An Interview with Marina Sirtis

Transcribed from a Geraldo program by Iain Twolan

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Well, my late night tv sojurns have been paying off recently.  Not only did I
catch a special Hard Copy spot on the women of Star Trek - 25 years later, but
I also got to see Leonard Nimoy's devestated former wife describe how she felt
in her post-divorce phase (very bad from the looks and sounds of it) on
GERALDO.

But, this message isn't about any of those.  Before I disappear, I thought I
should type in something about the Marina Sirtis interview I caught - the
first one I've ever seen with a TNG cast member.  Anyway, here it is, partly
reconstructed convo, actual quotes and "fill-in-the-blank"s stuff.

NOTE: THIS IS NOT VERBATIM BUT RECONSTRUCTED TEXT WHICH CONTAINS SOME VERBATIM
QUOTES.

------------------------

HOST: My next guest is a hot brunnete actress who has appeared regularly on
the incredibly successful tv show Star Trek - the Next Generation for the last
2 years as a half-human, half-betazed ship member called Deanna Troi.  Let's
see a clip...

<DATA'S QUARTERS: CLIP OF TROI AND DATA DISCUSSING HOW THEY CAN'T UNDERSTAND
THE LANGUAGE SHOWN IN DARMOK.  INCLUDES LINE "I HAVE ENCOUNTERED 1329 ALIEN
RACES IN MY TENURE WITH STARFLEET" FROM DATA AND ENDS WITH TROI SAYING "ONE
WORD COULD LEAD TO DISASTER"...OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT>

HOST:Please welcome Marina Sirtis...

<APPLAUSE - MARINA ENTERS AND SITS. THE TWO EXCHANGE GREETINGS>

MARINA: It's the fifth year actually.

H: The fifth?  Oh... !

M: Five seasons now on the Next Generation..

H: Well that's great!  Sorry...five whole seasons already <APPLAUSE>

<MORE CONVO BETWEEN THE TWO.  TURNS OUT HOST HAS WORKED WITH MARINA IN THE
PAST ON A FOX TV SHOW THAT AIRED JUST BEFORE TNG.  THE SERIES WAS CALLED
"DUET".  HOST MENTIONS HOW HE HAS BICYCLED PAST THE PARAMOUNT STUDIOS WHERE
TNG IS FILMED AND SEEN VULCANS SUNNING THEMSELVES OUTSIDE OF THE SOUNDSTAGE.
"It's a very weird thing to see a Klingon doing this" HOLDS UP HAND UNDER CHIN
LIKE ITS A SUN REFLECTOR>

H: How are things on the show?

M: Things are great, they're great....

H: I've seen a few of the shows.  I was really impressed by the quality of the
series.  Seems good.  Good acting.  Must be hard.  It addresses a lot of
controversial messages...

M: Yes, yes.... <NODDING HEAD IN AGREEMENT>

H: I guess it's logical it would go that way.. are they good stories?

M: What, good for me?

H: Well, good all round...

M: Oh, well, yes they are.  They're controversial and dealing with
controversial topics and they have had some wonderful stories for me. <TELLS
ABOUT "The episode that's on tonight" DISASTER, WHERE TROI BECOMES CAPTAIN
WHEN THEY ARE TRAPPED ON THE BRIDGE "I love shows like that about the
character.  So everyone watch that and see me as Captain.">

H:How long have you been here (The U.S.) now?

M: I will have been in the US five years on November the 6th.  I love the
weather here.  I hated the weather in England!  It would rain for six months
and it was so depressing.  I felt like I had PMS for half the year!  I was
really unhappy.  But I love it here where it's so sunny.."

H: Now, see, I hate the weather here because it is always so sunny.

M: You hate the sun?!?!

H: Well, I grew up around here and it's always sunny.  I like the rain.

M: You may like the rain but that's because you didn't grow up for 25 years in
it. If you had you would hate it now.

H: Just like you would hate the sun if you'd grown up here.

M: Uhmm... no.  I wouldn't mind if it were sunny forever.  My idea of a
vacation is this... <HOLDS HER ARMS OUT WIDE LIKE SHE IS HOLDING A =BIG= SUN
REFLECTING SCREEN TO HER FACE>

H: Ha, ha... Now, you learned acting in England.  It was very demanding
training, wasn't it?

M: Well, the school I went to was an old fashioned drama school, like the most
recent playwright that we did was Ibsen!  But actually, the training was very
broadening.  There's not as much typecasting in Britain.  You can play many
different roles.  I played everything from Ophelia to Magenta from the Rocky
Horror Show.  Here, everyone sort of finds their niche and stays there.

H: What's the worst thing that ever happened to you on stage?

