Novacon VI Star Trek Convention, Tyson's Corner, VA MD (USA)
Saturday April 5, 1997
Guest: Nana Visitor (Major Kira Nerys, Star Trek: Deep Space 9)
By Sashi Alexandra German
(C) Copyright 1997 Sashi Alexandra German,
All Rights Reserved
Note from the webmaster with apologies to Sashi
Due to the length of this article, I've added a short Table
of Contents and topic headers.
I was tempted to fix the spelling mistakes but then decided
they were too good as puns. I have nothing but admiration
for Sashi!
THIS POSTING CONTAINS --SPOILER-- INFORMATION. DO NOT PROCEED
FURTHER IF YOU ARE NOT INTERESTED IN READING ABOUT UPCOMING
EPISODES
At the Novacon VI convention in Tyson's Corner, VA the Deep Space 9 guest
was Nana Visitor, who plays Major Kira. Nana has been scheduled for a host
of conventions on the east coast over the last two years and has been unable
to appear at the last minute at many of them -- so it was a pleasure to
actually see her appear at a convention for a change! This is the second
time I have ever seen Nana, the first time having been at a Valley Forge, PA
Creation convention just after DS9's second season began and the Defiant was
introduced. One thing I can certainly say about her is that she has barely
changed in the three years since I've seen her. She remains one of the most
energetic, excitable, entertaining and radiant guests on stage. She commands
attention of everyone in the room and never fails to look just terrific.
This convention report is based on her Sunday session. I missed her on
Saturday because I had to wait in the autograph line (Novacon's antiquated
autograph policy didn't really allow con go-ers to see the guest *and* get
an autograph. Without badge numbers and the like you basically had to choose
between standing in line for 3 hours for an autograph or seeing the guest).
She looked just fantastic, wearing a white and black blouse with a black
skirt and white jacket. Her hair was rather short, coming down around her
eyes and ears.
Before she came on stage, the Novacon staff ran a 5-10 minute video of a
number of Siddig El Fadil's convention appearances, with him talking about
Nana and the baby and wedding plans and the like. A number of us in the
audience were not exactly sure why we were being shown this, other than
perhaps to encourage us NOT to ask Nana a host of questions covering these
issues, of which she was actually spared (at least on Sunday).
Nana started her talk by saying her parents were in the audience and it was
such a pleasure for them to be present because she sees them so rarely
(later in the session she asked them to stand up and introduced them to
everyone). So far her father has not even met her newest son, Django, who she
elected not to bring to the convention. Also, not too long into her talk she
stopped to make sure the deaf interpreter was able to follow what she was
saying -- was she talking too fast or was she moving her lips and face too
far away to be read by others? No, she was doing fine. It was nice to see
her so considerate on that issue.
STAR TREK
Nana was asked rather early on how she keeps the thin in-shape
figure she has? "Like everyone else, exercise and stay far away from the
chocolate chip cookies!" She says hanging the orange stretch outfit on her
door and knowing she has to fit into it and be seen by millions of people is
quite an incentive not to eat anything at 1 o'clock in the morning...
She was asked by a child if the baby Major Kira had in DS9 was
Nana's baby? She said absolutely not. They used an acting baby "who was
spread with cream and jelly, like a bagel." There are nurses on duty who are
called "baby wranglers" because the parents are not permitted to handle the
baby during filming. She said she was very upset because she had just had
her own kid and was still hormonal and the child was cold and crying and she
wanted someone to give the baby back to its parents. She says she can't
stand children on the set because she feels they are treated badly. She has
no problems with kids going into acting -- her kids can do it if they want
to, but not before the age of 18. She said she went to her parents at the
age of 10 and said she wanted to be a dancer, but they said she would have
to wait until after high school. She sees how children are treated in
Hollywood... it's difficult enough for adults to work this atmosphere,
imagine how it is for kids. Too much mental abuse that is not fair to
inflict on a child at a young age.
