day is gonna come, the role will meet you, and
I always say no, that's not true.
Your friends say that?
I have to meet the role.
On the first day I got calls from Rick Kolbe who was directing the pilot.
On screen.
Finrish Kolbe, that's how you say it.
Finrish Kolbe.
German.
Eh yes, we became involved, uhm which you really shouldn't do,
and he gave me the first great push.
French actress named Genevieve Bujold.
Eh she had been an Academy Award winning movie star.
French-Canadian, and she came and read for us, and Michael and Jeri adored her.
It was offered to and accepted by Genevieve Bujold the French-Canadian actress who is
a brilliant actress.
Aah that's nonsense.
She is brilliant.
I've seen a lot of her work.
Is there a small child over there?
But this was not for her because...
Let's read her the riot act, let's tell her
h, how awful it can be to be a regular on a television series.
That she's going to be working with directors she doesn't know,
she's going to be working fifteen hours a day.
Would you like to take over?
Painted a very dark picture of what it was like.
Of course the studio was in love with the idea of an Academy Award winning movie star,
and we told her everything, we told her everything about what how horrible being on a television
show would be, and she said let me go home and talk to my children, and she called me
the next day, and she said I, I've spoken with my children and the answer is oui, oui,
I will do it, and I just went.
Your hair could use a little help.
What's wrong Charlie?
It can use the greaseless protein boomer.
Protein 29.
Protein!
Your hair is protein.
Protein 29's got protein that's absorbed into the hair.
Oh it goes into my hair.
Right.
So the protein formula makes hair easy to manage, helps it look fuller, thicker,
and helps it to stay that way.
Oh it looks great honey.
She refused, well earlier she refused to dye her hair.
She had completely grey hair and we wanted her to dye it, she refused to dye it.
She finally agreed to dye it.
But I want you to know how very deeply you have disappointed me.
Yeah it's nerve racking.
Can she do it?
Right.
And she finally went to her trailer in tears.
She sat in the chair and she said forty-five times "ungaj" *Laughter*
She quit on the first day, and as...
eh maybe it was the second day,
and I really had no clue.
I, I, I really didn't.
I was delighted as you can imagine.
Red Alert.
and I went down to her trailer with the director, and I, I was very calm.
and I looked at her, and I just said look just eh pack up your stuff and go home.
I'll let you know when.
She called them in and she said "I'm so sorry, but I, I can't possibly do this,
I have a life, I have a son, I have a lover.
I'm very famo...
I'm wonder...
I'm leaving, I'm leaving, just write me the cheque, I'll see you later.
Right. *Laughter*
and I had always been in the pool.
But we finally ended up getting it worked out.
I don't even know where to start.
And at that point I called the, the studio people, called the chairmen of television
division and told him a story, we just said let's shut down, and shutting down is very
expensive because you have to carry a lot of people, and let's start the casting procedure
again, and luckily we had a ssecond and third choisss, and the ssecond choisss, eh was Kate
Mulgrew.
Were you concerned at all when you took the role? because Star Trek is such a, a... hit.
I wasn't concerned, I was delirious with joy.
Of course what preceded my coming was a little chaotic and dramatic.
What was that?
Well, there was another woman actually in this role.
Oh no.
She was only in I think for about, what was it guys?
Smokey Robinson.
What?
Ah about five seconds haha.
Eh so there was eh, you know, some pressure.
I think Kate's a very interesting actor.
She managed to be a, a woman and without it looking like boasting she was my first choice
from the beginning.
On the first day I got calls from Rick Kolbe who was directing the pilot.
I had the Paramount brass standing on the lip of my bridge every day for at least six
months, arms crossed, in their double breasted suits, glaring at me.
But somewhere the the dailies of that first day or two days with Genevieve Bujold exist.
It was destroyed, but our probes haven't picked up any debris.
The plasma storm might not leave any debris.
We'd still be able to pick up a resonance trace from the warpcore.
Let's read her the riot act, and we told her everything, we told her everything...
Captain, I'm reading a coherent tetryon beam scanning us.
Origin Mister Kim?
I'm not sure.
I think it's unfair, that's all.
Everybody's on my back about this.
I mean there's whining about how I can't make a commitment, and I'm cold.
I'm afraid of intimacy, and then everybody jumps on my back and acts like I'm neurotic
or something, and I'm not doing my job.
Tuvok.
She went over and greeted ensign Kim, she looked around the coms, she said hello to
Roxanne in science, she said hello to mister Paris at the helm, and she sat down in her
chair and she said...
Ungaj.
*Laughter and claps* I'm not being derisive it's what she says *Laughter* Now this is
an American series right, and it was going to be very difficult, and everything would
have to be rouge alert.
*Laughter* So after, and I am not exaggerating forty-seven takes of ungaj.
*Laughter* Right, and of course she's now becoming completely frustrated UNGAJ UNGAJ
*Laughter* She finally said I am fini, ce fini.
??? montre ??? This is crazy.
I am going to my trailer bring the producers, bring the President I'm done.
*Laughter* They came to her trailer, and she said well I'm certain you people are insane.
You call this working?
this is slavery.
You want me to work like this for eighteen hours a day, for seven years, for money.
POOF she can't.
I am leaving I have a son, and I have a lover, au revoir *Laughter and claps* She left and
the call came to me.
And she'd be told to do it again because somebody didn't like her hair, her hair do.
And on the first day I had a long monologue where I walk on the bridge and I introduce
everybody, from Tim Russ at this console to Garrett Wang at this console.
I remember them all.
To Roxann Dawson at science.
Across the bridge to someone I don't remember.
*Laughter* Mister Paris, Chakotay.
Oh no Chakotay wasn't there yet, this was the beginning.
Engage.
And that was it, and I felt as if not only was this going to work, but that it had to
go through those particular bumps, and from that moment on it was mine.
On the first day I got calls from Rick Kolbe who was directing the pilot.
and I always say no, that's not true.
Dismissed.
You *Laughter* with the com badge.
Yes?
Can I ask you...
You have a Borg thing on, oh I see *Laughter* Seven of Nine.
No, I have a problem with anybody who's late, OK.