Becky Wahlstrom plays the title role in the Enterprise episode "Cogenitor." In this interview, taped a few days after she shot her scenes, Becky talks about what it was like to get the part and to work with the talented men and women who put Enterprise together every week.

 

Becky Wahlstrom interview transcript for STARTREK.COM

Q: How did you get into acting?

I went to an arts high school in Chicago and that changed my whole life. It really taught me how to actually make acting a business and not [be] another kid who loves to act but doesn't know how to break in and actually get paid to do it. They taught me the art behind it and all sorts of things. Then I graduated from there and I went to a year of classical theater training in London at London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts (LAMDA). Then everyone was saying "you really have to go out and do it. That you can get a degree in acting and still be waitering, waitressing, bartending [and working] all the side jobs you can get. You just have to get out there and pursue it constantly." So I skipped college after the one year in London and came right out to LA.

Q: How did you get the part?

I got a call from my agent to go and audition for Ron Surma, He was one of the nicest, nicest, casting directors and I want that to go on record. I was so impressed with the experience. He was very enthusiastic and generous and then he gave me some notes for the callback that were very helpful. Then about three hours later they called me for the callback and that's when Lavar Burton and another woman producer was in the room and again [with] Ron Surma. From there (it's all the same day) they called me and I got the part.

Q: What did you think of the script?

I always had this impression that it was a show about space wars and cool gadgets and [for] people who liked special effects. But when I read the script I was really impressed with how beautiful a metaphor it is for our world and what's going on politically, religiously, and the science involved in it had much more depth than I had realized. My episode, in particular, I thought was really interesting. I was really excited to come back and audition a second time and then when I got the part I was really excited. But the part was interesting in itself because it was the kind you would normally play onstage. It's not a typical role that you would go out for in Hollywood. I'm mostly going out for the Dawson's Creek and the Boston Public. That kind of [role] was something that involved prosthetics, makeup and alien and otherworldly character. It gave me a lot to work with as an actor.

Q: How did you prepare for the role?

Well once I got the part I hit up some friends of mine for some episodes to watch to get familiar with as much of it as I could. My Star Trek fan friends were starting to come out of the woodwork.  All of the sudden I realized my Godmother's son is the head of the Star Trek fan club in Indiana and I had no idea about that. My sister's best friend is just a die-hard fan, collects everything, [and has] been to a bunch of conventions. I didn't even know that half my friends were big fans and they were able to help me a lot in studying up on Star Trek. It's just a lengthy history.

Q: What did you think of the character?

When I first picked up the script and looked at the Cogenitor it reminded me of what I've heard of repressed women in the Middle East. I thought that was pretty intense. The idea of this person living kind of inside themselves, alone, with their own thoughts. And yet the Vissians are an extremely bright race. They learn really quickly, which is established in the beginning of the episode. It's also established that she has an equal intelligence level to the others. It wasn't a lack of anything, just that she was unexposed.  I felt like she was a character kind of living inside her own self. When I get to finally emerge through learning all the new things through Trip, introducing me to all these fabulous new things out there, it became very childlike. The challenge was to create, because I am female, to create an androgynous, almost non-sexual being. Their only sexual life being a task. They don't even go into how's it's done, an enzyme secretion or something. I imagine the Cogenitor's attitude towards that as very much a job, their function, their one and only function.

Q: What happened after you got cast?

It was very fast, within a week I had gone into a fitting and a face cast, which was a lot of fun. That was actually the first thing I did. I went in for a face cast, and these two very jovial men continued to have conversations with me while I was in full plaster. They had this sort of one-way conversation. I got the impression they were really use to doing this because no one could ever talk when they're sitting there.
Then asked me things like:
   "Are you into classical music?
   "I bet she is?
   "Yes, I bet she is?
   "Anyway . . .?
.  .  .  and they'd continue putting the plaster on, [and] ask me all sorts of questions. I got the impression that everyone completely loves their job on this show. I quickly caught the buzz and was excited to get to the set. The costume fittings followed the cast; there was a couple of costume fittings. And within a week I had to come and shoot.

Q: How long did it take to do the makeup?

The first time we did it, it took about two hours to two and a half hours for hair and make-up. By the end of it they had it down to about an hour and a half. There was one day I got a call to be here at 4:45 am and I truly thought it was a joke on the new girl. You know I get to Paramount, its totally dark out and there's one security guard sleeping in the booth, I pass him, get in, [I'm] walking around this deserted lot, I get there, there's no one there, and I'm thinking, okay ha-ha, joke on the new girl, 4:45 call, and then sure enough I walk in, and one makeup guy is standing there going, "I've been waiting for you.? He must have been there since I don't even know, 4:30 or 4:00 in the morning getting ready. It was basically due to the makeup, [they] wanted to leave enough time to do the makeup.

Q: Did you get along with the cast?

Yeah, I mostly hung out with Connor. He's really drab. No, I'm just kidding. I hung out with Connor most of the time, [he played] Trip. We had a blast together. He's a theater actor as well. In fact the company that he works with, a lot of their actors swap and work with the company I work with, which is Zoo District. So we had lots to talk about. We hung out most the time. I didn't get the chance to really hang out [with the other cast members]. I had one scene with Scott. But almost all my scenes though were with Trip. So that's who I hung out with. We had a good old time.

Q: Would you like to do another episode of Enterprise?

Oh yes absolutely. I was already brewing up all the ways Cogenitor could come back. It was definitely one of the most fun environments to work in that I had experienced so far in LA.