With the relationship with Shakkar apparently ended, was it a waste
to kill of Vedek Burial? Especially with only one season of DS9 left? Nana
replied that was a strange way to look at the situation, but that she could
understand Kira having multiple relationships, but relationships cannot
continue when someone's dead (Burial). She said she'd like to see Kira get
involved with someone who isn't a powerful political or spiritual leader --
she doesn't feel Kira needs that in a partner.
When asked about DS9 going off the air after next season, she said
yes, that was most likely the case and that they would end in a similar way
as TNG. She said Paramount would probably be interested in starting a new
Star Trek series after DS9 was off the air, but that they would not have
DS9, Voyager and a third series all at once. She has heard nothing about a
possible DS9 feature film. [Note: Armin Shimerman (Quark) at Vulkon in
Towson, MD several weeks ago said the exact opposite thing. He felt
Paramount would not launch a fifth Trek series after DS9 ended and would
instead concentrate on continuing to produce Voyager and the TNG films].
In the last DS9 "Mirror, Mirror" episode (which title escapes me at
this moment), Nana talked about the fiasco in filming the bath scene. Nana
said she is a very shy person and is not the type to wear revealing bathing
suits or other clothing, yet here was a scene where she had to basically
appear naked in a bathtub. She said the "crew guys" were very sweet, saying
they would keep the bath water hot and use orange oil, smell good stuff and
salts so she wouldn't dry up while sitting in the tub during filming. So
Camille, her make-up artist comes to her and says she'll help her glue a
small bra to her skin. Nana says no, she'll go back to her trailer and do it
all herself -- just give her the glue she needs to use. So she is in her
trailer and applies all the glue to her skin and puts on the bra. She comes
out in her robe and Camille asks her where the bottle of glue is? Nana
replies that she used it all because she wanted to make sure the bra
wouldn't come off. Camille is concerned because only a small amount of glue
was needed and they may never get the bra off now! So Nana goes over to the
tub, takes her robe off and gets into the water. Director David Livingston
tried to make her feel more comfortable by being the one to personally throw
in the rose petals during the scene. They're starting to film when suddenly
Nana hears a popping sound and Camille comes running -- the bra has come
off! Nana quickly asks Camille what removes the glue so the bra will come
off? Camille replied, "Orange oil." To this day Nana wonders of the crew
guys did it on purpose...
Those of you at the convention on Sunday should remember this: about
15 minutes into Nana's talk she picked on someone near the front who had
their hand raised and a group of five people stood up and said in unison:
"Hi Nana! Sorry about the heels and the spandex!" Well, I was part of that
group, not asking a question, but a number of us just expressing our
dissatisfaction with what has been done to the Kira character the last two
years. In response to our little chorus, Nana laughed (as well as much of
the audience around us) and thanked us for our sentiments. She said there
have been some changes: her "old hair" is back but she still has the heels.
She's afraid that she may have to die her hair soon -- her hair is going
"salt and pepper" and she knows one of the problems with Voyager's first
Captain, Genvieve Bujold, was that she refused to die her hair as it turned
gray...
Nana was asked about an accident she had a few years ago that led to
a rather strange experience with a doctor. She explained that during first
season filming it was raining outside and very easy to fall. She was at the
makeup trailer having her face done and was wearing a pair of brand new
Keds. She is leaving the trailer (which has metal steps) and is holding an
umbrella. As she walks down the stairs she slides off the middle step and
lands on her back. Colm Meaney (Miles O'Brien) was in the trailer at the
time and came to the door and didn't rush to help her -- instead he said,
"Wow, she fell like a ton of bricks!" So Nana is there, lying on the
pavement in the rain thinking, "Oh god, I just got this great job and I
broke my back!" She's taken to a medical clinic and her back is really bad.
