#((anyhow

Marc Alaimo: The Unlikely Sex Symbol

One of the intrigues of the Star Trek Universe is the presence of exotic alien races. Makeup artists for the show have done a superb job at creating races of beings who are both other-worldly but also credible. And the Cardassians are no exception. Reptilian in appearance, they exude a cold fierceness that would stop most average space travelers in their tracks and at least give them pause. It was immediately obvious the first time they appeared that this race of beings were intimidating.

But sexy?

I really have to wonder if the artists who created the Cardassians knew they were creating the stuff of which romantic fantasies are made? But early in the tenure of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (the show that brought Cardassia to the forefront in the story line), fans started to congregate, mostly on the Internet, to discuss their mutual fascination with these characters. From this interest were spawned two fan clubs, one for Andrew Robinson who plays Garak and a second one for Marc Alaimo who plays Gul Dukat.

Fan clubs for individual actors on shows are not uncommon. But fan clubs for actors who only make occasional appearances are certainly less than the norm. Nevertheless, in spite of the fact that Gul Dukat, the fiery leader who once ruled Terok Nor, has only appeared in 20 episodes in five seasons of the show, his fan club is thriving! Lana Pennington, founder of "The Cardassian Inquisitor," explained Dukat's sex appeal this way: "What struck me most about Dukat was his sensuality. It comes through in the slightest movement, from picking up Sisko's baseball to the way he almost 'caressed' that meal in "The Maquis Pt II." It's as if each movement has been choreographed by a romance novelist. There is nothing effeminate about Dukat. He's all man! But there's a subtlety about him that attracts a woman. He's the rakish Rhett Butler of Cardassia that makes you feel like some sort of Bajoran Scarlett O'Hara." Other fans concur, describing Dukat as an "irresistible package" (Karla Von Huben), or appreciating his "rich voice, controlled grace and commanding presence" (Katherine Hanna). The Communicator recently had the opportunity to sit down over lunch with Marc and talk to him about his experiences on the show and the nature of his appeal to the fans….especially the women!

What do you think it is about Cardassians that appeals so much to women? I think it's very primitive, very animal, very basic. There's a sense of danger which seems to have always held me in good stead in that when people first meet me they don't know if I'm going to hug them or hit them.

I wonder if it also could be the element of alienness about him. I think that was a factor in why Spock was so appealing to women in the Original Star Trek. The alienness maybe gives him a sense of adventure, of… …differentness? Perhaps in contrast to the boredom of going home to the same person all the time. But I think it's animal, too. We're all animals with clothes on first of all. That's my basic outlook on life. We've taught ourselves how to be civil and how to treat each other or else there would be chaos. We'd all be running around doing things that we wanted to do… things we fantasized about as children. But I think the Cardassians are very sensual, very sexy kinds of characters.

Did it surprise you that Gul Dukat became a Star Trek sex symbol? Yes it did. I was completely surprised by it. I mean I knew as soon as I was transformed into him, I liked how I felt. I have my own sense of personal power and always have had on stage, but suddenly I was transformed into what seemed to be a giant.

There is a tremendous presence in the character. Yes, and the fact that I've gotten so much feedback and people are attracted to him has been wonderful! It's just nice to know that I can affect someone that way. I've never gotten that from doing any other TV show.

What is it like working in all that makeup? When I first started I thought it would be the thing that I wouldn't be able to deal with. It made me crazy in the beginning. First of all, it took three and a half hours. And then just having it on really started to bother me. I couldn't go out in the sun. The heat starts pounding down on that hair and gets under that makeup. I can't go out like that. I can't go to the commissary. I can't walk around the lot. But, Dean Jones, the makeup man has gotten it down to an hour and half now. He's the only one who can do that, but it does help a lot. And I've gotten used to wearing it now. I've had it on for hours and hours. We work 14-16 hour days and I've had it on for long periods of time. In the beginning I just wanted to rip it all off! But I can deal with it now. I wish I didn't have to but that's him. That's Dukat.

Is it difficult to act through all that. No. You just use your voice and your eyes. I don't have the fluidity with my body. The costume is a little limiting.

But then doesn't that become part of the character? That's right. He is very erect and his movements are almost automaton-like.

What direction will they go in with the Dukat/Garak thing? The whole relationship with Garak needs to be fleshed out. We've got some history it seems.

They've done some interesting things with Dukat and Kira. Well they have him sort of scoping her. Not putting his foot in his mouth, but he's very attracted to her. She doesn't want anything to do with him because of the history. She makes that very cold bloodedly clear so he just sort of backs off.

