(Voyager music plays)

Kate Mulgrew:  Thank you.  Thank you.  I never get over that theme song.  And evidently, neither do you! Isn't it something? It always brings me to tears.  It's great to be here.  It's always great to be here.  These chaps do an unusually meticulous and extraordinary job of organizing this affair, don't you think? (Applause)

You must forgive me if I'm not my usual garrulous self.  I've just come off of five weeks in a primitive place on the southern coast of Ireland with my twenty-one year old son.  I turned fifty in April, he turned twenty-one in June, and let me tell you mothers, you should meet your son at twenty-one!  Something magical and mystical happens, and I'm very subtly but very deeply transformed by these five weeks.  Our mission was to write four hundred poems, and salvage out of that gluttony – forty.  I wrote eight. My domestic chores were overwhelming!  He wrote, however, fifty, and some rather splendid stories.  But what has happened is – I don't know if this is true of the rest of the ladies in this group, but I certainly hope so – at fifty, something mystical transpires.  (From audience: "Amen"!) Right?  And you let go of a lot of the baggage, a.k.a. garbage, that has conducted your life for so long. And you concentrate, whether you want to or not, on who it is that you love, and what it is that you love.   And I have been very busy all my life – my husband and I were just talking about it – and I have been unusually lucky, both professionally and personally.  But it strikes me now, at fifty, most of my life has been lived, and I really want to see how deeply I can love by the time I check out.  So my deeply interior goal now is to look at my sons as the strangers in love that they are, and regard my husband in the same way, and my dearest friends, and give back to Alzheimer's, and to domestic violence and to all those who need help, some small bit of the charmed life that has been bequeathed to me, because it has been charmed indeed.  And every time I come to these conventions, which is not often, but when I do it is always so affecting, because you have actually given me an enormous gift – seven years on a series that has changed my life, and has allowed me a great freedom as a person, as an actress and….(stops to listen to something)  I didn't know that (?) was going to be here this weekend.  What is that sound?  (From the audience: "A cellphone!") Oh, what a spooky and creepy alien sound that was, wasn't it? And what is this?  Okay, Adam…

Anyway I'm delighted to be here, and as always, the greatest fun for me are answering your questions.  And the more personal and the more outlandish, the more I enjoy them!  So if you ask questions, please come up to the mikes on either side of the stage and I will answer them as judiciously as I can. Yes?

Q 1:  Actually, my question is concerning your "Tea at Five".  I have here a present and a bribe, if you will bring "Tea at Five" to Salt Lake City. Please.

Kate Mulgrew:  Bribe happens to be one of my favorite words! There's only one problem with Salt Lake City. 

Q 1:  What?

Kate Mulgrew:  It's dry! 

Q 1:  Not in the winter time. We have lots of…

Kate Mulgrew:  It's not. Let's talk about this now…

Q 1: … beautiful snow… lots of beautiful snow.

Kate Mulgrew:  I would love to bring "Tea at Five" to Salt Lake City…

Q 1:  Great skiing in the winter…

Kate Mulgrew:  Thank you, and thank you very much for your generosity… I actually think the next venue for "Tea at Five"… would you… thank you – hold on to that… he looks a little suspicious, doesn't he?  Stealing my presents!

Q 1:  I'm a forensic scientist, there is nothing out of order in that package.

Kate Mulgrew:  Which one!?  Thank you!

Q 1:  The package I gave you…

Kate Mulgrew:  Thank you very much.  I will try to get "Tea at Five" to Salt Lake City…

Q 1:  Thank you.

Kate Mulgrew:  Yes?

Q 2: Three years ago when I saw you last, your husband was making a bid for governor, and you were very excited about that.  I'd be interested in hearing what has happened since and what's in the future for him.

Kate Mulgrew:  For my husband?

Q 2:  And you.

