Orion Actress Says Makeup Helped Build Character

The actresses who played the Orion women in the Star Trek: Enterprise episode "Bound" were not shown any previous film footage of Orion Slave Girls, revealed Menina D'Amour Fortunato, who played Maras.

"The producers didn't actually show us the episode ["Borderland"] where they had the recent slave girl [Bobbi Sue Luther]," explained Fortunato to Star Trek Magazine (via Sci Fi Pulse). "But they did show us the magazine where she was featured and they said, 'This is basically what you’re going to look like.' So they gave us a bit of a history of what Orion slaves were known for."

Maras had the least dialogue of the three Orion women, and Fortunato explained that her role was more demanding in terms of body language. The green body makeup helped her get into character. "It definitely helped seeing that I didn’t look human. Seeing that I was another species really helped with the feel of the character and the mood, so yeah, the transformation was amazing."

She believes that she was cast because of her background as a professional dancer, whereas Cyia Batten and Crystal Allen were picked because of their acting backgrounds. The three collaborated on how to play the conniving women and Fortunato said that Allan Kroeker incorporated their own personal style.

"The director was really great about bringing our natural personalities into the roles," she revealed. "My character was the younger, sweeter type, whereas Cyia played the oldest, the more experienced one, and Crystal would probably fall in between." She compared their seductive moves to snakes: "we like to slither and creep around, versus a human. So we’re a little sneaky."

Overall, she concluded, the role was a delightful experience. "I really got to know the cast and crew and develop a really nice friendship relationship with everybody," said Fortunato. "There was a warmth, a sense of family on the show, and there was a very relaxed atmosphere. I didn’t feel like I was working."

The full interview with Fortunato is in issue 122 of Star Trek Magazine. These excerpts come from Sci Fi Pulse.

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