But the new relationship she has with Ziyal… that could add something to the Kira/Dukat relationship as well. I wonder. The last thing I say to her in "Return to Grace…" is something like "In spite of everything that's happened it looks like our lives are going to be intertwined." And she says "You really enjoy that don't you?" And I think she's right. It gives Dukat a reason to live. So I don't know what all that means but its interesting what happens to Dukat in this script, becoming a pirate and all. Here you have Dukat going against the Federation, going against everybody. He's going to become a pirate from the look of things, by himself with a very small crew. He's going after the Klingons. I mean it's cool! I like it! Dukat is a fighter. If you've got him against a wall, he'll rip your eyeballs out and eat them! But he's got to be pushed to that point.

From your point of view as an actor, what does Dukat think of the Bajorans? Well he doesn't despise the Bajorans at all! He's in love with them. He had a child with one!

I've always sensed from the character a respect for the Bajorans. You know I became closest friends with the guys that I fought with at school. I'd get into a fight and when it's all over you're both bloodied and both shaking, but they were always my best friends after that. So that could be what's happening between the Cardassians and the Bajorans.

My favorite Dukat relationship is between Dukat and Sisko. Really? There is a mutual respect and maybe even a bit of a mutual fear. They're both fighters. They both get through it. So they make good foils for each other. I loved doing the Maquis. That two-parter was wonderful. Sisko and Dukat are sort of like two Generals… two equals. Overall, I feel like the handling of Dukat has been like putting your toe into the water. I mean there were several shows where I was simply stationary on the view screen and it was like "Can he handle it?" or "Is this character going to be interesting?" and if not we'll just write him out next time…

When they first contacted you to do the show, was it a one shot thing or did you get a sense that it might be a reoccurring character? At one point they'd hired another actor to play the part. That was three years ago when it all started. I had done Gul Macet as the first Cardassian on The Next Generation. That was the first time the Cardassians appeared. And then when they went into pilot, they hired another actor. And he went in and didn't work out so when they had to replace him they called me back.

You and Armin have that in common. He played the very first Ferengi on TNG but that wasn't Quark and you played the first Cardassian but that wasn't Dukat. Armin and I have a good personal friendship as well. We did a production together called "Arena." It was one of the best experiences of my life, not for the work necessarily, but to be seven weeks in Rome, Italy and be able to go all over Europe. It's just one of those things I'll never forget. And one of the highlights was this chess game I had with Armin in this wonderful little park in Rome where there were equestrians riding their horses and there we were in Rome…one of us had a chess board and said "you want to play a game?" I've always loved chess and I bought a board there and he said "I play, I play! Let's play a game." And we sat down in the middle of this park on a blanket and its something I'll never forget. Here I am playing chess in the middle of Rome and there are people on horseback and a beautiful day…and he really beat me! (laughs) But that's OK (laughs again).

I know that Armin made some changes from his first attempt at a Ferengi. Was there anything that having that first experience on TNG did for you as you developed Dukat? I'm not sure how they wanted this character to develop, whether they wanted him to be a one-dimensional, aggressive, mean Cardassian, who eats children… That didn't interest me to do a one-dimensional character. So I tried to interpret him slowly as having a sense of reason, being sensitive, having a family, being a person…

The Cardassians started out as what could have just been stereotypical bad guys. They've developed into a group of people we can identify with on some level.You and Andy really are the two actors who portray Cardassia for the viewers. And neither one of you wanted the characters to be uni-dimensional. Could that have had something to do with why they went the way they did with the race? Sometimes the actors give the writers something in the work that they didn't see in the first place. It happens all the time in theater. A playwright will be sitting there watching and will later say "I didn't even know that moment was there… Thank you!" That's the highest compliment any actor could ever get.

Could you talk a little bit about the parts you played on The Next Generation? I did four different characters on TNG. And they all turned out to be something I enjoyed doing and had fun with. The first was a bizarre looking alien in a first season episode that I didn't even take screen credit for. I wasn't sure how it was going to turn out so I asked them not to put my name on it. But it turned out to be fun.

And then you did a Romulan, the Gambler ("Time's Arrow") and a Cardassian. That's right.

That scene you did in "Time's Arrow" must have been a lot of fun. Yeah, and they cut out some really nice things from that that we did too. I hate that when they do that. There was originally a place where the Gambler sort of saves the Indian from being beat up by the other cowboys.

So sometimes they have to cut things after they're done shooting them. Yes, that happens fairly often. I was upset that they cut out my kiss scene!