M: Well.....

M: The worst thing that ever happened to me on stage happened when I was
playing Ophelia.  It was actually my first job!  I came in for the first
performance and the costume wasn't ready.  That can happen a lot.  So, I had
to wear this Elizabethan undergarment for the dress that was cut =really= low.
I don't know if you know what Elizabethan costumes are like, but they have
this board across here <GESTURES WITH A SAWING MOTION ACROSS HER CHEST>. So I
went out with this on, and, of course, this is a very heavy play...

H: Yeah, uh-huh.........

M: Anyway, the part had come where Ophelia is talking to Hamlet and she is
beginning to go.  I was really getting into this scene pretty deep and
heavily, when I suddenly heard laughter from the back of the theatre.  I was
into it now, but I looked down and =there they were=. <MAKES A GESTURE WITH
HER HANDS TO MIMIC HER BREASTS POPPING OUT OF HER COSTUME TOP>

H: <MOCK DREAD> Uh-oh....

M: So I had to... <MAKES A GESTURE SHOWING HERSELF PULLING THE TOP OF THE
GARMENT OUTWARD AND UP.  THEN SHRUGS>  Actually, I also did the first bed
scene on Star Trek.

H: The =first= bed scene??

M: Yeah.  The fans complained pretty strongly too.  They didn't like the idea.
<LAUGHTER> And it wasn't like I did anything.  I was wearing a nightie and
rubbing oil on a man's chest... <AUDIENCE GOES "OOOOO"> Tsk, oh =right=!
<WAVES ARM DISMISSIVELY AT CROWD> Anyway, the fans were upset. They kept
asking what we were doing with the show, and so forth. It's like, =what?= We
don't do it in the 24th century?? <LOOKS AROUND AT AUDIENCE>

<LAUGHTER>

H: Well....

M: But when they saw the scene they were better.

H: Oh.  I know the fans are pretty deep into the show.  They really follow it
closely and are committed to it...

M: Yes <NODS HER HEAD>...

H: Are the fans bad?

M: Can you say the word "witch" with a "b" at the beginning on TV?

H: We'll see - if not there will just be this long "Beeeep".

M: Ok.  Well, there are some and you go to the cons and there are a lot of
them there. I went to one and I was there eating dinner, spaghetti, and they
take pictures with pasta hanging out of your mouth. One fan was there and he
said to me, "You're nothing like what my friend said you were." and I said
"What did your friend say?" and he replied "He said you were a bitch."

<AUDIENCE GASPS AND LAUGHS.  HOST LOOKS ASTONISHED> Well... what can you say?
"You're right!"

H: Well, I for one can testify to the country that you are not a bitch!

M: No, he's right! <SMILING AND REFERING TO THE FAN, NOT THE HOST>

H: I'd like to thank Marina Sirtis for being here tonight...

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Anyway, I'd like to stress again that this is a reconstruction from notes,
some of the lines are reconstructed notes while others are direct quotes that
I remember since I saw the show only about 40 minutes ago. I wouldn't depend
on this as an example of Marina Sirtis' speach style, though the content is
really everthing that was there.

I found Marina Sirits to be a very happy, forthright person.  She was sincere
and very forthcoming on all the questions.  She even agreed to appear in a
series of little skits with the other series regulars (the show provides
little comedy relief skits before the guest appears in order to be
interesting, I guess - since it didn't work to well I didn't bother to include
them.  One was about a woman who wore Spock ears and claimed to be a Star Trek
fan "I have the ears...  I have the tail..." "Uh, Vulcans don't have tails."
"Then who does?" ...can't remember the rest. Another had Marina meet her great
"rival" - a woman who claimed to have auditioned for every part that Marina
had gotten.  Marina then asked what this woman had been in and when she found
out said:" Oh, I would have killed to have been in <that show whatever it
was>" and the woman feels happy Marina is slightly jealous of her. <sigh>) but
I think they put her on a box because the height between her and the others
was so exact (the first slightly taller - the second slightly smaller). Marina
herself seems a very sincere and open person. She also seems to be much more
forceful than Troi - I wonder why that is?  Maybe they feel it would be
threatening and write it out of the show?  I can also see her easily becoming
grumpy or unhappy and not being able to hide it, and she was certainly proud
of being called a bitch. So, if you see Marina and she is in a black mood,
maybe she is tired, or had her photo taken too many times, or maybe someone
told her that she's "Nothing like what my friend said you were..."  :) Try
inviting her to dinner or to some place where you promise NOT to take ANY
pictures of her and will shelter her from the shutter-bugs.  Might work!

Just don't mention Elizabethan dresses....

Iain.............