| Yes, we were assimilated. Totally! At the NEXUS Con in Berlin on Saturday (11/3/2001) we had a discussion with the charismatic actress Alice Krige, who gave press interviews. Alice Krige was born on June 28, 1954 in Upington, South Africa. Originally she didn't want to become an actress at all, but a psychologist like her mother. Nevertheless, in England she broke the psychology study off and attended the Central School of Speech and Drama. She had her first official acting appearance in the 1980 TV treatment of Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities. One year later with her first stage appearance in the West End theatre production of Berhard Shaw's piece, Arms and the Man, she won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Newcomer! A year after that she performed with the Royal Shakespeare company in pieces like King Lear, The Tempest and Cyrano de Bergerac. In the mid-1980s she returned to film and television, and proceeded to build a resume of very unusual films. In 1996 she got the role of the Borg Queen in the film Star Trek: First Contact, and in 2001 she reprised the role for the season finale of Star Trek: Voyager "Endgame" (the previous TV Borg Queen, Susanna Thompson, was not available due to scheduling problems). Yes, we imagined this unusual woman had a lot of interesting things to tell us, and we were not disappointed... Alice Krige entered punctually at the arranged time of 6 o'clock at the interview area in the Fontanehauses Berlin. Here she was met by a group of newspaper and magazine reporters, as well Star Trek enthusiasts. Before the discussion ended, Alice Krige gave each photographer the opportunity to shoot a beautiful photo of her for she which smiled directly into the respective camera. The interview session was conducted very professionally and charmingly by her. Afterwards WARP-Online asked Alice some questions: You became an actress, although you had originally wanted to become a psychologist according to press info. What happened? She answered that she had first gone to university in order to actually study psychology. In her final year of study, however, she had a free credit. Her parents thought it would be good for her to use this free credit to take a drama course. During this one year drama course, Alice Krige became so enthusiastic for this art form that she gave up her plan to become a psychologist in order to be an actress (which her parents partly regretted). Actors have a hard life, however, it is also unbelievably interesting. Do you use the knowledge that you learned studying psychology in your acting? The "Borg Queen" said that she doesn't use this knowledge consciously, but is still interested in it...why humans behave in one way or the other, or come to be the way they are. One approaches the same topic as an actor, only from another side. As an actor one does this more intuitively than a psychologist, which pleases her much. How did you get the role of the Borg Queen? She said she does not remember any longer whether she had been asked to play the Borg Queen or whether her agent, on hearing an announcement, sent her name in for consideration. She went in any case and read the script for First Contact, which consisted of only four scenes for her role. She had to read all four scenes for the Trek people, and after she finished, they knew they wanted her for the role. When she had gone in, the role didn't seem so important to her, but during filming she had became fascinated by the figure of the Borg Queen more and more. "Why?" We inquired. "Many reasons," Alice Krige answered. "It is interesting to play a character which is so ambivalent, so conflicting. The Borg Queen is a character which the public finds equally appealing and repulsive. In addition it's very interesting to play someone who does not have a conscience or morals. Most humans have their borders. It would make me very nervous to meet someone like the Borg Queen character in the true life...but I'm allowed to be someone very interesting like that, however, in the structure of a sci-fi film." Was the sexuality of the role located in the script, or was this tension actually something you brought to the part later? She said the seed of it was already in the script where she entices DATA. Alice Krige does not know, however, whether the writers meant to express the sexuality in this way. It simply happened, but she had not planned it directly. Perhaps the Star Trek people had hoped she would give the character a sense of threatening sexuality, but Alice was never told she was to use aggressive sex as an instrument of power to defeat DATA. We deepened the topic: Wasn't this sexual component also provoked directly by the costume? "Yes, absolutely!" She said the first costume that she was given had been too small. She had hardly been able to move in it. She had to push against the rubber, and that gave a very physical component to the whole role. This was a hidden gift, which had been given by the costume. In addition the costume designers rubbed her skin with liquid jelly that gave her a slippery appearance. The jelly and tight costume together constituted the strongly erotic visual. There thus was a whole set of outside physical conditions, in addition to her own ideas, which formed the character. Alice Krige was asked by Robert Bird of TV Highlight whether or not she would have accepted the role of the Borg Queen if she had known beforehand how difficult the costume and makeup would be? Yes, she would. She remembered the fact that she had just gotten the role and then went off to work on something else in Vancouver. There she had gotten a message from the Star Trek people that they wanted to meet with her as soon as she would be