Jeri Ryan as the sexy and brainy Borg Seven of Nine in Star Trek: Voyager. Photo copyright of UPN.
In today's Sci-Fi Blast From The Past, Jeri Ryan goes pre-Seven of Nine and Star Trek: Voyager and talks about her work (as Jeri Lynn Ryan) playing Juliet in Dark Skies.
The year is 1964 and the cold war between the United States and Russia continues to push the world’s two superpowers further apart. As always in politics, however, there are certain instances where two warring factions must come together in a unified show of strength. Such is the case when extra-terrestrial beings threaten the very existence of humankind. In Dark Skies, the Soviets recruit a highly-trained, no-nonsense and strikingly beautiful comrade named Juliet to assist in this epic and covert struggle between humans and aliens.
“Originally, I was offered a guest-starring part on the program,” reveals Jeri Lynn Ryan, who plays the feisty Juliet. “This was two weeks before the role of Juliet was even created. They had been auditioning people for this guest spot but just couldn’t find anyone who they felt fit the character. The casting people knew me and showed the producers my tape. After they saw it they said, ‘Great, let’s offer her the job.’ I was in Chicago [Illinois] at the time, so when they told me this I thought, ‘Bonus! I don’t have to go for an audition. They’re just going to give me this part. I’ll fly to Los Angeles for a week, do my work and come back home. It’ll be great.’
“I had dyed my hair auburn for an independent film I’d done last summer. When they realized that my hair was no longer blonde they said, ‘Oh, we’d love to have you do this role but we really need a blonde for the job.’ I said to myself, ‘Oh, what the heck. It’s no big deal. I didn’t have to audition anyway.’ Ironically, if I had been a blonde and gotten this particular job I wouldn’t have been able to play Juliet.
“Two weeks later the breakdown for a new female series regular came out and it actually specified someone who was dark and mysterious. So I went in and auditioned for the part of Juliet. When I didn’t hear anything for a couple of weeks I just assumed that my audition was abysmal,” she laughs. “Out of the blue the producers of the show called to tell me that they wanted me to audition for the network executives at NBC. I went in to read for them one afternoon and three hours later they offered me the job. After all this, however, they decided to make Juliet a blonde. The next thing I knew I had to immediately go to the set to have my hair dyed before starting work the very next day. So once it took off it was as if I was being caught up in a whirlwind.”
In Dark Skies, Ryan’s character is the latest addition to Majestic-12, a top-secret government organization whose main objective is to shield the public from anything having to do with the alien invasion. Armed and very dangerous, Juliet has been compared to the lead character in the film and now television series La Femme Nikita. Ryan herself, however, likens her alter ego to a Russian female version of the very British James Bond.
“Juliet is a tough cookie,” says Ryan. “She’s very intelligent as well as independent and self-motivated. When you first see her it’s 1964, a time when military organizations weren’t exactly welcoming women with open arms. She comes in and literally busts down the walls of this old boy’s club. Juliet is more than capable of taking on any man in the room as well as handling any situation that may arise and she demands to be taken seriously. She knocks a few heads around and shakes some people up a little bit including John Loengard (Eric Close). Juliet is very much a woman ahead of her time.”
Ryan made her debut on Dark Skies halfway through the show’s first season in an episode entitled The Warren Omission. In this story Attorney General Robert Kennedy makes a move to expose Majestic when the Warren Commission begins investigating the death of his brother President Kennedy. “It was kind of a nerve-wracking experience,” recalls Ryan. “The series had already been around a while before my character was introduced. At this point people had been working together for almost a year. They all knew each other and were like a big family. All of a sudden here was this new girl coming into the picture. I really wasn’t sure how the dynamics of everything was going to work. Up to now Megan Ward [Kimberly Sayers] had been the only female regular in the entire cast. I needn’t have been worried. Everyone, particularly Megan, has just bent over backwards to make me feel comfortable.
“Another reason why I was nervous had to do with the fact that in my very first scene I come in and take out three Federal agents and then throw Loengard across the room. Juliet is not exactly subtle,” laughs the actress. “She knows how to make an entrance. When I got ready to do this scene I assumed that you have a stunt double who does the stunt and that’s just the way it works. It didn’t take me long to find out that they only do the really, really dangerous work like pulling Megan down a flight of stairs and things of this nature. When it comes to everything else you’re pretty much on your own. It’s you who’s in there doing the kicking, hitting and other physical work. I learned very quickly how to do all these things and, once I got over the initial fear and shock, I found it to be a lot of fun and a great tension release. I was ready to take on the entire crew,” jokes the actress.
Ever since Juliet burst onto the scene in Dark Skies the show’s writers have continued their efforts to further develop the character. Stories such as White Rabbit and Shades of Gray give viewers the opportunity to sit back and delve into Juliet’s past and they find out exactly what makes her tick. “I really enjoyed the one we just finished yesterday called Pray in Darkness which takes place during the 1964 New York blackout. At this point in the programme the relationship between John and Juliet has changed, so there was a bit more for me sink my teeth into and that made the work a lot more fun.
“I can’t wait to start work today on our latest episode because it’s very much a Juliet story. Most of the action takes place in the Soviet Union and Majestic and it gives you an even greater sense of what goes into the making of Juliet. They reveal more of her background and training as well as talk about all of the people with whom she’s dealt with in the past. There’s also a great deal of physical action. I get to shoot my little AK-47 assault rifle and whatever else we’ve got, so I can’t wait to kick some alien butt,” she chuckles.
Steve Eramo
As noted above, photo copyright of UPN, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!
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