She tried to Bujold-ly go where no previous Trek captain had gone before--but the actress who played "Ann of the Thousand Days" on-screen lasted only two days in space.
"Genevieve Bujold is a lovely lady, but I don't think she had a clue what committing to a TV series meant," says Voyager executive producer Rick Berman. The Oscar-nominated actress--cast as Capt. Janeway without an audition--has been painted by most Voyager production personnel as a royal princess who reportedly hated the pace, the script, the costumes, the lighting, and the director. "Midway through her second day, she walked off the set," says one source, "and no one went running after her."
While avoiding specific dish, Berman does say Bujold is "used to making movies where you shoot two pages of script a day. She's used to discussing dialogue and character with writers and directors. TV is an entirely different world." So why wasn't this explained to her before she took the part? Berman claims that he did. "That's the odd part. Before Genevieve came aboard, I had a long conversation with her and purposely painted a grim picture. We discussed the pace, the long hours, the messengers who ring your doorbell at 9 o'clock at night with rewrites, the directors who change with every episode. I gave her a week to think it over. But the reality did not sink in until she got to the set. It was immediately obvious it was not a good fit." Bujold could not be reached for comment. Says her agent, Merrit Blake: "She's about as likely to address this issue as Clinton is to pick Dole as his next running mate."
brown@ftms.com
Last modified on January 2, 1995