 |
| Sometimes, finding the right person to play a pivotal role is not easy. Such was the case with the Borg Queen. "We started a casting process that went on for a long time," recalls producer Rick Berman, "because we wanted a woman who could be very seductive and sensual, but at the same time have some of the inherent evil to her. And when Alice came into the room, she sat down and she read the material and she just nailed it, in seconds. She was a great find for us." With her delicate features and enchanting manner, South African-born actress Alice Krige (pronounced 'Kree-ga') brought just the right set of qualities to the Borg Queen. "Usually, what catches my attention is that the character goes somewhere, has a journey of some kind," says Krige of why she was attracted to the role. "That's part of what makes me choose a role. Also, I look for how far something takes me to another place where I've not been before." Extreme For Krige, First Contact represented a new challenge. "Every role is different from one that goes before, but I guess, once before I've been allowed to play something so extreme, something so big. It was Sleepwalkers, and I was a creature. To play something so single-minded as the Borg Queen is fun. It's like playing one of the great, tragic heroines. The characters in the Greek dramas are huge, and often have clear, dominant characteristics, and that's really what the Borg Queen is like, there is a very strong elememt to her." Krige pauses thoughtfully. "It kind of makes me nervous. I'm getting to play weirder and weirder people," she laughs, "and I don't know quite what it means. I've begun to worry that they're casting me according to type." Lacking exposure with Star Trek prior to First Contact, Krige watched tapes of the Borg episodes of The Next Generation to get a feel for the Trek universe and the character that she was to play. "I started asking about back story about the Borg , and everyone had a slightly different version of who they thought the Borg were," relates Krige. "And so at a certain moment, I who am a great one for back stories, just thought that I am going to stand on the ground that I'm on. She is who she is. I'm not entirely sure of where she comes from. But I was pretty clear by the time we started what she was. As far as I was concerned, The Borg Queen was, as it were, the animating intelligence that moves the Borg. The Borg that you encounter throughout the story are just my minions, my creatures. I've colonized them and taken what I needed from them. So she's kind of present all the time: You have the scenes with just the Borg Queen, but in fact she is interracting with everyone that's on the ship." Hauntingly Beautiful Creating the personae of the Borg Queen was no easy task. "This was very, very easy make-up to work with, because they left me my face, which is what we use to communicate with. But it was physically the most gruelling thing I've ever done, because it took six hours to put on the head, and then it took another hour to get me into the suit. We discovered on the first day that I could not drink any liquids at all, because it took 45 minutes for them to get me out to go to the bathroom, and another 45 minutes to put me back in. Meanwhile, the whole set was sitting there with folded hands, so I didn't do that again; I just didn't drink anything. [The make-up] was actually a wonderful tool to be given, because there was a line in the script that, when you first catch a glimpse of her, they described her as being 'hauntingly beautiful.' I had my heart in my mouth; that was what Scott Wheeler - who created the look - and Todd masters - who created the body - would accomplish. I think the look of her is kind of oddly attractive, but kind of repulsive and frightening, and pretty disturbing," Power Surge The transformation came as quite a revelation for Krige. "The final step was to always put in the lenses. The first time I saw it complete, I looked at myself in the mirror and thought, 'Oh, boy.' We were standing in the make-up trailer, and I could see the whole team that assembled me in the mirrors, they all kind of moved back slightly. And I thought, 'They pulled it off, they did it.' They got her to be frightening in a kind of unexpected way. It was fascinating. The first thing I felt was a kind of surge of power," Krige says, "and then I was overwhelmed with gratitude, for the people who had constructed the look of her. Because they're all fine artisits in their own right; I mean, they're painters, they're sculptors, and remarkably talented people with imaginations that are just off at a tangent. I mean, they wouldn't be doing Star Trek if they didn't have something really unusual in their imaginations. They were such good company. I had a very good time." Starburst, Issue #221, January 1997 Back |
| ALICE KRIGE by Melissa J. Perenson |
 |