in L.A. again in order to make a mask from her face. She had asked herself: "Why that?" She then went to the studio, met the people, and they took her to the makeup department. Here they showed her a statue of her future character. Alice Krige had been very impressed by it and found the drafts marvelous. She had asked for only one change: the Borg Queen has to wear a mask head- piece, and the designer had placed eyebrows on it. These were badly formed, and she felt they would reduce her facial expression. Thus she had asked to get rid of them, and the Borg Queen again had a pallet of expressions. The makeup was outstanding. She could move her face well and the best was the opaque contact lenses. They gave the Queen her unique look. "She could see you, however, you could not see her. They gave me something very special with her makeup." Did you pursue your return as the Borg Queen in the Voyager series before the season finale of Voyager "Endgame"? No, she said she had not seen the series at all. She had not wanted to see Susanna in the role in order to not get confused, but she asked for all the scripts so that she could read them. She thus knew the whole history. Was the same makeup used in "Endgame" that was used in First Contact, or had something changed? Alice Krige said they had only added a small piece at the throat, but otherwise the makeup was very similar. They made only small changes with the application of some parts. The makeup specialist, who worked on the Borg Queen's costume (Scott Wheeler), was very proud of his work with "Endgame". It had been his last job with Star Trek, and he left the show on the same day as Alice Krige. He said that the Borg Queen makeup was the best he's ever created in his career - and that it was a beautiful way to be able to say good-bye with such good work. How many days did it take to shoot the Borg Queen scenes for " Endgame"? "Two!" How had it been to work with Kate Mulgrew (Janeway) instead of with Brent Spiner (DATA)? She answered that it had been marvelous to work with both of them, but also very different. Alice Krige said that she suddenly got panicked one day before going to work on "Endgame". She had expressed concerns with the producer over the fact that this time everything would be different. With First Contact there had been a lot of sexual energy between her, DATA and Picard. This time, however, her opponent was a woman! He told her not to worry, because the Borg Queen was understood to be "omni sexually," thus attractive to all sexes! And she thought: "Cool!" - it worked. She was very pleased to come back to Star Trek and into this role. On the first day of shooting she was very nervous. She had worried that the energy of the Borg Queen would be reduced by the fact that "Endgame" was meant for the small TV screen, but it was not like that! She watched the show herself afterwards and saw that nothing had been lost in the transmission. How many hours did you have to spend in the makeup department? She said that with First Contact it lasted much longer...sometimes almost endlessly. With "Endgame" it went much faster, however. Her costume had a zipper at the back this time, for example. Nevertheless, she worked 18-22 hour days in order to shoot all the Borg Queen scenes. What projects do you have planned after "Endgame"? She worked at the beginning of the year on the Disney film, Reign of Fire, and now has a recurring role in a new American series, which is a black comedy. This series is called Six Feet Under, and is about a family of undertakers. In addition, she is working as producer for a feature that hopefully will begin filming in March 2002. This is the most difficult thing she has ever done. She had to find money for the implementation of the piece, so that they could start filming. Robert asked her whether it had been her desire to become a producer?. She answered with, "No." The script of the piece is very, very interesting and complex. It is also very difficult to carry out. Her husband wrote it, and it was very difficult to find money. It's an exciting project, which she hopes might have some effects in other directions. She took over the position of producer, but would not make that decision again, even if it were very instructive. Can you tell us something about the film Haunted Summer? Alice Krige said she was very sad over the fact that this film had not been widely distributed, and that only a few people had ever seen it. She had participated in it in 1986. It recounts the six weeks in which the novel Frankenstein was written by Mary Shelley. At the end of filming Alice felt very connected with the author and her life. It was a life full of love and pain. Robert wanted to know something about her personal future plans. Alice Krige wants to return next to the film that she is producing with her husband. That might last into the summer of 2002. Afterwards she has to worry about the film getting promoted and distributed in the correct way. That might become immensely arduous and time-consuming. She has plans to do this for two years! Do you have a desire to become a director? She answered vehemently in the negative. No, this would not make sense. She is probably a good actress, and she can also take over as a producer, but to also want to be a director would not make sense for her. Note: This interview was translated from German to English with the help of the "Language Tool" on the Google search engine site. I apologize for any errors or omissions that may have occured in this process. The original German text with photos can be viewed at the WARP-Online site. |
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| Eye to Eye with the Borg Queen: WARP-Online in the spell of Alice Krige! |