Suddenly a doctor comes in, looks at her face and says, "Oh my God! Your
nose!" He thought he was brought in to treat her for the wrong thing. She
then tries to explain that her Bajoran nose is make-up because of the TV
show she's on and the doctor then acts like he knew that and that he wasn't
that surprised at all.
Will DS9 be filmed in the HDTV format? "That's a Sid question. He
may have it already! I have no idea."
Will there ever be a follow-up to Thomas Riker? "That is one thread
hanging that has never been sewn back into our fabric." She said he's a big
time film director now and may have no interest in coming back to episodic
Star Trek.
What was her favorite episode to do? She replied, "all the Intendant
ones." She also likes the stories where Kira goes through a lot of strong
emotions. The recent fifth season episode "The Darkness and the Light" was
difficult to do "even though I knew important things were being said."
Nana said she has a huge respect for the military and thoroughly
enjoys that aspect of Kira, where she "can put on the mental cloths of being
that selfless and disciplined -- it's very satisfying to do." But she
doesn't think she has what it takes to do what the military does.
What are the odds of a heart-to-heart chat with Gul Dukat? Nana said
she would be dragged into it kicking and screaming. She feels very clear
about Kira's role in Deep Space 9 and she feels it is very important for
people not to forget the monsters and she will *never* let Dukat off the
hook. When she was asked about how would problems be resolved with Dukat,
"they would be solved if he were dead." Nana said she feels Trek does a very
good job "remembering the monsters" and feels that Trek can deal with hard
issues like that with an objectivity that other shows are incapable of. In
the end there is never a right or a wrong answer -- there are issues on both
sides. "Trek allows us to look at war and see that there are no winners."
Nana used to say that she never liked to work with Mark Aliamo
(Dukat). She always saw him in makeup and just never wanted to be near him
at all because of what his character stood for. There was always tension
between the two of them on the set, lines would be changed. Just before
Thanksgiving last year someone on the set asked Mark if he had any plans for
Thanksgiving and he said "no." Nana then invited him over to her house for
the holiday and said he'd come. Come Thanksgiving he shows up and they have
dinner "and he is sweet and funny and charming and incredible with the
kids... rolling on the floor with Buster." She realized that she hated him
as Dukat and not as a person. After dinner she said she wanted him to come
over again so they could talk and have a good time, but when they met again
on the set later in full make-up, she said this curt "Hello" to him and
ignored him feeling awful -- she couldn't get past what his make-up
represents to the Kira character.
How much does Kira want to kill Dukat? She says she doesn't have to
kill Dukat herself by the end of the series. "Just as long as he gets
killed."
Nana was asked about the Bashir enhanced genetic storyline in
"Doctor Bashir, I Presume?" She thought it was interesting and thinks any
episode featuring a background story on a character is great -- there's one
coming up on Kira rather soon. She was asked if the Bashir episode meant the
"Mirror Bashir is stupid as a post?" She said no, "mean people are stupid,
but that doesn't mean Bashir is stupid." She thinks there will be another
Mirror DS9 episode next season.
Nana said she a huge respect for the DS9 writers -- they will hold
up production and hash things out until they get a storyline right because
they care so much about the show. She says Ira Steven Behr works very hard
and cares a great deal about what happens. [Note: interestingly enough,
Robert Duncan McNeill (Tom Paris, Voyager) who also appeared at this
convention said quite the opposite about the writers for Voyager. He
mentioned rather frequently that he felt the writers didn't know what they
were doing and often made changes without thinking about them].
Nana feels that Kira used to be quite the racist regarding
Cardassians. But the late first season episode "Duet" changed that. She says
Kira holds off on judgment like that now, even though Garak has shown
himself to "be slimy, charming and have some of the worst traits anyone
could have."
She was asked how difficult it was to film the first DS9 "Mirror"
episode "Crossover"? She said it was very strange because a large part of
the filming involved just her acting for a solid 12 hours. "I have never had
an experience like that before. The technical stuff involved was complex."
