Kate Mulgrew: I took it… I took it very seriously ladies and gentlemen – I'm sorry. I mean I guess it's all right for some of the others not to, but I had to take it deadly seriously – I was a broad! And I don't mean in Europe! I was a woman. This was a big test. They were all standing there waiting to fire me. Are you crazy? Waiting to see me fail. Of course no woman could do this, because no young man would want to watch a woman do this. No young twenty-two year old boy is going to watch a thirty-five year old woman comport herself on the bridge in the manner of a Patrick Stewart or a William Shatner and get away with it. I had to prove it to them, and it was hard. It was very bloody hard you know, because men are tough. You guys are tough. That's why you're great soldiers. What? No. I'm not tougher. I never met a woman as brave in battle as a man. I'll tell you that's the truth. Men are very brave – in battle. But what I had to prove to men is that I could be as good a captain. And that took about two seasons. Because you all sat back in your chairs in front of your TVs with your beers and whatever the hell else you had, not saying much, mumbling the occasional invective, and it took about two years before the first guy turned to his son and said, 'Aw, she's all right. She's all right.' I don't blame you. I don't blame you. It's been a man's world always. And now it's time to compromise a little bit. But we're doing a good job, I think, don't you?
You know, you know what I really think? You know what I think really saved it for me? I'm not a feminist. Oh – is everybody going to shoot me now? I'm not a feminist, and I don't buy it. I don't buy radical politics. I love men too much. I've got too many brothers! And I've had two husbands. I've got two sons. I dig men! And I know this about them: Whereas they're very simple, they're also very pure. And they want to do the best all the time. We women are complicated and a little smarter. But doesn't that make it the perfect dance? I say it's the perfect dance – if everybody would stop trying to act like it's a big war. Where's the war? I'm delighted you're a man, honey! And isn't it a good thing I'm a woman? So let's make the best of it. We can do it. And I think when they did Voyager and they put me in the seat, that was the… history finally said, 'you know what? It's time.' So I… I have often said, not only do I feel privileged, but … what a moment of elevation. What a moment of unbelievable excitement when I walked – now I'm getting teary eyed, but I'm going to show you – when I walked on that bridge, and I had to go from everybody's station to station. Tuvok. Mr. Kim. Mr. Paris. Chakotay. To my own… no, well not Chakotay yet, but then to the captain's seat, to sit and say, "Engage." I could hardly get it out. The power of it. Because what it said was not 'engage', what it said was, 'finally, we are one.' That was something. That was great. So I… I… I've had, you know, a marvelous opportunity, that I don't think any other actress, at least in the history of television, has ever had. Don't you agree? And that's the other thing, I think, that made Voyager successful. I love to laugh. And I don't know anybody who laughs better than men. At least the men that I like. Right? So I got all my guys laughing. Of course they were all such incredible pigs! They were impossible. They were impossible and you know all the naughty and terrible things they did to me. And they did them to me for seven years. And I accepted them, because I'll do anything for a good laugh. No, no… don't laugh… don't… don't… clap because I have to tell you what they did. They did the unspeakable, gentlemen. On Friday night, three – four o'clock in the morning, when there's no turn around on the Paramount lot – the union lets you go all night long – twenty-four hours, 'cause Saturday's a day off – who do you think they put the camera on last? Who do you think they thought, 'She'll come through. Put that camera on her, she'll do it. She'll do five pages of dialogue – oh Captain Janeway.' But who was behind the camera? All those men. And what were they doing? Taking their pants off. Did I break it once? Not once! Was Garrett Wang just on this stage? Am I ever going to get him back some day!