Kate Mulgrew:  And me?  With my husband or…!  You know… I… When you…when you go through a gubernatorial race, the magnitude of which is pretty inexpressible, and the by-product of which is a massive coronary, you are really careful, I think, then.  I think he's got fire in the belly, born with fire in the belly - he's upstairs resting – no fire in the belly this afternoon!  He's an extraordinary man.  But my husband's impetus – his animus, in fact, is to give. His life is a life of public service, so as the commissioner of Cuyahoga County I think that he is fulfilling that.  They're looking – they're asking him to look into the Senate seat – all of which fills me with a certain kind of dread.  He turns sixty next year – the lucky dog!  And I feel that I must protect him a little bit. But I would honor him, even at the risk of probably his own health if he chose to pursue another campaign.  Thank you for your question. 

I'm going to ask a very bizarre question and I don't mean it to be off-putting, I really am genuinely curious. How many people in this room have suffered a heart attack? Quite a number.  Quite a number.  Terrible thing. 

Yes ma'am?

Q 3:  I just want to say, as a mother, wait until you're sixty-five and your boy is thirty-seven – the best is yet to come. 

Kate Mulgrew:  Is it really?

Q 3:  It really is.

Kate Mulgrew:  Why do you say that?

Q 3:  Because it's just more interesting in so many ways. And good luck to your husband also.

Kate Mulgrew:  Thank you very much.  I can wait though. Yes?

Q 4:  Hello.

Kate Mulgrew:  Hello, how are you?

Q 4:  I'm fine, how are you?

Kate Mulgrew:  Good.  I'm good.

Q 4:  I know that you have seen the movie, "The Aviator".

Kate Mulgrew:  Yes, I have.

Q 4:  I know that … I think I read some of your comments of what you thought of the film, and what I was curious about is, the fact that, actually you know there is a little bit of a difference between your actual age and the Katharine Hepburn in that film…

Kate Mulgrew:  What?! (audience laughter)

Q 4: Isn't there?

Kate Mulgrew (laughing):  I don't know where you're getting your information!!

Q 4: I just wanted to know…

Kate Mulgrew: … (?) Yes…

Q 4:  … if it ever occurred to anybody connected with the film, or you, maybe to talk to the casting director or Martin Scorsese or if possibly you could have arranged to have read for that part yourself.

Kate Mulgrew:  You know, I'm going to throw myself in your arms, but you must listen to me. Hollywood is a creature of great truth, don't you know that?  The camera likes to fix itself on the truth. And therefore, Kate Hepburn at thirty, needs to be thirty. I'm fifty, and it wouldn't work.  But I think that your allegiance and your fidelity is something that Cate Blanchett doesn't have. 

Yes?

Q 5:  Hi. I just wanted to tell you that…

Kate Mulgrew:  Oh, you were in the photo thing. 

Q 5:  Yes.

Kate Mulgrew:  (?)

Q 5: Thanks,  so are you…

Kate Mulgrew:  Thanks… we could go on like this forever!

Q 5:  Watching Janeway's character has been incredibly inspirational to me and I know to a lot of other women – to see this strong woman in a leadership role. (Applause) And I think you as an actress portrayed that better than anyone I could imagine – you did a really good job of getting that across, so the first part of my question – how did you feel about playing such an important role?  And the second part of my question is was there any one inspirational figure that inspired you throughout your life and career?

Kate Mulgrew:  It's easier to answer the second part of the question because my great mentor and teacher, Stella Adler, and my mother, who … you know mothers can say the simplest thing - the silliest things – it's not the profoundest things that move you.  It's not the profoundest things that change your life. It's the simple things the mother says as she's doing the dishes and you're twelve years old, that motivates you for the rest of your life. And here's what she said:  "Oh, I don't want to hear your nonsense, and don't ask me if you're pretty. Just plant those two feet on the stage, and be yourself. Now you dry." 

Q 5:  Thank you!

Kate Mulgrew:  And as for Janeway – what continues to resonate – surprisingly – was the discipline that I had to employ – I wanted so much - I was always chomping at the bit, let me be more myself, let me endow her with more animation, let's have a little more passion here, let's have a little more…  And I realized that the circumspection that I had to bring to Janeway is absolutely the thing I am proudest of. Because every day I had to walk a very delicate line.  You don't follow a captain whom you cannot trust emotionally.  There must be a certain very simple detachment that allows you to take… to have absolute and utter faith in the control of that captain.  So that for me was the hardest, I think, execution of this character.  But I … I  think I did it.  When women like that say things to me of that nature, I'm particularly pleased, and I thank you. And when women who look like that, I'm even more delighted. 