When the Intendant meets Kira, the filming involved Nana acting opposite her
body double -- and if her double moved in any way during filming she had to
mimic it when they filmed her part. The film for that kind of shoot is very
expensive so there weren't many takes and not a lot of practice.
What would Nana like to see happen with Kira in the last season of
DS9? "I would like to see an integration of everything that has happened
with Kira." She started as a hard shell with mush inside and has slowly
grown through the years. She would like to see Kira be the warrior and the
mother come together. "If next season is the last, maybe the end of Major
Kira would be appropriate."
Nana was asked about Kira's stance on the O'Brien baby? Who's is it?
She replied that Kira knows exactly who the baby belongs to and that it
belongs to Keiko and Miles O'Brien -- she feels that's the only way it can
be. When asked about the "sparks" between Kira and Miles in a few episodes,
she said "those sparks were an interesting fact of giving birth." She felt
the closeness was appropriate, given the circumstances. It was very wise to
realize it was the situation that was causing the attraction, not the fact
that they loved each other. They both simply wanted to see the child through
the pregnancy.
Nana was asked about the episode where she became the Cardassian
daughter. She said she had to show up for makeup at 1:30am. By the time 7am
rolled around she was ready to get OUT of her make-up but that was when
everyone was showing up to start work and begin shooting. The make-up was
just very oppressive. Nana said she is claustrophobic and in the episode
where she appears in Quark's dream as a Ferengi (can't remember the episode
title), they tried to put her in a Ferengi head but got so claustrophobic
they had to get a double to do the scene. She said the Ferengi head they
were using on her was Aaron Eisenberg's (Nog's) and smelled like rotten
eggs. She said she had no idea how the Ferengi actors are able to deal with
that every day.
There is a reason the series has gone through three Zyels -- Dukat
daughters. They replaced the first actress with a second one... and the
second actress did the one episode and refused to come back because the make
up was so oppressive. They then had to find a third actress to take her
place.
When asked who would win in a battle: the Defiant or the new
Enterprise, Nana replied the Defiant: "it's a monster ship with a lot of
weaponry."
Nana described how she got the part of Major Kira: she got a pair of
heavy Doc Martin boots, became Major Kira with an attitude, and "slammed my
way into the interview." She was asked to do the same for the Paramount
execs and did so, and got the part. She initially said no to the part
because her agent advised her not to take it -- if she were to work in
science fiction she would never work again. But she then fired her manager,
took the part and has been happy ever since. She said when she turned down
the part, Rick Berman personally called her and asked her why. Nana said she
liked the script ("Emissary") but wondered if it would be produced well.
Berman told her about the other actors involved in the series and all the
work being put into production and she then knew she had to do it. She said
she also called her father who asked her, "Do you love it?" "Yes" she
replied. "Then do what you love."
PERSONAL
She and Sid seem to be doing their whole marriage tradition stuff in
reverse. The two were in Venice last year where he gave her a wedding ring.
This year they went to a restaurant where she opened a small wooden box she
thought was for pepper and found her engagement ring inside. Then they had
their child and then the wedding is in June. She says what's against them is
that they're both disorganized people. Right now they're still trying to get
Nana and Sid's parents together and schedule-wise it is very difficult.
She does not read items off the Internet, but Siddig does. She said
he has a computer and reads all sorts of things. When asked if she read any
fan fiction -- if Sid downloads stories off different Internet sites, she
said no. She said her impression was that 90% of the stories she would be
very interested in reading and that 10% would cause her to go "Oh My God!"
She doesn't want to read any stories that may effect how she plays the Kira
character now.
Nana was asked about other shows she has done: "Heat of the Night",
"Night Court", "Knight Rider" -- she did a number of television shows in the
1980's where she had either short red hair or long dark hair or short blonde
hair or long blonde hair....
