Time to go back 50-plus years. How did you land your role in “The Cage”? Do you remember the details of actually landing it?
Well, I was known in town, so I was one of the live ones. And Gene (Roddenberry) was seeing a whole bunch of people, and I got on the audition through an agent. The usual way. I think I auditioned two or three times. Something like that. And then I got the job. One amusing story was, when I came in, I had my portfolio with me because I learned to do that when I was modeling, earlier. Anyway, I had a portfolio. Some good pictures and such. One of the key things about this character that Gene Roddenberry said was, "We want Yeoman Colt to have great-looking legs." He said, "You appear to have nice-looking legs." So I opened up this portfolio. There was an old magazine called Pageant. I had done a big spread, and one of the shots was with me in black leotards, with the little micro-glasses, and a skunk on a leash and a book of Freud in the other hand. And oh, boy, does it make me look great. So I opened the thing, and Gene said, "Well, yes, they do look good. But, you know, photos." So he said, "You do look like you do have good-looking legs. Would you mind lifting your skirt a little bit?" It didn't bother me any. I was a model as a teenager. You dressed in the back with a sheet around you.
So I pulled my skirt up. Not immodestly. He said, "Well, yes, I guess we all have to agree that she does have good-looking legs." So I’m thinking, "Hmm. Well, okay." So now, I get the job. We get into costuming and we go out, Majel and I, because that was the uniform. We started doing that. And, of course, they had to design these costumes. Well, by the time they got this costume together, against my better judgment, I could have been knock-kneed and bowlegged. They had me in baggy three-quarter trousers and ugly boots. I thought, "Well, I’m certainly glad that one of the key things was that you had good-looking legs."