Yes? Sir.

Q 6:  I saw you once in Burbank and I just want to say what I said before – thank you so much for the seven years of Janeway's passion, her intellect.  You're a fantastic actress and you've given all of us and me a tremendous gift.  I know that you like… some of the years you said that did take away from your sons, but like you said before, is that you…

Kate Mulgrew:  But lookit'  … I get it back!

Q 6:  Yes.  But I just want to thank you so much.  I mean you're my favorite captain and I…(Applause)

Kate Mulgrew:  What a wonderful… you could not have said… (?)… thank you. But this is the truest thing about it. …. When you're going through those seven years and there are moments of agony because you can't get to your children and there are problems and there are domestic problems, parental problems you can't resolve – you think you'll fall apart, and that the time will never come when you can make amends or catch up. But in fact, just the opposite happens. You see, what you saw, was in reality what my boys saw. They didn't see some idiot mother, right?  They saw a mother who tried very hard to do a job that she loved very much. And to love them very much… despite their many little flaws! During that great…

Q 6:  My question is that if Admiral Janeway came to this time…

Kate Mulgrew:  If Janeway came to this time?

Q 6:  Right.  And…

Kate Mulgrew:  And to this hotel?!

Q 6: Well… actually… what would she say or do about, you know, our president (laughter) and the… Iraq war?

Kate Mulgrew:  You know that little expression...I'm going to beam somebody out now! (Laughter, applause) Bad...don't get me going!

Yes?

Q 7:  Hi Kate. 

Kate Mulgrew:  How are you?

Q 7:  Great to see you…

Kate Mulgrew:  I just met you before, didn't I?

Q 7:  Well you've seen me several times in …

Kate Mulgrew:  … In my life!

Q 7:  Yes. First of all, thank you for being here. 

Kate Mulgrew:  Thank you.

Q 7:  I get to celebrate my birthday with you, so I'm real happy about that. 

Kate Mulgrew:  Oh good!

Q 7: I was actually born on August 5th, but this is my birthday convention, so…

Kate Mulgrew:  This is your birthday convention…

Q 7:  Yes. 

Kate Mulgrew:  Happy birthday.

Q 7:  Thank you. My question is, in one of the episodes with guest star John de Lancie, you did a tub scene with him. Where you're in the bathtub and he…

Kate Mulgrew:  That's "bathtub"… for those of you at home…(?)…

Q 7:  … you're in your bathtub and he shows up fully clothed in your tub.  And I would love to know your feelings on that scene.

Kate Mulgrew:  I'll bet you would!  (Laughter) First of all, John de Lancie is not a real person!  You know that, don't you?  He gets in the tub – of course I’m the naked one in the tub, and he's fully clothed.  And then he jumps out of the tub because he decides to put a pink shower cap on. Then he jumps out again because he wants to put curlers in. I finally said, "John, you're not real, are you?" He's outrageous. He was born outrageous and he'll die outrageous. Fortunately for him we're just friends. All right?  I hope you have a wonderful birthday convention.

Q 7:  Thank you very much.

Kate Mulgrew:  All right?  Let's give him a birthday hand!

Yes?

Q 8:  Hi Kate.

Kate Mulgrew:  Hi. How are you?

Q 8:  Good, thanks. 

Kate Mulgrew:  Good.

Q 8:  This is my first time seeing you at a convention, and talk about birthdays, today is my birthday…

Kate Mulgrew:  This is your birthday?  Oh my God!  This is a birthday convention! Happy birthday to you! How old are you?

Q 8:  Thirty-six. 

Kate Mulgrew:  Thirty-six.

Q 8:  Yes. 

Kate Mulgrew:  Very young.  Are you married?

Q 8:  Yes, I am.

Kate Mulgrew:  Are you happily married?

Q 8:  Yes, I am.

From the audience:  So are you, Kate!