Does she have any intention to direct a DS9 episode? Nana said she
felt she wouldn't be very good at it and wanted to instead concentrate on
acting which she knows she can do very well. As a woman, she feels she must
show up at work every day and know more than anyone else there about how
things work and what needs to be done. If she tried directing, and then
failed at it, she would feel she would be letting other women down because
others would point to her and say that as woman, she couldn't do it. "I have
supported myself for 22 years in acting and I feel I will continue with
that." She says she has no interesting in directing, although Terry Farrell
has expressed possible interest and might try it before the series ends.
After the series ends, what would she like to do with her time? She
says she likes to read and cook in her spare time and would like to do more
of that. She enjoys time when the boys are in bed and she and Sid can go out
to dinner. In general she likes to be a homebody -- just stay at home and
not go out. She'd be happy if the time would pass without the boys not
having killed each other and the dogs haven't dug up trees. She then
launched into a funny story about how one of her dogs, Peter, has this same
routine every night, and that life wouldn't quite be the same if he didn't
have the same mishap over and over again. She described how little Peter is
let out for his evening walk every night, suddenly they hear barking outside
and he comes running back in having been sprayed by a skunk. The fact that
this happens *every night* is pretty remarkable, and she said the skunk must
sit out there and lay in wait for him every night thinking about how that
stupid dog is going to come running out and get attacked again...
When she was young she took acting classes with her brother, Ian,
and ballet classes with her mother. This came in very handy when Sid wound
up directing some DS9 episodes -- she was able to handle the concept of
professional vs. personal relationship on the set.
I'll end this review with a final observation. For a few years now, many in
fandom (including myself) have been rather upset over how the Kira character
has been changed on DS9... referred to in some circles as the "bimboization
of Kira." There was a writing campaign over this, lots of letters written to
Paramount. Even DS9 producer Ron Moore has been quoted on-line as saying the
response from fans on this issue has caused him to look more closely and pay
attention to how Kira is written and presented in stories. It was apparently
assumed by many (for whatever reason) that Nana also objected to the changes
and didn't have problems with people complaining about the change in hair
style, uniform and move to heels. However, Nana made it very clear at this
convention that she not only didn't have a problem with these changes, but
she also thought they had contributed in a positive way to the Kira
character. She said she was always pleased with the way Kira's role was
initially written and that the recent "softening of Kira made her more well
rounded." So it was a bit odd for Nana on the one hand to be espousing
women's rights and having to work harder than men on the set and know more
than anyone else... but then say on the other hand that these changes were
actually okay for her and made Kira a better character. If anything, those
who are still writing in to Paramount and complaining about changes to Kira
should now be made aware that the star in the center of all of this doesn't
have a problem with what's going on.
(C) Copyright 1997 Sashi Alexandra German,
All Rights Reserved.
Permission to duplicate electronically, for nonprofit posting on an
electronic fora or for other reading enjoyment, is especially granted, AS
LONG AS THIS COPYRIGHT NOTICE IS PRESERVED AND NO CHANGES ARE MADE TO THE
MATERIAL. No other reproduction in any form is authorized without prior
permission from this copyright holder (and that's not hard to get! All you
do is ASK!).
{It has come to my attention that many of my reviews are being passed along
to others with increasing frequency via science fiction news mailing lists,
fan club publications, etc. I have *no* problem with this -- I post these
reviews for the enjoyment of others and the more people who read the reviews
the better. However, I am becoming increasingly annoyed with the outlets I
find who are using my reviews but are not passing along my name & e-mail
address credited with the material. I spend the time, money and effort to
attend conventions, take notes and pass along the reviews to the Internet
and elsewhere. The least various grateful parties could do is keep my name
attached as a credit. Thank you.}
--
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SASHI ALEXANDRA GERMAN
Commodore, USS Thagard, Philadelphia, PA (USA) Star Trek Club
Starfleet Region-7 Chief of Staff
Member of "Now Voyager" - that fantastic Kate Mulgrew fan club!
sashi@feith.com
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