It was a very exciting morning for Trekkies (among the most loyal fans in the history of show business) with Marina Sirtis, aka Deanna Troi, joining Ryan Tubridy in studio.
Marina, who is in Ireland as part of this weekend's Dublin Comic Con, spoke to Ryan about how she came to be part of Star Trek: The Next Generation and the impact it had on her.
"I not complaining, because it was the best experience of my life"
However there were some aspects of the work which were challenging – namely the costumes, and how there was pressure there to lose weight. Sirtis told Ryan of getting calls from upstairs, telling her she looked fat. And how did she deal with that, Ryan asked? Well, you went straight for the doughnuts.
‘I winced, they were ridiculous… What was the best thing about Star Trek ending? I was allowed to breathe out after seven years... If you’re not skinny, you have to do comedy’.
Marina told Ryan that working on Star Trek was the best time of her life, saying how she worked with the best cast of actors; from the moment the director would call cut, they’d laugh until they began acting again.
‘We laughed non-stop for seven years... The directors who got us, loved working with us’.
Ryan asked Sirtis if she felt that Hollywood becomes cruel as you age: she responded that men can get old, and they can still act. As women age, Sirtis said there are less roles for women as older men get paired with younger women, ‘it’s art imitating life’.
‘I would like to be working all the time, I would…Fortunately I have the skin of a rhinoceros, or it would do you in’.
To listen back to the Ryan’s entertaining and enlightening interview with Marina, click here.
