When I was a kid, Kate Mulgrew was one of my favorite actresses, because she defined the phrase “strong woman.” As Captain Kathryn Janeway on Star Trek: Voyager, she didn’t take crap from anybody. She’s still got authority… except now she’s also got an awesome eyepatch. Kate plays Kove, the boss lady of an anti-terrorism task force, in Adult Swim’s NTSF:SD:SUV (that’s National Terrorism Strike Force: San Diego: Sport Utility Vehicle), which airs Thursdays at 12:15 AM ET/PT.
The mouthful of a series, which is a sendup of all the other acronym-sporting procedurals on the air, is not a total departure for Kate, who describes her character as “the head of NTSF; I’m a formidable person. I was married to [series creator] Paul Scheer[‘s character, Trent] twice; we have two kids.” Yet her official bio says Kove also “has an obsession with teen fiction and pop culture.” Oh, and that eyepatch.
How did she go from commanding the starship Voyager — for which she won a Saturn Award and garnered three more nominations — to this? “A total fluke,” laughs Mulgrew. “Paul, who is the total genius and the mastermind, thought ‘I’m going to call Kate Mulgrew, because she’d be perfect for this.’ Nobody ever thinks of me for that kind of comedy. I read the material and I thought it was outrageous. I immediately said yes, and I’m so glad that I did. This experience is one of the most pleasurable of my career. It’s all crazy, dark humor. One person is always trying to outdo the next. We have some really talented comedians. It’s just one fantastic person after another.“
The role might come as a surprise to viewers who are used to seeing her as Janeway or as Mrs. Columbo, but Kate isn’t worried about the potentially long shadow of her previous accomplishments. “I would say this is a perfect case of taking a departure from the norm, from the strong female leader, and playing completely tongue-in-cheek, tapping into my comedic sensibilities,” she says. “Do I do it deliberately? No. But I’m lucky enough to have people like Paul Scheer think I can do this, and I’m answering those calls more and more.“
Answering Scheer’s phone call put her on set working with the likes of Scheer and Rebecca Romijn, as well as a guest cast that includes J.K. Simmons (Law & Order), Gabrielle Union (FlashForward), Jeff Goldblum (Law & Order: Criminal Intent) and Moon Bloodgood (Falling Skies).
It also involved a unique element: like some of Adult Swim’s other series, the show is only fifteen minutes long. But that difference isn’t obvious behind the scenes according to Kate. “You film the same way. You’re still working a fifteen-hour day. It just only takes three days to shoot an episode as opposed to eight. So the awareness of the time contraction is not really evident. We’re just happily shooting along for four or five weeks and then we’re told we’re done,” she tells us, adding that these brief shows could be “the wave of the future. I think there’s a real audience for a fifteen-minute episode. People who love to laugh, people who like to stay with a story but not too long.”
With NTSF:SD:SUV‘s first season wrapped, perhaps she can turn her attention to some of her career ambitions. “I really wanted to play Maria Callas,” she confides, referencing the role that Tyne Daly is currently inhabiting in the play Master Class. “I’ve just finished playing Cleopatra. She’s one I wanted to play for a long time. I still have to do a Chekhov play; I must do Chekhov before I die.” It’s obvious that the veteran actress still has a passion for what she does.
So what’s the secret to Kate’s natural command? Maybe it’s just always been there. “I’m the oldest of eight children and I had to be very bossy, very young so that everyone would do what I wanted them to do.” I still wouldn’t want to cross her.
Clacked by Brittany Frederick 
on Jul 29, 2011 @ 16:00 EST5EDT
I miss Mercy =(