Kate Mulgrew:  (Laughing) Oh!  Going, going going… just lose your memory out there today!

Q 8:  Thanks for being here today and also I want to say thank you for your "Tea at Five".  My wife and I both saw you in Phoenix when you came, and we thought you were wonderful. 

Kate Mulgrew:  Thank you.

Q 8: And my question is about it, and wondering – wanting to know – how you came about to be – how to bring your one-woman show out – was it your idea, did somebody approach you with the idea?

Kate Mulgrew:  No, it was somebody else's idea.  It was written for me, exclusively for me, as a result of Matthew Lombardo, the playwright watching me on an episode of Voyager, and saying, "That woman, whoever she is, should be playing Katharine Hepburn."  And he happened to say it to a friend of mine, who said "You write it and I'll get it to her." And he did indeed. He wrote it in three days.  And I got it in my dressing room at Paramount and I remember thinking, I mean, how lucky does one get?  Although I was no fan, and of course this is the lore by now.  I want to make sure it's lore and not myth.  I was never a fan of Katharine Hepburn's. Never.  I thought she was strident, harsh, opinionated, caustic, made up, calculated person. Shall I go on?!  But I read the play, and I thought, 'What a life.  I wonder if I could get under it. If I could get under it and I could find it, maybe I… I… could stand  the slightest chance of developing this… this character.  And I went into rehearsal and… by God, I fell in love with her. Because I found the truth of what I believed was the essence of Hepburn.  And that is her deep vulnerability. That's why she's so eminently watchable. That's why you cannot turn away. Just behind that grit - that cut - are those tears.   And it's that very dichotomy that is so compelling.  You did not expect this answer, did you? 

Q 8:  No, but I…

Kate Mulgrew:  You've taken a short nap!?

Q 8:  No, no.  Not at all!

Kate Mulgrew:  All right.

Q 8:  No, it was wonderful and I want to thank you …

Kate Mulgrew:  And I thank you…

Q 8:  We heard yesterday that you may not be doing it any longer?

Kate Mulgrew:  I'm doing it in Pasadena…

Q 8:  Okay…

Kate Mulgrew:  … For six weeks, right after this, and then I believe that I'm going to be talking to London about it, but later. Later.  London.  Lot's of English people in the audience, right?  I'd love to see you.  And I love London.  I must tell you – I love England.  I love Ireland, I love the UK. Terrible what happened over there.  Just terrible.  I was there, when those bombings took place. Just… well… we're not going to get into it. 

Q 8:  Thank you Kate.  Continued success.

Kate Mulgrew:  I thank you. 

From the audiene: Voyager movie! 

Kate Mulgrew: Voyager movie!  Don't talk to me, call him!

Yes?

Q 9:  Yes.

Kate Mulgrew:  Yes…

Q 9:  It's been such a pleasure to … to see your performances as Captain Janeway, and I saw you in "Tea at Five", and I just can't imagine anyone being more incredible as Katharine Hepburn…

Kate Mulgrew:  Thank you.

Q 9:  So thank you for all your inspiration and your…

Kate Mulgrew:  Thank you.  You have a lovely manner – you are very calming … doesn't she?  Did you notice how everyone got very quiet when she started? Very soothing manner.  Wonderful.  Yes?

Q 9:  I don't feel that calm, but …

Kate Mulgrew:  That's how you translate – it's wonderful.  What's your question?

Q 9:  Thank you.  Could you just tell us a little more about your future plans… you mentioned you'll be doing…

