Prove yourself brave, truthful and unselfish, and some day you will be a real boy.
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.
So, I had given an appalling audition here
on tape. Oh really? Absolutely the quintessence of mediocrity. Really?
One of the thing's I'm most proud of has been the casting, I think that eh forgetting the
Patrick Stewart's and the Brent Spiner's and the people who get all the accolades.
French actress named Geneviève 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.
Now what's up?
It was offered to and accepted by Geneviève 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, h...
I'll tell ya I needed that job ba... I needed ha you know I was making like
$250 a week at eh at the play, and eh, not enough to support a family on or live on.
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 15 hours a day.
Red alert.
He considered me a mercenary, willing to fight for anyone who'd pay my bar bill.
Trouble is he was right. I have no problem helping you.
Painted a very dark picture of what it was like.
Hey what's going on here?
It's a horrible existence Kathryn, as time wears on you begin to see how potent,
how destructive loneliness is. You'll see the people you love going on with their lives.
Eh and, and actually quite clever of Rick Berman.
Doing all the things you used to share with them, but you won't be a part of it anymore. You'll be
forever shut out of their existence, it becomes agonizing, I don't want that to happen to you.
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... Distress. Fear. Danger. Terrible.
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.
Every hour you stay here makes it that much more difficult to leave.
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.
The two of you didn't get along too well I'm told.
Because that is a grind, and if your fellow actors are not with you, and they're not on top of it,
and they give up caring, it makes it a burdensome and very difficult experience,
so I loved him for that. He was right there, they all were.
And Ethan tells the story to me still, he said,
he said "Boy you sure weren't very friendly that day".
If what you're saying is true, why not let me come to the decision on my own?
I'm trying to spare you unnecessary pain.
Phew, what they can't do these days.
Yeah it's nerve racking. Can she do it? Right.
Lieutenant Stadi lay in the course and clear our departure with operations.
Course entered.
You know what I like, I like the ase, the eyes glazing over as the head (what makes you think)
desperately trying to get the thing going. (that you deserve it? you... )
She sat in the chair and she said 45 times "ungaj" *Laughter* *Laughter*
Ops has cleared us. Ready thrusters.
Thrusters ready. Engage.
Kathy I think that... I think that... might.
Oh stuff it.
And she finally went to her trailer in tears.
Directed by Rick Kolbe.
I think eh that exemplifies probably the best possible Janeway to date.
If you could force me to go you'd have done it already,
you need me to agree don't you. I have to go voluntarily.
Wouldn't that be better than standing here in this endless debate?
She quit on the first day, and as... eh maybe it was the second day.
After all enough's enough.
And it has been my greatest joy to have done it,
and I hope ladies and gentlemen that I have done it well.
Would you like to take over?
I on the other hand was forced to resign.
Everytime there was a triumph we celebrated it together, and eh he directed me in Sacred Ground.
*applause* What? what? what? They did have a terrible problem with how we looked, didn't they?
Yes, yes, yes, YES whatever you say Captain. Why don't you just tell them the truth
about what you did?
Haha ha. Hah.
There's nothing I don't know about you Robbie. Nothing, remember that.
I'll be right down.
And I went down to her trailer with the director, and I, I was very calm.
That really kinda pissed me off, you know. Really? Really? Come a little bit closer baby.
That pissed me off.
Go ahead tell her.
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.
You wanna play that game? Then I'm gonna play with you, and we'll see who wins this,
and it's gonna be me. *Applause*
What I tell ya, ain't this a swell joint? Yeah, being bad's a lot of fun ain't it?
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... and 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'll get you back.
I, I, I was often blamed about the hair which was absolutely incorrect.
All of that came from my dear and loving friend
Kerry McCluggage. Really? You don't say.
But try this one on for size since I'm no, I'm no idiot. Eh
first of all you do know that it went to another actress first,
Geneviève Bujold the wonderful French-Canadian actress, and she lasted one day.
And I felt there was something funny here, there was something that didn't seem right.
There's something phoney about all this.
Geneviève Bujold the original pick for Captain Janeway had
stepped aside eh, eh to my great advantage and happiness (haha haha) and...
Ahah haa ha gon laugh make a jackass out of yourself. I am through.
I don't know how well you knew Kerry, but he he... I met him a couple of times. He himself had
immaculate hair. He did have good hair. Yeah he had a bloody good head of hair didn't he.
Psst leave me out of this.
He also was obsessed about hair, and we would get calls, Marina's hair is
too long, Marina's hair is up too high. Eh Kate's hair is not feminine enough,
this, he, we got hair notes from him continually.
And I, I was not in a position to tell the chairman of the studio go f**k yourself. Right.
What? you mean to tell me you take orders from a grasshopper?
So we were (Scott's hair changed) constantly making eh we were constantly making hair changes.
Scott had like a... He had an insurance salesman's haicut to start with (haha) in season 1,
I remember by the end he looked pretty rugged. He had that little bangs at one point,
and luckily... Jolene's hair changed. You darling
had frosted I'd go up to the make-up trailer and it literally would be a
production haha one half being frozen the other being frosted haha haha.
