Quotes from Michelle Forbes’ interview with Ian Spelling in the August 1994 issue of Starlog.
On Ro as a “strong” character:
“Everyone keeps referring to her strength and her outspokenness,” she notes, “but it disturbs me that Ro is constantly referred to as strong. She’s outspoken and she is who she is. I never thought of her as being strong. What is strong? People do tend to relate to her opinions or struggles and her outspokenness. If that makes her strong, fine, but she’s also weak in trying to find her way. Perhaps many people just identify with her for that.”
On why she wanted to play Ensign Ro:
“The story was so political. Television is mostly one-dimensional. You’re dealing with cops and robbers,” she argues, “or scandalous lawyers. I read ‘Ro’ and it had so many different levels to it, with fathers and war and homeland and prison and joining a new family. They never told me Ro was going to be a recurring character when we ewre doing it. After they put the show together they asked me if I would mind coming back. I said, ‘Absolutely.'”
On the script for the time loop episode “Cause and Effect”:
“They sent me the script and I thought the Xerox machine had screwed up. I was just about to say, ‘Look, there’s a problem with the script,’ she remembers, “Thank God I realized that was the whole show before I went and embarrassed myself.
On Ro’s growth:
“When they asked me to return as Ro [for “The Next Phase”], I said I had no interest in playing this character if she was going to be homogenized, if she was going to go from people thinking she was too outspoken to being turned into a soft-bellied piece of jello. The fans always said, ‘We love how true to herself she is.’ Some people told me at conventions that they thought she was becoming too soft, but I guess it’s a natural progression. That episode forced her to ask questions about why we’re here, how much we miss out on in life, what would happen if it were all taken away tomorrow. It was an interesting way to soften her up, not in a needless way, but in a growth way.”