Kate Mulgrew:  Well I tried to tell you about my future plans when I came out, but I realized that as an audience and as viewers you want to hear about my future plans as an actress.  And of course I want to talk about my future plans as a person.  And sometimes the twain do not meet.  I’m going to do, as I said, "Tea at Five" in Pasadena.  I will do it again, I'm sure, for as long as it has legs.  At my discretion.  I need to slow down a little bit. I will play Cleopatra, in "Antony and Cleopatra", if not this season, then next season in New York.  I'm crazy about her.  Don't ask me why. They offered me Gertrude, in "Hamlet", and I thought, "I don't really like her." The only part in "Hamlet", is Hamlet!  But in "Antony and Cleopatra" you find this extraordinary creature.  So I will play her.  And betwixt and between, as I said, there are loved ones.  And the clock's ticking now, much more loudly than it has for me in the past.  I don't know how to express this.  I lost my father last year, which is an expression I'm not crazy about – my father died last year. And my mother is dying of Alzheimer's.  And I feel an acute sense of wanting to have some real understanding of this journey before I die myself.  And I will die indeed very, very shortly, and I know it. And I'm sort of grasping at the absolute liquid madness and beauty of life, and I want to steal from the jaws of time, more of it with my… my loved ones.  So to be perfectly frank with you, acting is wonderful – God knows it's been sublime.  But I… I… I henceforth would like to be driven by… by love. 

Q 9:  … Do you ever (do) like directing, or writing? 

Kate Mulgrew:  I write. I have always written. I kind of think she's touching a little nerve. 

Q 9:  What kind of writing…?

Kate Mulgrew:  I've been a scaredy cat about my writing all my life. So I have, you know, columns of journals and, towering things of short stories, and now it's poetry. But I'm no fool.  I read voraciously and have done all my life. The classics, and… and… and… great poets as well, and I understand that there is a terrific discipline and talent involved here.  So what I will do is I will go back home, which is New York City, and I will… I will study. I will study and I will try to become a better poet.  I will try to become a poet worthy of publishing… some of these…

Q 9:  I bet you're a very good writer.

Kate Mulgrew:  Well you're very nice. 

Q 9:  I'm a poet, myself…

Kate Mulgrew:  Yes, well that doesn't surprise me one bit.  Does it surprise anybody? No – of course you are a poet.  Thank you. Thank you.

Q 9:  And how old were you when you started acting?

Kate Mulgrew:  When I started acting in my heart, or when I stood on the stage for the first time?  As a professional I was nineteen years old. But I was twelve when my mother said, "Don't ask if you're pretty, just plant your feet on the stage and be yourself."

Q 9:  I'd love to send you just a few of my poems, is there…

Kate Mulgrew:  You may send them, but I don't know how.

From the Audience:  Totallykate.com

Kate Mulgrew:  Oh yes, go to my website – Totallykate.

Q 9:  Totallykate?

Kate Mulgrew:  I think it's still Kate. You could try Totally Mildred and see what happens! Totallykate.  Thank you.

Yes?

Q 10:  My two nephews saw you in Boston and they were just amazed. 

Kate Mulgrew:  Were they?

Q 10:  And I thank you for that. 

Kate Mulgrew:  And I love it when gentlemen come to the theatre.  How old were those men?

Q 10:  Well, the youngest is eighteen and I don't know…  if I tell you how old the oldest is it'll be wrong… his mother could say but …

Kate Mulgrew:  That's great.  That's great.  Thank you for coming. How wonderful, yeah.

Q 10:  The question is, would it be possible for you to grace us with a Garrett Wang impersonation?

(Much laughter from the audience)

Kate Mulgrew:  Your phrasing of that question is unfortunate because I don't think it's possible to 'grace' anyone!  I understand he's been strutting around doing me all day! No… I'm not going to do it! No, because you really… no… no… no!  But I want you all to tell him, just as I told Tim Russ, "it's only a matter of time, pal." Just a matter of where and when! 

Yes?

Q 11:  Hi. My girlfriend and I had the very great pleasure of seeing you in "Tea at Five" in San Francisco.

Kate Mulgrew:  You've all seen it!  I mean I… many of you… Great…I'm so glad.

Q 11: Yeah, it was probably very demanding.  My question for you is, I know you and John de Lancie have been friends for a long time…

Kate Mulgrew:  Long time…

Q 11:  I was wondering, since you seem to be such opposites, I was wondering if you could tell us the story of how you met, and if …

Kate Mulgrew: We seem opposites? 

Q 11:  Wellll …. Sort of.

