Kate Mulgrew Interview

Totally Kate, a site dedicated to Kate Mulgrew (Janeway), has posted another transcript of an interview with the actress, this one appearing in the January 2001 edition of the Cult Times magazine. Keeping in form with her recent interviews, the actress keeps mainly to talk of her character and how she feels about the impending finish of the show, straying occasionally to talk about specific episodes ('Night', 'Flesh and Blood', 'Unimatrix Zero' and 'Shattered') and last-minute script revisions.

Given the finality of this season, preparation is perhaps the keyword. This season has been more relaxed than in years past, and not just because the cast is well-versed with one another, both on-screen and off. Brannon Braga, former executive producer, has shifted his attentions to developing the next Star Trek series, and newly anointed executive producer Kenneth Biller has assumed the day-to-day responsibilities on the show. That transition has resulted in less 11th hour script deliveries to the cast. "That's been very effectively handled this season, though, and I'm grateful for that. I suppose we have Ken Biller to credit there," offers Mulgrew. "That's great, that's marvellous, that the writers are finally understanding that of course they can get the work done in 12 hours just like everybody else. And that we don't have to get these revisions at 9, 10, 11 o'clock at night, which is just ridiculous. [It was that way] for many years."

While some actors might find it hard to get a script piecemeal, without knowing the full implications of a scene in the bigger picture, Mulgrew's concerns were typically more immediate and practical. "Generally speaking, Janeway would not have known the resolution, so it's more interesting to play it as not knowing. More challenging, at any rate," she points out.

Rather, the many last-minute revisions, "made it harder for me as an actress and a human being because I wasn't getting the sleep that I should get, because I was waiting for the script revisions to come," Mulgrew says matter-of-factly. "And then I'm sitting up and re-learning the lines. Which is my habit. I never go into work cold. I don't believe in it. I'm very well-paid. I don't go to bed without studying, and that was a hardship when I wanted to go to sleep. But it certainly never killed me. And I understand that's how it is; I've been around [the business] for 28 years, so these things do not throw me terribly."

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