Star Trek star Marina Sirtis on leaving America: “I can’t be in that country anymore”
"Nepenthe" -- Episode #107 -- Pictured: Marina Sirtis as Deanna Troi; of the the CBS All Access series STAR TREK: PICARD. Photo Cr: Aaron Epstein/CBS ©2019 CBS Interactive, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
JUNE 27, 2021 - The Big Issue, the award-winning magazine in the U.K. dedicated to helping people in poverty, recently published an interview with Star Trek: The Next Generation’s Marina Sirtis, who talked about her recent move back to the land of her birth, and the reasons for it. Picking right back up from a 2019 interview where she declared that Star Trek fans and Republicans cannot co-exist, Sirtis shared her continued thoughts on that disparity and how it inspired her to move.
“Yeah, well they do co-exist but it doesn’t make sense,” she said. “They obviously aren’t watching the same show that everyone else is watching. And they are the reason I’ve come home actually, I can’t be in that country anymore.”
Sirtis referenced the January 6th insurrection in Washington, D.C. as the turning point for her, adding, “I was worried that there was going to be a civil war. And [Trump] supporters have guns.” Even with the former president out of office, Sirtis lamented the lingering sense of fear “because he’s living in their hearts”. Referencing her late husband, Michael Lamper, she recalled, “My husband, God rest him, used to sleep with a loaded gun by the side of the bed. That’s no way to live.”
The U.S. political divide wasn’t the only reason to return home, Sirtis said. She pointed out a positive reason, remarking, “Career opportunities are better for a middle-aged woman in England, and that is another reason why I came back.” She sees real opportunity in British television, noting, “TV is a real women’s medium in the UK. Most of the producers are women. A lot of the directors are women. A lot of the writers are women. And they write for women and not just 25-year-old blondes.”
She shares other thoughts with The Big Issue, including why she thinks Worf deserves his own spinoff show, the nightmare she experienced moving her dogs overseas, and the pleasant surprise that Star Trek: Picard’s ratings gave to her and Jonathan Frakes. You can read all about it by visiting bigissue.com.
Jack Brown is a contributing writer for Daily Star Trek News on the Roddenberry Podcast Network. Jack teaches at a small film school in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and also helps to manage his wife's career as a novelist and speaker. In his spare time he writes fiction, cooks, and watches classic movies.