Kate Mulgrew:  Oh, I'm delighted!  (Laughs) We raised our kids together. We met in the theatre.  We were both married about the same time.  Marnie got pregnant, I got pregnant. We did a play together, John and I. And that was it. We found out that we love to cook.  We love to talk -- John! And the dinner parties began. And we'd take the kids and put them to bed, and the four of us would stay up till dawn, in those days.  For many, many years. Worked in the theatre together all the time. He's… don't let him fool you. Don't let him fool you. It looks very glib, doesn't it? And verbose.  He's a wonderful person. He's a great friend. He's genuine and he's fine. He's complicated.  But to me, he's intriguing. And I will say this about John de Lancie and I mean it: I have a lot of interesting men in my life – I have a  lot of interesting men in my life! – He's the only man I talk to on the phone for longer than fifteen minutes. He is so amusing to me.  Two hours go by, I mean, I… what did I hear?!  He's said nothing – absolutely nothing of value!  But I’m hanging on it!  Anyway, that's the bottom line with John de Lancie.

Q 11:  Thank you.

Kate Mulgrew:  Thank you.  Yes?

Q 12:  Hi.

Kate Mulgrew:  Hi.

Q 12:  Apparently I'm the only person here who has not seen "Tea at Five", because when you did it in Connecticut I'd moved to Phoenix and when you did it in Phoenix I'd just moved to Florida.  So… I…

Kate Mulgrew: Stabbed  in the back ...

Q 12:  … but I did have the honor of having my convention photos put on your Totallykate.com…

Kate Mulgrew:  Oh…

Q 12:  Every time I come I give them to Connie and she always… you know… uploads them… when you see Natalie Larkowski that's me.

Kate Mulgrew: All right.

Q 12:  Okay?

Kate Mulgrew:  All right.

Q 12: I just wanted to ask… you said you have adult sons, which of course scares me because mine are seventeen and eighteen in November…

Kate Mulgrew:  No, I said they were twenty-one and twenty-two, I didn't say they were adults! (Laughs)

Q 12:  But really Kate… well, anyway, my son has really big admiration, that is very surprising, but he prefers you over the guys. He thinks that you're… you played a better captain than the other guys.  The most interesting part, despite the psychotic writing…

Kate Mulgrew:  Despite the psychotic writing?

Q 12: They had that character so schizophrenic it wasn't even funny, but you still managed to pull it off.  But you made..

Kate Mulgrew:  (staccato) What are you talking about!?

Q 12:  You made… you made it work. 

Kate Mulgrew:  You thought the writing was schizophrenic?

Q 12:  Everybody did.

Kate Mulgrew:  Did everybody think that…

Q 12:  She kind of went … around a lot.

Kate Mulgrew:  Only the episode in which I had…  I gave birth to fifty-two lizards…

Q 12:  Well "Threshold's" an…

Kate Mulgrew:  That's when I began to worry about it…

Q 12:  "Threshold" is hilarious.  I love that one. 

Kate Mulgrew:  Well, I … I… deeply appreciate your son's sentiments.  Thank you very much. 

Q 12: I'll send you more pictures!

Kate Mulgrew: All right.  Thank you, Natalie. Bye.  Yes?

Q 13:  Hi.  I just wanted to thank you for being such a great inspiration for everyone, myself included.

Kate Mulgrew:  Thank you. 

Q 13:  And I was just wondering what made you take this role, and if you knew what kind of impact you'd have?

Kate Mulgrew: What made me take Janeway? Serendipity.  Good fortune. I wanted to work.  I didn't know anything about Star Trek, really.  I remember being at a party once, and somebody saying, (whispering) There's Patrick Stewart, he's the captain of Star Trek… (normal voice) and me turning to somebody and saying, Well who cares? Raise the champagne, but who cares.  Years pass and I did not understand what they meant by a new captain of a new Star Trek series, so I went in completely innocent, and maybe that's what got me the job, because I certainly was up against some formidable talent. But I think perhaps my… my ingenuousness in the room and my take on it which was a natural one, is probably what won the day.  And they needed, or what they saw, I suppose, was what is inherent in this role.  A strength.  A commitment. I think that they had probably figured out that I love to work hard. And that I can work as hard as any man. What do you know? 

Thank you.  Yes?

