In this business you're selling who you are to a large degree; although you're playing other characters you bring those elements to the table, and it gets very limiting if producers think that a character must have strong cultural traits or must be a man or a woman. But I've been very lucky in that at times I've been cast in a role that was perhaps initially intended for a man, and it's been very nice that they'll consider other options; same thing, I think, with the cultural issue in that very often a part wasn't necessarily intended that way but then they've been open enough to consider it.

[on how she got the part of "Nurse Alyssa Ogawa" on Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987)] There was a role in sickbay, so I read for it and got the part. I thought I would probably never come back because, on the show, everybody had aged and so I'd be a little girl when they went back to real time, but on the set, that day, Jonathan Frakes said, 'Oh, you'll be back!' Then, sure enough, a few episodes, later, they called me. I guess I got a little bit of help from above or something because, had they put me on the bridge, I probably wouldn't have been with the show long!

[on how she got involved with Star Trek] I had been reading for the show for a number of other episodes and characters and they actually hired me at one point to be on the bridge, but I was doing a commercial and I couldn't get out of the contract; it was a multiple-day shoot and I had already gone on camera one of the days, so they weren't able to release me. I was heartbroken, because I really wanted to be on the show!

[on how often she worked on Star Trek] I never knew when they'd want me. When I came back the second time I worked with Jonathan again, so I thought he was a good luck charm. After that there would be a month or two in between shows, and you never knew what they were going to write down the road. So there was no expectation on my part, which was probably a healthy thing; it wasn't until I got some thread of a storyline that I really allowed myself to feel a real part of the show; to be honest with you.

[about her character, "Nurse Alyssa Ogawa", on Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987)] I told George Takei that Ogawa was his great-granddaughter, and he said, 'Not too great, please; I'm not that old!'