Oh don't hurt him Jiminy he's my best friend. Why I'll... What? You're best friend!
So I... It was uhm.
I would receive a lot of notes from the studio
and when you get notes from the studio if they're strong enough (Alright) eh you eh (from the
echelon) you, you obey them. You jump to right. And eh
you don't necessarily tell the people who are involved I got this note from the chairman of
the studio (Mmm) You so they get pissed off at you It's coming from you. Right. Right. Right. Yeah.
It wouldn't hurt you to take orders from your grassho... eh eh your conscience,
if you had one. Yeah yeah yeah sure.
I don't even know where to start.
I called the, the studio people, and told him the story.
Hurry up before they see us.
This was a woman who in no way was going to be able to deal with the rigours of
episodic television. I made that point very clear. 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. I know, I know I'm right about this, I know this
isn't going to work. And I knew it.
So Taylor was visiting the set along with lots of her retinue, and lots of Burton's welsh relatives,
but what impressed me was how ferocious Bujold's concentration was. In the middle of all of those
distractions she gave that performance in that scene, she was very serious, (yes) very intense,
and of course that paid off for her in an academy award nomination for that movie.
The overwhelming surprise of Your Majesty's visit must have cured me. Oh wonderful,
wonderful I shall continue the cure. Shall
I dismiss this ring of chaperones? No, by your leave. Yes, by your leave.
Her character is never the kind of woman that you think you can sweep
off her feet with any kind of romantic malarkey. This is a woman who has a mind, and who responds
to appeals I think to her intellect, that's why her characters are always interesting.
Bujold displays and I think it is a quality I've found in most every one of her performances
an outer sweetness there, a gentleness that covers a resolve of steel. Tender,
but fiercely independent, and whenever you have an actor or actress whose in touch with
such wildly competing qualities in their body then I think you have the potential
for an excitement in their work. This interesting, you see tenderness on
the outside, steel on the inside, I was seeing eh that inside her character has a certain amount of,
or a great amount of intelligence. Oh there's no question. I think what you're getting there, it
maybe something that the camera doesn't lie about, is that the personality of the actress herself,
of Geneviève Bujold is a very strong one, and a very stalwart one, and she brings
that resolve and that presence to any role she plays, so she doesn't seem to be swayed here and
there (right) by the script or by the dialogue eh as another less substantial actress might.
In other words there's somebody home there. (yeah) Independent even of the role, (mm hmm) eh and yet
she still stays in character, (yeah) and how they do that? well if we knew that we'd be actors.
That inner spirit that she has, that strength and intelligence (Yep) that she can bring to a role,
that is a lot more than just another pretty face. She is not
just a decorative actress that's for sure. When that picture came out,
it was a very significant one because a woman was really in the lead in pursuing a killer,
and that was one of the first times that we had really seen a woman take almost an action role,
kind of part, and she's the one that did it. Of the way she presents herself in that movie
as a karate instructor, she's covered with sweat (right) her hair wasn't (right) combed
you know. (right) She is more vibrant, and more sexy like that than any woman who has
spent hours and hours and hours in make-up for some other movie. (right) She's got,
she's got the inner quality. She is just GREAT!
Luckily we had a ssecond and third choisss, and the ssecond choisss, eh was Kate Mulgrew.
If you need it more than I do, I'm sure you'll get it. Imaginary cigarette bo *laughter*
I am allegedly a woman right? Yes. Right.
I think Kate's a very interesting actor. She managed to be a, a woman.
Without it looking like boasting she was my first choice from the beginning.
and at the end I turned and I said "Would you like me
to those again?" Whoa *laughter* and Rick Berman looked at me and said
"No, I think that's sufficient", and I looked at him and I winked at him.
Now in general and you in particular have done very, very well since you took over this role
under all kinds of controversial circumstances eh. Yeah. 2 years ago I guess. Surprise to
you or did you feel a bit... A delight to me. You didn't answer the surprise or not though.
What a surprise. and I really had no clue. I, I, I really didn't.
Noo. Yes! I was delighted as you can imagine.
I had the Paramount brass standing on the lip of my bridge
every day for at least 6 months, arms crossed, in their double breasted suits, glaring at me.
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 says... 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 47 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. de 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 "You are absurd. You people are insane.
You call this working? this is slavery. You want me to work like this for 18 hours a day,
for 7 years, for money". POOF she quit. 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. Then 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.
But somewhere the the dailies of that first day or 2 days with Geneviève 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.
Sometimes in a lifetime you're given an opportunity
that transcends even what it's called which was a role on a television series.
It has given me more opportunities to find out who I really am.
Did you ever keep anything from the show? did you ever keep any
memorabilia? any props? anything any...
Did I steal stuff from the set? Yes. *Applause* Do I look like an idiot to you? Yes. I took
things from my chair and I took things from my console and I took the thing of
Leonardo da Vinci in my ready room. I ripped everything off.
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 5 seconds
haha. Eh so there was eh, you know, some pressure.
And as chaotic as that was a
it was a wonderful sense of vindication for me that I had been right in this, but...
A boy who won't be good might just as well be made of wood.