Kirstie Alley made her convention debut Thursday afternoon, walking out to thunderous applause.
The Emmy-winning actress spoke about growing up in Kansas, breaking into show business, working with Woody Allen and John Travolta, her time on Cheers, and of course, her debut as Saavik in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
She revealed that Nicolas Meyer played a very key role in launching her career:
You’re very fortunate in your life if you have someone who champions you, and he is probably the most significant champion of my career. Before Star Trek II I had done nothing, I had faked my resume. He knew that I was brand new. He just kept auditioning me…and in the final hour he gave me the role.
He also stuck with her after she suffered a personal tragedy while she was auditioning:
My parents were in a car wreck and my mother was killed. My father was injured badly and I flew back home and I called my agent and said “my parents have been in this car accident and I can’t leave my Dad until I know he’s ok, so you have to tell them I can’t come on Monday”. So he told them “she can’t come back until her father is out of intensive care”. And Nick said, “Ok, we’ll wait for her”. It still makes me almost start crying.
The mentor-student relationship between Spock and Saavik carried over into real life:
I felt he tried to mentor me into being more responsible. He would sorta of look at me more in the viewpoint of Spock than Leonard Nimoy. You know, “what is wrong with you?”. I felt like that worked because he was sort of looking at me like that in real life and it sort of worked for Saavik, because she was his protege, she took whatever he thought or said very seriously. So, I was always a little nervous around Leonard.
There’s a very memorable moment near the end of the film when Saavik cries at Spock’s funeral. Alley says that reaction was very real:
I just started crying because I thought it was sad that Spock died and we were shooting the scene. It was so surreal and so sad. I just started crying and they used it. It wasn’t some big dramatic coup. I was really sad.
She also spoke on working with William Shatner and the rest of the cast:
I think we got on pretty well. I think he thought I was a bit of a doofus, which I was. He was a professional, and that whole cast was a well oiled machine, they were all very professional. And he could tell I wasn’t always prepared as I should be, because as much as I was grateful for getting a role in a movie, I was also a bit of an irresponsible twit. They always knew their lines perfectly, and sometimes I knew them and sometimes I didn’t.
On why she didn’t reprise her role in Star Trek III:
I don’t know the answer to that. I was offered the third one, but…it was a half-assed offer. It was ‘the character was going to be a lot bigger and she’s going to be a more important character in the movie and we’d like to pay her less than we did for the first one.’ It made me think they don’t want me in the third one. I have heard Leonard Nimoy say ‘no we wanted her in it’, but that sorta didn’t make sense, so it’s still a mystery to me.
Alley clearly was having a good time throughout, and indicated that she might be back in the future:
It’s cooler than I thought it would be. Each person I’ve talked to is really nice and easy to talk to. I look forward to doing another one!
So cool to hear how life was like on the set!!
Wow another former Trek actor who did their first convention. Both her and Whoopi. Little shocked about both knowing how popular their characters, were especially Saavik. The character was in 3 films but its really Alley in TWOK everyone seems to remember. Its odd how iconic she became after that film but she was popular.
I like how Alley just says what is on her mind lol. Same ole girl.
And maybe this isn’t the appropriate place to put it but with Anton gone in the reboot films maybe it would be the perfect time to introduce Saavik in the new films. She would also be a younger character like Chekhov was to sort of align with the other timeline and take his place. It would be a nice addition IMO.
Tiger – They would have to fiddle with Saavik’s age a lot more than they did with Chekov’s to have her as a crewmember – according to Memory Alpha Kelvin Timeline Chekov was born 4 years earlier than Prime Timeline Chekov. However, it’s doubtful Saavik would be more than a newborn by the time of the events of Beyond. Perhaps, baby Saavik could be rescued and adopted by Spock & Uhura, and any future movie could feature a cute little Vulcan kid running around the Enterprise…
She really seems to be a character. From what has been written, she seems down-to-earth and as honest as anyone could expect. I hope she continues to show up at conventions and I, for one, would attend one of her appearances if she does.
I was a little surprised to read that she’s endorsing Trump – but I guess playing a role in Trek doesn’t mean you agree with its messages.
She may just have a differing interpretation of Trek’s and/or Trump’s messages.
Kind of surprised this thread isn’t livelier. Time was that Kirstie Alley was very popular among the general public.
>Time _was_
Exactly.
I remember watching her for the first time in STII, in glorious 70mm. On the second viewing the same opening day, I can recall a member of the audience exclaiming ‘DAMN!’ when she does that turn around and we see her on screen for the first time. Then there was that close up where she reads the line ‘Energize Defense Shields” and she looked even more gorgeous like something out of Vogue magazine come to life. Then I got to thinking that maybe she was made up a little TOO much since she is, after all, a Starlet Officer. Makeup is one thing but she was touched up a little much.
Yes, the crying scene at Spock’s funeral. That, along with Carol and David Marcus’ sad faces, Kirk choking up at the end..it made sense. She’s half Romulan so that would explain the emotional expression, but it wasn’t so bad that the scene gets ruined for that one shot of the tear running down her face.
As far as STIII is concerned, she states they offered her 1/2 of what they paid her in II, while her presence in III was more. If I remember back, it seemed she asked for MORE money, more money than the top billed stars such as Shatner. If we were to believe that to be true, we know Paramount would never have agreed to that demand. Maybe it was just a ploy to just not come back and the salary demand, whatever it was, was used as an excuse. We’d have to look back at what Nimoy may have said on the subject in an earlier interview.
But, it would have been really cool if she had come back for STVI, when Meyer returned to direct. Her character
would have impacted the film differently, imho, as opposed to the newly introduced Valeris. Saavik had already been
introduced and well known in Trek history and to have her be one of the co-conspirators would’ve played very well dramatically. Then again, Roddenberry wasn’t happy with the idea of a major character betraying one of their own.
I hope her convention appearance makes it on youtube. Even though she’s gained some weight, she still looks good for her age.
I don’t remember reading that she asked for more than Shatner – just that she asked for too much.
Never liked Robin Curtis in the role – but she says Nimoy directed her to be more robotic.
I PREFER Robin Curtis to her any day!!
The rumor I heard that she asked for more money than DeForest Kelley.
Uh oh guys, the planet eater is on our screens! Raise shields before she eats everything in the convention building! Set your doomsday machine to ‘gobble gobble’ hahaha
Did you think how hurtful these words were before you wrote them? Or are you just out for attention?
Yes and yes.
Sticks and Stones can break my bones but words can never hurt me.
Now that she seems to have embraced her roll fully, maybe she can make an appearance in Discovery? Savvik would only make sense If the earlier post-Nemesis, Prime Timeline rumors were correct instead of the current post-Enterprise/pre-TOS ones. She could appear in a pre-TOS show, but I think that the time travel elements needed would work better in a later season.
“HUGE”..was that an stealth pun? :)
Supposedly Bill Shatner (forever horn dog) wanted to slide her his personal gift
joe cool,
Not cool, joe. I just finished watching Shat interact with Koko the Gorilla on PBS and was marveling at how the actor was imitating his art by interacting with an intelligence alien to that of humans. Then you marred it with that false equivalency of a married Shatner supposedly having the libido of his character.
Considering all of the physical and emotional ups and downs in her life, looks like she might have pulled herself back together.
Good on her!
She wanted as much as DeForrest Kelley. That is why she wasn’t in it. She needs to stop her lying.
Source?
Theory: Alley didn’t reprise Saavik in ST III (or VI) because as a Scientologist she already has to deal with jokes about being a space alien, so wasn’t going to feed into it by playing one once she no longer needed the work.