Q 14:  Hi. 

Kate Mulgrew:  Hi.

Q 14: First of all, hi from the Tea Team in Europe. 

Kate Mulgrew:  Oh yes.  Thanks. 

Q 14:  And…

Kate Mulgrew:  … her tee-shirt says Tea at Five Europe.  They're trying to get it to Europe.  Yes.

Q 14:  But Lynn  from the Tea Team says hi…

Kate Mulgrew:  Thank you.

Q 14:  And this question is actually from her.

Kate Mulgrew:  Yes.

Q 14:  She wants to know if you read John…Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code", and if so, what did you think of it, being a Catholic. 

Kate Mulgrew:  You're not going to like my response. And you must forgive me because I'm sure everybody here has read it and adored it.  I didn't like it. Not really good literature, honey. I mean I… I… if you're going to read a book, it's got to be compelling, and that's beach reading for a really boring weekend.  So… I'm sorry.  But with all the delicious books in the world, this guy's take on all of it… and what a way to, you know, sort of use what was absolutely exalted, so sorry, if I offended everybody – everybody loved "The Da Vinci Code".

Q 14:  I also wanted to know, do you believe in love at first sight?

Kate Mulgrew:  I did it! I had it with Tim. Yes. I actually think it's the only way. And the older I get – now I'm going to really offend everybody.  I don't believe that you can work at love. Really work at it. I don't believe that you can meet somebody in life and then have that grow into love. I think it's a needle in the haystack and nine out of ten people probably never know it. It's instant. It's a gift – there's no reason or rhyme to why some people have it and others don't. You walk in a door and he walks in at the same time – it's the thunderbolt. I absolutely believe in love at first sight. It has proven itself to be very true for me. 

Q 14:  Thank you.

Kate Mulgrew:  I mean my husband and I talk about this all the time.  Does it sound… harsh? If you have to work so hard at love, what's missing, right?  Let me go to work to work. Let me work for my kids, right? But you - you, whom I love – let me not have to labor to love you.  Let me be patient.  Let me serve you. Let me try to understand things when they're bad – ah yes, of course. But love?  No, real love, I think, is not laborious. 

Yes?

Q 15:  Hi Kate.

Kate Mulgrew:  Hi.

Q 15:  While you were going on about turning fifty and loving it…

Kate Mulgrew:  Going on…   What is that, rabbit ears?  Okay.  Yes darling?

Q 15:  I was just wondering, how forward are you looking to being a grandmother?  Because I've got to tell you, you'd be the coolest grandma around!

Kate Mulgrew:  Undoubtedly I already am one!  But… I'm not madly looking forward to it.  You know.  Not madly. How do I put this?  This is a day of total honesty in this room. Everybody always says, "Wait till you have grandchildren.  That's the relationship.  You get to love them, you get to 'pop pop', and then you get to leave them." I doubt that any relationship could be better than the relationship I have with my own sons. Nothing could possibly replace that, I don't think. Will I adore them?  And will I baby-sit for the little monsters? Yes. Yes.  And will I try to be a deeply loving grandmother?  Yes. But not yet.  Did you hear that Ian?  Did you hear that Alex?  Behave yourselves. They love women.  They love women. Scares me. Does that answer your question?

Q 15:  Yes it does.  And honestly, I really hope to be as fabulous looking as you are…

Kate Mulgrew:  What a nice thing to say… But you know, this has to go too. This has to go. It has to go away. 

Q 15:  What?

Kate Mulgrew:  All of that hanging on to vanity.  And I do… I do… I am so vain.  And I am so longing for the moment when I can say, "Oh my heavens.  This cup has passed me. Because it's a burden, It's a drag... Do you know? I really want a Big Mac. I'd like to wear a size 10, and get away with it, right?  And sit around and drink wine. Why not?  And at fifty, upwards, it becomes slightly unattractive -- do you or do you not agree? --when a woman is consumed with how she looks.  I can't have children any more!

(After the last remark Kate made the sign of the cross, ending with her hands in prayer, which elicited much laughter from the audience)

Yes?

Q 16:  Hello.

