Two Voyager Interviews

• Over at Fandom.com, AntonyF has posted snippets of an interview with Robert Beltran (Chakotay) that will appear in the January edition of SFX magazine. It appears that Beltran may have taken the recent 'quite whining' comments from executive producer Ken Biller to heart, as his comments are more balanced than usual.

  "Sure, I`m all for keeping the fans happy," he replies when asked if he`d ever play Chakotay again in a Voyager film. "If that`s what the producers think will keep the fans happy, then I`m happy to do it. I`ve always said that this has been a good gig, and the fans have been very loyal to me. I appreciate them very much. I`ve done things where I`ve played the same character regularly, and that`s a different kind of fulfillment that you get. I appreciate the fact that the fans of the show enjoy it. I don`t put them down for it."

  [...]

  But he does of course talk about the writing and the direction of the show. "My analysis of Star Trek is that is gives the appearance of being very complex and it`s all done with smoke and mirrors. The storylines are about as thin as the thinnest wafer you can possibly eat...." However Beltran hasn`t given any input to his character. "I can call them and protest a line like, `Captain shields are down 40%!` and they`re going to say, `What do you want? 50% or 30%?` ... they pay me to act. They write, so that`s what they should do."

  Follow the link to read the full article at Fandom.com's STC.

• Secondly, Tim Russ' (Tuvok) official site has posted a transcript of an interview with the actor that took place on the Rainbow Network. They cover a variety of subjects, from Tim's former Trek association to the possibilties of a 'blooper tape' {{ed's note: a topic close to my heart...}}.

  Q:What did you like about the Tuvok character that made you go for the part?

  Russ: At the reading stage, it was just a part, you know. At that point in time, you don't really look upon it as a choice, as a decision on going for one particular character. As far as I was concerned, I was just getting on the show. Whatever comes up comes up.

  With this, the important thing was that it was a series that was going to stay on for seven years, that's the important thing. It was not about the part, it was 'do I have a shot at staying on a project like that for seven years?', that was the main thing.

  Q:So we'll hopefully see it on a Bloopers tape at some point!

  Russ: Well, I don't know, because it's rather X-rated, R-rated, you know, it's not good for family viewing! Well, it's not overt, but it's certainly not subtle. Maybe HBO cable, who knows!

  Do you find it difficult playing Tuvok, because you're a cheerful person. Do you find him too restraining?

  Not at all. Once you've done it for a while, it becomes second nature. The difficulty is in keeping it subtle, but still giving away some kind of attitude, some emotion in the character. You have to have something going on in the eyes behind the veneer which you've got to make pop through. That's sometimes kinda tricky, you have to think about it. But it's gotten easy now.

  To read the full Q&A, please follow the link.

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