Michael Dorn interview

Steve Fritz of Fandom.com recently had the opportunity to speak to Michael Dorn, best know for his role of Work on two incarnations of Star Trek - The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine. In the interview, Dorn talks about the blessing and curse of Star Trek, his current work as a voice actor and his future as both himself and Worf.

If you ever meet Michael Dorn sans his infamous Klingon makeup, you'd be hard pressed to place him as Star Trek`s Lt. Commander Worf outside of his height. These days he sports a close-cropped patch of white hair, a side-effect from wearing the "turtle shell"—as he affectionately calls the makeup—for over a decade. There`s no trademark goatee, he runs around in glasses and his voice is noticeably higher. If anything, dressed in a smart suit with some sharp accessories, one would probably mistake Dorn for a very successful entrepreneur, not the Enterprise`s top security officer or Deep Space Nine`s strategic operations officer.

In the year and a half since he last appeared in a Trek episode, Dorn has found it both a blessing and a curse. "I`m just trying to continue with my career," admits Dorn in a phone call before last weekend`s 30th Anniversary Creation Convention. "I don`t know where it`s heading right now. I`ve been doing more directing and have also been in a few independent features. That`s kind of where it`s been right now. It`s been kind of a difficult time, because the business has changed in the twelve years since I donned the turtle shell. It`s taken me some time to regain my footing, you might say."

Dorn has a simple explanation for it all, one that doesn't chalk it up to simple typecasting. "I think that because of the makeup, people don`t know what I look like," he says. "I`ve spent so much time in that makeup that I`m now unrecognizable. The business doesn`t know who I am. When they hear my name, they have Worf in mind. So I`ve been working hard to dispel those myths and misconceptions."

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