Kate Mulgrew:  Hello, how are you?

Q 16:  I'm fine, how are you?

Kate Mulgrew:  Good.

Q 16:  I’m here as a proud mother too, because I brought my eighteen year old son, who's too shy to come over to talk to you, so I'm talking to you, even though he's in the audience…

Kate Mulgrew:  It was ever thus, yes…

Q 16:  His name is Alex and he absolutely adores you.  And I think that's a great reflection on me, that he adores you, because like one of the other speakers who was up here, I feel that you are is favorite captain as well, and he adores women in that role. 

Kate Mulgrew:  That's wonderful.

Q 16:  So I want to say thank you from one mother to another, and I also… I also want to say thank you because, I don't know if you remember or not – probably not – but my son and I also went and saw you in "Tea at Five", because we're from Phoenix, and you were kind enough, to – as you were walking out the stage door – we were hounding you on the sidewalk, you were rushing with another lady, and I said, "Would you please sign a program for my son and myself." And you did. You stopped.  You signed it and you made his day. He's got the program framed on his wall. And he has your autographed picture…

Kate Mulgrew:  Well I think I might have to marry him. Where is he?

Q 16:  So if you could just say hi to Alex…

Kate Mulgrew:  Alex!  Where are you, honey?  Stand up.  And let me at least blow you a kiss!

Q 16:  Alex, stand up!

Kate Mulgrew:  Alex, stand up!  There he is! 

Thank you!

Q 16:  Thank you for being a wonderful role model for women and for inspiring everybody, and I think you're great.

Kate Mulgrew:  You've made my day. 

Q 16:  You've made my day.

Kate Mulgrew:  You know, this was a terrible… a matter of great concern, not only to the brass at Paramount but to myself. When I took Voyager I was what, thirty-nine? I guess.  Thirty-eight, thirty-nine.  Still of childbearing years, very much so. And the demographic, as you know that they target are young men. Eighteen to twenty-eight. (responding to the audience) Thirty-five. Forty-five! Fifty! I thought this was going to be very tough, because they're going to find it very hard to relate to somebody who could be their mother. And the greatest, I would say, test I had in that first season, was concentrating on being a captain. And putting aside that element, which is of course, you know, the imperative of every woman's biological and physiological being. But I put her aside and I thought, if I can win them with my captaincy, they will grow to love me as a woman. And I guess Alex, that's what happened. And that's the most gratifying thing of all.  So I thank you. 

I'll take one more question and then he says I have to stop. 

Yes?

Q 17:  I had the pleasure – actually my friend and I both had the pleasure of seeing you in L.A. in "The Royal Family", and we're going to see you in "Tea at Five" in Pasadena next month.  I was wondering, which…

Kate Mulgrew:  Did you like "Royal Family"?

Q 17:  It was… you were fabulous. It was just so entertaining and…

Kate Mulgrew:  I love that play.  I love that play.

Q 17:  I was really glad you were in it, because if I hadn't seen your name on the card, the mailer I got, I would never have gone to see it, and it was so worth it.

Kate Mulgrew:  Oh good. Thank you. Thank you. 

Q 17: My question was, which do you love more, theatre, live theatre, or television, and if you don't love either – like why do you love each?

Kate Mulgrew:  I love to act, so it's a bit like saying…and all of my… I love all of my closest friends – I have six intimate, intimate friends. And they're wildly different. What is it about each one of them?  I don't know. For my… for my essential dynamic, I would say the stage.  I get this.  I get it.  Something happens that's pleasing, that's natural and true. The camera is a bit of a clinical instrument.  I used to watch Jeri Ryan with the camera. There was a real love affair between the two of them. I mean this honestly, and I mean it in a flattering way. She knew that camera, she trusted it, she brought it to her… it was never… I used to go in to the camera at five-thirty in the morning and say, "Are we going to get along today?" Because it's an instrument. But you're not.  So I think I prefer you to that.  But I also love… I love to act, you know.  I just love to act. It's pretty amazing that after thirty-two years, I still wake up and say, is today the day it's gone? It's still here.  And it's here because of you. 

Thank you very much.