I heard that was in "Necessary Evil"? Yes, and I've only ever had one kiss scene (laughs). She was a Bajoran but I forget what her name was. Dukat was quite taken with her. There was a scene where he walks her to her door and then they kiss, but they cut it. I suppose they didn't want Dukat looking soft or something.

Where and when did you start out as an actor? At Marquette University with a Jesuit Priest. For four years I worked with him. We had to take 7 hours of ballet every week, 7 hours of voice training, plus rehearse, plus perform whatever show we were doing at the time. There was no life. This man, Father Walsh his name was, a little Irish guy 5' 4", had more energy, more temperament, than anybody I've ever met in my life. I had a pretty raucous childhood and would certainly have been considered abused by today's standards, but in those days kids were treated differently. You know "Shut up, did I ask you a question!?!?" And we dealt with it. It makes you tough. But when this all started to come down, my first experience on stage was in "Our Town" in high school. I was considered trouble. I was always in trouble. I'd get into fights and things like that. One day the Speech teacher…I will never forget this because he and I became very close friends…Mr. Garonski, gave us an improvisation. He said "Pick out something you want to do…no words. You have to mime it." I've got this morbid sense of drama so I went up and mimed a man about to be hung in a gallows. I'd never done anything like this before in my life. I went up to "the scaffold," looking up at the rope. It must have taken a minute and 30 seconds to go through it, boom, the rope falls, and I fell down. And I got up and when it was all over the girls were all crying, and the guys were like "I can't believe Alaimo just did that." And I thought "What an effect! I like this!" The teacher said "Stay after class. I want to talk to you." So I did and he said "I want you to read this play we're going to do in school." And I said "Oh, I don't know…" He said "No, no, read it. Just look at it. I want you to read for it." So I took it and I read it. And I got the part of "The Stage Manager." Before we actually did it the teachers were saying "Why are you letting Alaimo do this? He's trouble.. But when it turned out it was wonderful! They were all blown away. I was blown away! The fact that I had this ability to just move and do what was necessary is a natural thing that actors should have. You can't teach it. And its a matter of degrees. Some have it in spades and some have it just enough to get by. Everything changed. I got on the honor roll. I became a hero at school. People looked up to me because I had moved them. My grades went from C's and D's to suddenly A's and B's. It was really something. I think about it all the time, the directions our lives take. Here I was on this road to…I don't know where the hell I was headed! Probably the Big House (laughs)! It was a critical moment. You don't know it is when it's happening but it changes everything.

So when you finished your work at Marquette…? I went to New York which was the dream. We were trained as artists, as theater actors. This was the late 60's and I did live TV, "Edge of Night," a soap opera. It was the last remnant of the actual live transmissions. I would get home and I'd ask my wife "Did you see the show?" because I had no idea! It was live! There were times when I was choking on a sandwich or something. You can't stop! You have to keep going. But what a wonderful thing. It was like doing a one act play every day in front of 12 million people with hardly any rehearsal at all and just a few hours of preparation. And then you wing it! You go out and you do it! That was my first TV job but I had done theater up until that time.

I remember a part you did in Quantum Leap that was particularly memorable. You were a police chief in an episode about the Watts riots? It was a good experience. I liked Scott Bakula immediately. I respect him for what he has accomplished. This guy took all these weird chances on this show playing women and all sorts of things.

And he's brilliant at it! I agree…and he's a very sweet guy. He had no pretenses about anything.

Are you still doing theater? I do when I can but it's so hard in this town. It is financially prohibitive from the standpoint that someone has to have the money to put the play on. I've done a lot of free theater and I love the theater. It will always be my first love. It's how I became an actor and hopefully my last breath will be doing some soliloquy somewhere.

I've noted that most of the actors on Deep Space Nine come from a theater background. If only more people would realize that theater is to acting what ballet is to dance. These are trained actors. Theater actors are trained to use their bodies. I've run into Hollywood actors who don't know how to move or how to walk. As long as you have a close up, they're fine. Actors are always looking for good work. Something we can rise to, not sink to!

No crazy tips for motorcycles, mostly I tried to identify common parts they have to block out then add details with?

Namely: handles, light, the connecting bit with the wheels, a big exhaust pipe, an ovalish engine sorta deal to fill in space in the middle, a seat, the foot rests, and a longer metal bumper at the end. Also wheel half-cover things! The top half’s mainly casing and if you’re feeling lazy just throw in more casing (it’ll probably look sleeker/modernized that way too)