I Identify With Hoshi, Says Linda Park

Linda Park recently explained why she thinks she was able to land the part of Ensign Hoshi Sato on Enterprise.

"I think that there is this element to Hoshi where she's very tough, she knows what she wants and she doesn't take crap from anyone, and she's kind of a spitfire," Park told the official StarTrek.com. "But in the same vein, she's also very innocent and vulnerable, and I think that mix of being tough but vulnerable at the same time is something that I feel a lot as a young person.

"I was straight out of school, but I was very ambitious and I was out to prove myself in Los Angeles at the time, and I think I shared a lot of similar energies with her."

The actress wasn't phased by the linguistic difficulties involved in her audition. "They had a scene with the Klingons from the pilot, and the casting director was saying, 'Okay, this is really guttural, so don't be afraid to go there.' Going to acting school for four years, you go through your whole register — you know, you learn to talk from your gut up to your sinuses. So my vocal range is pretty wide," she said.

Park is often asked about the scene in 'Broken Bow' where Sato is teaching students an alien language. "People always ask, 'Was that altered with sound effects?' and it's like, 'Nope, that's just me!'"

The actress is also proud of the way her character grew over the show's first season. "If you look at 'Fight or Flight,' she's not even sure she should be on this mission. She doesn't feel she's right; she feels like she's in the wrong environment — she's a teacher, an academic, not someone who should be out in space and encountering alien species," she explained.

"But I think that by the end of the season, she's positive of her place and she's confident that Captain Archer was right in saying that she was the best person for the job. She's willing to put aside a lot of her fear, her trepidation, her dislike of Vulcans. She is volunteering for missions, and she feels like she is a part of the crew, and a valid part of Enterprise."

Much more from Linda Park can be found in the complete interview with the actress here at StarTrek.com.

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