I guess I'll go first.
Actually why don't you go first.
Subcommander T'Pol is basically uhm the voice of reason.
She is the voice of responsibility, and more times than not the voice you really don't
wanna hear, because uhm many times in our hunger or our thirst for adventure you wanna
get out there, you wanna go do it, you wanna, you don't wanna hear about protocol, you don't
wanna hear about reason or the way to go about things.
You just wanna dive in and go, uhm and, and that's usually what we're battling with.
I'm always the voice of reason.
Lieutenant are you wearing your hair differently?
It's still regulation Admiral.
Mm hm.
May I speak sir?
I was offered the third one, but it was a very...
In January of 1982 I drove out in a little dodge colt with my younger brother to Los
Angeles, and, and prior to my getting there, this gentleman, this manager.
His name's Michael Mann.
He, he went around to the studios and flashed this picture of me.
It was a half-assed offer.
Those first two to three months I did probably several dozen meet and greets.
You know you're, you're not meeting someone for, in relationship to a project, and you're
not actually doing an audition, you're just going to meet them.
They're, they're this, they're the perhaps the head of casting at that particular studio.
It was like, look her character's a lot bigger, she's going to be a lot more important character
in the movie, and we'd like to pay her less money than we paid her for the first one.
*Laughter* And it was like...
So I queried it, and I said "How does that make any sense?".
(right) And then it was like OK we get it, you don't want to do it.
Www I, I mn, mn, you lost me on that ss, du, eh, go back.
But the, it never got to... (They didn't really engage you in a negotiation)
It wasn't, and so it made me think they don't
really want me in the third one.
Now I've heard, since then I've heard other people speak, I even heard Leonard Nimoy say
"No, we really wanted her in it", but, it, that just sort of didn't make sense.
So that still remains a bit of a mystery to me.
I had a meeting with Elza Bergeron and Stuart Jensen, and then the very next day I had a
meeting with Leonard Nimoy, but I'm, I'm getting ahead of myself a little bit.
So looking back that, that journey from New York to LA was very planned, very calculated,
and I said to this guy "Look if I don't get any work in the first six months
I'm going back to upstate New York".
After every shower I put Johnson's baby oil on my wet skin.
It mixes with the water on my skin and forms a lasting moisture seal that helps hold in
moisture, After your next shower don't just dry off dry, dry off soft with Johnson's baby
oil from Johnson & Johnson.
No, I asked for the job.
They came to me and asked if I wanted to be involved in Star Trek III in some way.
Spock had died at the end of two, we had no future legal relationship, there was no contract
with Paramount for Star Trek III, and they asked me if there was something I wanted to
do, and I said "yes I would like to direct the next picture".
Will you tell me what you did?
I'd really like to know.
Listen I remember going and meeting the eh, eh, casting department at eh, at Paramount,
and I offhandedly said during the meeting "You know if I was going to be a part of the
Star Trek franchise, I, I would really hope to be a Vul... a, an alien of some kind.
(Hehe) And I left them with that little nugget, and, and not, I swear a day or so later
I met Leonard Nimoy one on one.
Well first of all Nick Meyer, you know you're very fortunate in your life if you have someone
who champions you, and he is probably the most significant champion of my career,
not probably, he is.
He uhm, when I did Star Trek II, before that I had done nothing.
I wasn't a member of the screen actors guild.
Uhm he knew that I was brand new, and he championed me.
Uhm you know he just kept auditioning me, and you know I was up against a lot of people
who had a lot of work, and he kept championing me,
and then finally in the final hour, you know he gave me the role.
But you know you have the studio, you have Paramount studios.
They have to, you know those guys have to approve, and they can say things like, well
you know she's never done anything before, and except for her lousy resume which she
made up. He really did champion me, and he really did it at a time in my life.
I was talking about it earlier this morning, that uhm, eh I had auditioned three times
for Star Trek, and then I was supposed to go back and audition on a Monday, and my parents
were in a very bad car wreck, and my mother was killed, my father was eh injured badly,
and so I flew to Wichita, and eh, I flew back home, and uhm I called my agent and I said
I "My parents have been in this car accident, and I can't leave my Dad 'til I know he's
OK, so you have to call them and tell them I can't come on Monday", and you know like
I keep saying I hadn't done anything, so they could've just gone 'well forget it', because
not only had I not done anything, but now even if they did hire me, I was coming into
the production on the heels of this incredibly tragic stressful thing.
So anyway he said "Well if I tell them that you won't get the job", and I said "Well I'm
not leaving my Dad so tell them that".
So he said she can't come in until her Dad is out of intensive care, and Nick said
"OK we'll wait for her".
It still makes me wanna start crying because I mean 'OK we'll wait for her' the girl that's
done nothing except clean people's houses, I mean.
Then they said "OK fly in", and two days later I flew in and I auditioned, and then here's
another nice thing that really doesn't happen all the time because, when you go on interviews,
and studios are pretty tough, and they're not necessarily out to cut you the biggest
break, especially when no one knows who the hell you are.
(Right) So uhm, anyway I came into town.
I read again for all the executives at Paramount and Nick, and then I walked out and he said
"Well just sit over there a minute", and I sat over there a minute, and he came out and
he said you have the role.
Fire all phasers.
No power to the weapons Captain.
*Explosions*
I just have to say that I would've loved to have seen you continue as Saavik.
Thankyou, I would've loved to have seen me continue as Saavik too.
They negotiated with me a four film contract, and I think that was so they would, they wouldn't
have to worry about what happened with Kirstie Alley, between II and III (yeah)
Not having worked it out and so on.
So, so that led me to think well there's more in store.
I mean I, you know I would never presume such a thing, but because they had done it that
way and because the fans were all, all you know in on the idea that Saavik was pregnant
and there was gonna be a storyline along that those lines in the future and so on.
You know they really groomed me to think I was, I was meant for more storytelling, but,
but then the option to do Star Trek IV ran out, Paramount's option with me.
Workers who felt their livelihood threatened by automation flung their wooden shoes called sabot into the machines to stop them,
hence the word sabotage.
No it was quite a strange evolution of events, wha...
I was asked to come in and meet Nick Meyer and speak about it, and I thought Star Trek VI,
I thought oh my God it's VI already, what are they gonna do?
I mean is it gonna be Saavik that they want me to audition for?
So I came in and I talked to to Nick just after he had sent me a few scenes.
He said "Look at these scenes", so I looked at these scenes and I thought hey this is
a little bit more than just window dressing here,
there's a character here, I really like this.
So I came in and met with him, he said "Look we don't want to call her Saavik, we want
a new name, and eh we want a whole new relationship, we're gonna go a step further, you'll have
a lot to do", and I thought great, I, I have, I have a place here, I can make this my own.
So I renamed the character and I came up with the name of Aris from the Godess of strife,
from the Greek mythology, and eh then we put a Val infront, it became Valeris, and then
the look, and eh then all the workshops and things like that, that eh Leonard and I did
to make this relationship work.
It's been well publicized, so we're not giving it away that there is a romantic interest
between you and Spock.
Yes.