Star Trek: Voyager went off the air 22 years ago, but the adventures of Janeway and crew still feel fresh because of the terrific writing, loveable characters, and the darling cast, led by the born-to-be-captain Kate Mulgrew. And although the stars may not fit into their red shirts anymore, they still remain fit and vibrant to this day, on and off screen. Here are their secrets to living well.
Tim Russ played Tuvok on the show. He shared his advice for other actors with DeathWishCoffee.com. "I tell them the first thing you got to do is look at the environment you got to work in and what's going on and what it's going to be like to try to make a living out of doing this as opposed to, like I said, doing it as a hobby. If you want to do it as a hobby, fantastic, but if you want to try to make a living at it, you are going to have a hell of a tough time just based on the fact that the production, the way the production is, where it goes on, most of it is run away and not here. The opportunities are fewer and their competition is just as fierce if not more than it was before. So it's that much tougher to book these things and get stuff."
Jeri Ryan played the role of Seven of Nine, also known as Annika Hansen. She talked about her thoughts on how the character was perceived to The Huffington Post. "I say the same thing now as I said then: I don't have a problem with Seven's overtly sexual physical appearance, if only because of the way she was written and developed. If it was a crappy character, then OK. But she was so nuanced and beautifully written."
Garrett Wang played Harry Kim on all seven seasons. In an interview with Gay Calgary, he spoke out in support of equality for the LGBT community."We still have issues with people not allowing themselves to be empathetic with gender and sexual orientation issues," he said. "You know what I'm saying? We still have issues where people can't see the other side or another's perspective. When Voyager came out in 1995 we had bomb threats. People could not stand that we had a woman in command. And that's 1995! And when it comes to issues of sexual orientation, there are still people getting beaten and killed because of their sexuality! Gay bashings are something that is still happening in 2014. It's ludicrous! It's like God dang it, everyone needs a dosage of perspective. I would love to take every single bigoted person that is racist and make them live with a black family or an Asian family or in another culture for a few months. Take every person who is anti-gay and make them live with a gay couple for a few months. Then you understand what these people are like. That they are like you. Perspective is the key to everything – whether it's world peace, or understanding between people of different genders or sexual orientations. It's all about perspective and understanding how the other half lives. That is the answer."
Roxann Dawson played B'Elanna Torres on the show. However, she revealed to Film.com that she doesn't see herself reprising her role, and wants to move forward. "I think there's such wonderful and modern work being done there right now that we really can't categorize it in the way that we might have in the '90s. But no, I haven't really wanted to go back. I feel like I've been there and I've done that, and I love moving on to other things. So that's where I am at with it."
Robert Duncan MacNeill played Tom Paris on the show. He also got the chance to direct, and shared how he convinced the director to let him have the opportunity with StarTrek.com. "I think that first day he thought it was just a lot of talk. But I kept speaking to him. I talked to Frakes and other people who'd done it. I started spending time in editing and screenings, particularly screenings when Rick was in the room. I wanted to hear what he liked, what he didn't, how he thought, how things could've been directed better… All of that."
Ethan Phillips played the role of Neelix on the show. He shared what he thought of the character's arc to StarTrek.com. "To tell you the honest-to-god truth, the first few seasons, I made some suggestions and gave some ideas, but they knew what they wanted to do and they had their agenda, and that was fine with me. My job was to show up and to bring to life the words they wrote, and that's what I did. But I was very pleased, though, with where Neelix ended up."
Kate Mulgrew played Katherine Janaway in the franchise. She's returned to the role, but is mostly doing voice work. Mulgrew talked about this with The Cosmic Circus. "Oh, it's much, much easier. And it's very freeing, very liberating. And I'm collaborating with Kevin and Dan Hageman. Not only genius-level creators or writers, but they're so good, decent men, that when I'm working with them, I just feel that I could do anything. And that we're in it together. And I've seldom felt this level of collaboration. Because in live-action, it's very intense."
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