Mania Interviews Kurtwood Smith

Michelle Erica Green at AnotherUniverse's Mania Magazine recently put up an interview with Kurtwood Smith, who has appared on Star Trek three times now: as the Federation President in 'Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country', the Cardassian Thrax on DS9's 'Things Past' and time traveler Annorax on Voyager's 'Year Of Hell'. Though in most of the interview he talks about the other roles he's had over the years, he also talks a bit about working on 'Year Of Hell':

"I was happy with that show," says Smith, noting that when they started shooting the episode, the second half of the two-parter hadn't been written yet. "When I started the job, I didn't know it was going to have a happy ending. He isn't a villain, as far as I'm concerned; he's an extremely bright man who's gotten himself caught in this situation, and the only thing he can do is keep moving ahead. The moral and ethical problems that he's faced with haunt him all the time. I think he just got single-minded in his purpose and feeling guilty about what he did initially, but it was tricky to find that balance."

Though the episode took on epic proportions as Janeway and Annorax began to resemble Captain Ahab and Captain Nemo, the two characters never shared the screen, so Smith never worked with Kate Mulgrew. "We had one scene where we were talking to each other over the comm, but we didn't film that together. They had done hers first, and they showed me her side of the conversation before I did it, so I was able to see what she was doing. I could see she was being very strong and angry, so the best thing for me to do was to try to go the other way."

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