By
GustavoLeao /
04:58, 12 October 2011 /
General Star Trek
In 2004, Modamag.com published a lenghty interview with actor Garrett Wang, Star Trek: Voyager's Ensign Harry Kim, in which he discussed his criticism of Voyager producer Rick Berman. Here are excerpts, which TrekWeb brings to you as part of our Archives Interviews series. Enjoy.
KA: Aside from a strong camaraderie amongst the cast, you’ve been a bit outspoken regarding Rick Berman’s treatment of the show…
GW:
Yeah… (laughing) Much to my detriment, actually, yes. That’s what
happens when you sit there and you tell it like it is to people who have
power; they don’t like it. I’m the only person who’s ever publicly
spoken about anything regarding Rick Berman in a negative way. This is a
free country. You’re entitled to your criticisms and I think my
criticisms were valid. I think most people, other actors or people who
work on the show, if you pulled them off on an aside and said “Okay,
there’s no Rick around. Let me ask you, what do you think of what I
said?” I think 99% of them would say “I agree with you that he didn’t
take the risks he could have.” That’s all I said and it was in reference
to the fact that the man came in, took over from Gene Roddenberry,
plugged in a formula and kept that same formula for “Next Generation,”
every episode of “Deep Space Nine,” every episode of “Voyager” and after
a while, you’re talking about 21 years worth of episodes. Man, you
better start changing your formula a little bit just to keep it fresh.
Look
at TV today. Look how edgy it is. Look at something like “The Shield.”
Look at “Nip/Tuck.” Some of these shows are just going above and beyond
what anybody’s ever seen. That’s all I said to Rick, who is somebody
used to nobody saying anything negative about him publicly. I’m sure he
saw this and was like “Okay, fine. Alright. You wanna do that? You want
to play hardball? I’ll show you what hardball is.” The result of that is
I’m the first actor in the history of “Star Trek” to be refused a
directing job.
KA: You’re kidding?
GW:
Believe me, I asked in Season 5, Season 6, Season 7… “No, no, no.” And
all not from him. It was always through messages. He would never talk to
me and say “no” to my face. His comment was “What am I running, a
director’s school here?” And the sad part of the whole situation is, of
all the actors who have directed, none of them have been as much of a
fan of science fiction as I have been. Most of those actors directed
because they wanted their DGA card, they wanted to move on to bigger and
better things, or they wanted a career in directing. For me, I wanted
to direct “Voyager.” I wanted to put my stamp on “Voyager.” I wanted to
make “Voyager” better. Everything I wanted to do was about directing
science fiction, specifically directing “Star Trek” and that’s what
kills me. He basically turned down the one person who would have given
him, in my estimation, the best first-directed (for an actor) episode
ever and I was standing by my guns on that.
At the
time that everybody wanted to direct, I didn’t ask because it was such a
stampede. It was Tim Russ, Roxanne, Robbie McNeill — Robbie had already
been set to direct an episode by this time — and Bob Picardo…all
butting heads and elbowing each other to get in to direct at the same
time. I remember they were observing Les Landau directing “The Chute.”
All three of them were cramming in there and I said to myself “That’s
fine. They can do their thing because when they direct during Season 4,
that’s when I’m going to start observing and Season 5 is when I’m going
to direct.” That was my game plan and it’s going to be known that
Garrett Wang directed the best first-directed episode of “Star Trek”
ever. That was what I was aspiring to. I was going to kick some major
booty, but, of course, those plans got derailed.
At
this point, it’s been three years since the end of the show. I’m more
matter-of-fact about this information. Usually I get really riled up
when I talk about it, but I’m starting to look at stuff, like the five
years of fighting with my parents, and realizing how it actually ended
up helping me. My not becoming a fan of “Next Generation” helped me in
my “Voyager” audition and I think somehow, some way, shape or form, it
hasn’t manifested itself yet, but Rick Berman saying “no” to me is
somehow to push me in some other direction also...
KA: Well, I think I came up with a theory as to what Rick
Berman’s problem might have been with you. I think he was jealous that,
in 1997, you were chosen as one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in
People Magazine and he wasn’t. How did you find out about that?
GW:
It was very weird. The only hook that people were interested in during
the first couple of seasons was the first woman captain, so Janeway got
the brunt of every single interview or major magazine piece. Everything
was her…all about her. Bob Picardo would be utilized once in a while
because people consider him the breakout character on the show. But, I
remember how ridiculous it was. The day I fired my third publicist was
just after I found out that both Kate Mulgrew and Bob Picardo were
guests on Jon Stewart’s first talk show on MTV. And I said “What the
hell? Why aren’t Jennifer Lien and myself on that. Why would they have
Kate and Bob? Who’s going to be watching MTV going ‘Yeah, I want to
watch my uncle and my aunt’?” So at that point, I thought “This is
ridiculous. I’m wasting my money on a publicist.”
Maybe
three of four days later, I get a call from somebody at UPN’s publicity
department going “Garrett, they want you for People Magazine. They want
you for the 50 Most Beautiful People. How did you do this?” I had no
idea. I didn’t even have a publicist anymore and it just happened. And
then I got another call. “E-Channel wants to do the 20 Coolest Bachelors
and you’ve been picked as one of the 20.” It was sort of like the week
where I got 5 commercials, only this time I got two major pieces of
publicity.
I dug a little further and found out that
somebody had been in the audience when I was on stage at a Starcon event
in Denver, Colorado. There were probably about 3,000 people there, so
it was a pretty big turnout. Everyone could see what was going on and I
remember that was probably one of my best stage presentations ever.
Everything flowed into everything else and there were funny things that
happened along the way. For instance, I was wearing an Armani suit on
stage and I hadn’t zipped up my zipper. People had been waving at me and
my girlfriend was in the audience, so she had seen it, and they were
trying to get my attention. I finally talked to somebody about 20
minutes into it and they told me “You have to zip up your zipper.” I’m
like “Oh, my God.” (laughing) And, of course, I didn’t hide it. I told
the audience everything and they just started cracking up, but even
mishaps like that just fed into everything.
When I got
off stage, Armin Shimerman was sitting there because he was going on
after me, and he told me “Oh, my God. You were unbelievable! How am I
going to follow that? You blew them away.” It turns out that somebody in
that audience had some connection with People Magazine and called their
people at People and said “Listen, there’s this kid…why not him?” And
boom, it happened. In the history of Trek, it’s just me and Patrick
Stewart. You know, that’s pretty good company to be in who have made the
50 Most Beautiful People.
KA: Is there going to be a "Voyager" film?
GW: I had a conversation with Anthony Montgomery on "Enterprise" and he tells me "Yeah, well, we're going to be doing the next film. You know, they'll probably leave our last episode as a cliffhanger."
And that had always been my recommendation for "Voyager." Leave the
last episode as the cliffhanger and bring "Voyager" home in a film.
That would have been a smart move.
The full interview is here. (requires Log In)
