— Though the part of the comely communications officer Uhura on the
original series “Star Trek” turned out to be a lifelong role, actress
After all, fate had pushed her into the part in the
first place. “I loved Uhura,” she says, seated in a chenille occasional
chair in a hotel here. “I just thought it was a segue, a nice
experience to give me credits I hadn’t had before and would take my
career to
Nichols had grown up loving musical theater. “My
father used to tease that when he would walk me in the evening in his
arms to sleep, he would pick up a bottle in the refrigerator and when
he opened the door and the light went on, I went into three choruses of
‘Let Me Entertain You,'” she laughs.
‘I actually was going to leave the show and spoke to (executive producer)
magnitude of what Gene had created and how incredible it was that we
were chosen to play these people that influenced others and changed
people’s lives in such dynamic and positive ways.
“When I went in and told him I was thinking of
leaving because I was being offered roles that were going where I
wanted them to go — musical theater — it was a Friday I’ll never
forget. He said, ‘You can’t do this. Don’t you realize what I’m trying
to get done here?’ I said, ‘Well, I think you’ve done a fantastic job,
Gene.’ He said, ‘OK, take the weekend and think about it and if you
still feel that way Monday morning you’ll go with my blessings.'”
The next day she attended an
fundraiser, when one of the promoters told her there was a fan who
wanted to meet her. “So I thought it was a Trekker. And I said, ‘Oh,
certainly.’ I got up and crossed the room to meet the face of Dr.
I remember thinking, ‘Whoever that Trekker is he’s going to have to
wait.’ And he smiled and said, ‘I am the biggest Trekkie on the
planet.'”
Jingling the ivory and turquoise bracelets on her
left arm, she says, “I’ve never been at a loss for words but my mouth
just opened and closed. I was stunned. He told me how important the
role was and the manner I’d developed the character, with strength and
dignity. All I could say was, ‘Thank you so much, Dr. King, I’m going
to miss my co-stars.’ I said, ‘I’m leaving the show.’ He said, ‘You
cannot leave. It can wait. It’s part of history now. This man has made
this show that projects 300 years from now. This is who we are and we
are beginning here, and you’re representing us. You cannot leave
because nobody can replace you. Only you.’
“I changed my mind right there because I was
ordered,” she says. “That was my leader. He said lots more. ‘Star Trek’
was the only series that he and his wife, Coretta, would allow the
children to stay up to see. And I was their hero. I could do nothing
but Monday morning go in and tell
She’s looking back now as
(check local listings). The first segment covers science fiction, and
“Star Trek” and its team of intrepid space travelers were among those
pioneers.
Nichols finally triumphed in musical theater, but
never to the extent she wanted. So she wrote her own musical, a
one-woman show, which was very successful. “And every time I got close
to starring on
“We did six major motion pictures so I just finally
said: ‘It’s not going to happen because every two years …’ But I
don’t regret a moment of it. I’m a singer and an actor, I was a dancer,
choreographer and writer but there wasn’t enough time in the day for me
to do everything I wanted. And so I really realized that ‘Star Trek’
had truly interrupted my career, but I didn’t regret it because I was
doing so much. And here I was — Uhura more and more.”
Still beautiful at 78, with a rash of gray hair and
dressed all in black, Nichols has been married and divorced twice and
is the mother of a son, of whom she’s very proud. As the first black
woman ever to assume a non-stereotypical role on television, she feels
she owes fate for its fickle turn.
“Somehow I’ve always felt that everything that happens TO me happens FOR me. It’s true,” she says.
———
For those who missed the sumptuous retelling of the
life of Henry VIII and his here-today-gone-tomorrow wives, BBC America
has latched on to the “Tudors,” which originally aired on
He explains. “I didn’t have the physicality of
Henry, and so I had to do it all internally and bring it outside. So I
had to create this incredibly strong, powerful man without being sort
of like 6 foot 4 and 300 pounds, which immediately would give you a
sign. I had to make his intellect bigger than anybody else’s. I had to
make his ambition bigger than anybody else’s. I had to make his energy
bigger than anybody else’s. And I had to make him the most dangerous
man in court.”
He does. And it’s a whopping good story, too. An all-day marathon of Season 1 and 2 episodes will air on
———
aims never to take her work home with her. “I have tried to make
boundaries for myself where I leave work at work. If I have lines to
learn, I do all my acting work on the weekends, and then I learn my
lines the day before. If there’s any work that needs to be done before
the next day, I do it at work. I don’t leave work until I’ve finished
that. I don’t like to take work home with me. That means staying late
even after working 15 hours. I’ll stay late an hour or two just to make
sure I get everything right. I try to set those boundaries so I don’t
take things home, but that said, it does leak into your personal life
sometimes.”
———
(c) 2011, McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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