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Chase Masterson - Sexy Bajoran Dabo girl and torch singer
Joining the crew
Tell us how you came to join the Deep Space Nine cast.
Deep Space Nine was the one show that I prayed to be on, because I had one friend who was already on the show, on The Next Generation. That was Jonathan Del Arco who played Hugh the Borg.
Jonathan and I were in the same acting class before I was on the show. It's funny, in a city of twelve million people, I was in an acting class with ten people. Three of those people were Jonathan from Next Gen, Garret [Wang] from Voyager, and me. Isn't that wild?
Jonathan would always come to class on Monday nights and tell us about what he was getting to do on the show, and the conventions that he had gone to over the weekend. I thought, "How great is that? To be on such a wonderful quality show, and to get to go to meet the fans that make it possible. Travelling all over the world. That's what I want to do."
I also knew that Star Trek was timeless, and that it would be a fabulous thing to do for my career, so I arranged to meet the casting director, Ron Surma, at a pay-to-meet showcase. Actors can pay thirty dollars to meet a casting director. You do a little theme for them for five minutes, and if they like you, then you're in.
He called me in for a role, actually for the role of Mardah who was Jake's girlfriend in the second season. She was also a Bajoran Dabo girl, but I didn't get that. Actually, when I was shooting the third episode as Leeta, Ira Behr [writer] told me that they wrote the role of Leeta for me. So, I got a call to be Leeta, and that was it. A huge blessing.
Glamour girl
Did you enjoy the make-up, or was it a tiring process?
I did my first play when I was five years old, and one of my first memories in life is the smell of the make-up in the dressing room. I just loved it then, and I still do. I love everything about it. It's not the most fun thing, but it's one of the fun things about being an actress, getting to dress up and change who you are.
Were the actors who played Ferengi as keen as you?
To be honest, my make-up took longer than the Ferengis'. When Leeta was a Dabo girl, and there was glamorous make-up added, hair, make-up and wardrobe was a three and a half-hour process. Beauty make-up actually takes quite a long time. Hey, that's how long it usually takes me every day! (laughs).
Message in a spaceship
Did you like the strong messages that are a hallmark of Trek?
I loved the way that Star Trek is allegorical and thematic, and I think that's really the reason the show has lasted so long. It speaks to people's hearts, and a lot of other entertainment doesn't.
I feel especially blessed to be on Deep Space Nine, because what Ira Behr and his wonderful team of writers did with the characters was create people who are hugely dimensional, and for that reason there was beautiful, poignant drama, and really fun delightful comedy, and you don't find that sort of range often on television.
There's some drama shows that have a bit of humour, but we flat out just had hilarious episodes. Then maybe next week, or another aspect of that episode would be something incredibly poignant. It's an incredibly valuable experience to get to be on a show like that.
Sticking together
Do you still keep in touch with the rest of your castmembers?
The cast keeps in touch on different levels. We see each other a lot at events.
I'm best friends with Lolita Fatjo, who of course was the script co-ordinator for fourteen years on Star Trek, so I talk with her every day, and Max [Grodenchik] at least every couple of weeks, and we still love to do events together.
We've been doing the Ferengi Family Hour at conventions all over the world and having a lot of fun with that. For anyone who hasn't seen it, it's a Ferengi variety show. Like Donny and Marie [Osmond], but for Ferengi. Max wrote it with Lolita, and we sing, we dance, we tell big ear jokes.
We're going to be doing it hopefully in London next January, and we've got a couple of other dates planned. We love to see each other when we do it.
Fan connection
Have you had any particular experiences with fans that have touched you?
Yes. This particular one happened only three weeks ago, and it was singularly one of the best things that's ever happened to me in my life.
It was a convention in Denver. I was really tired, it was the end of the day and we'd done the whole convention and I'd just come off stage. I was exhausted, and I quietly, unobtrusively made my way to the bar, and was just going to get a beer and go to bed.
I said hello to the person I was sitting next to. She was a key figure in the US Navy, because she teaches people how to fight. She'd been on the front lines, and she knows a lot of people who've been on the front lines. She's been in for something like fifteen or twenty years, so she's a career girl, and her stories were amazing.
She told me stories of going, several years ago, in to rebuild Bosnia, and they would go as much as twenty-one days without a shower. She said they would come back from wherever they were, and before they'd even take a shower or do anything for themselves, there was sometimes a new tape of Star Trek shipped in from the States, a new episode that they hadn't seen, and they sat down and watched that hungrily and joyfully.
She said that was because of the sense of unity that they got from watching our show. The feeling of hope and of all that is important.
It was such an electric experience sitting and listening to her say that. It's just so wonderful to know not only that you entertain people, it's wonderful to be on a show that actually means something to people and to the world.
So, instead of just getting my beer and going to bed, I sat there at the bar and cried, because it just touched my heart so deeply. It was really very very special and I'll never forget it.
Things like that do happen quite a bit for us. People will come up and say what certain episodes meant because of their situations in their life. That's one of the most beautiful things about the show. Obviously even though it's about people in places far away, it's just so personal to the fans.
Musical youth
How did you get involved in singing?
I've been singing since I was about five years old.
I started out in musical theatre when I was five. My first play was Oklahoma, in which I played Child, and I've been singing ever since. I did lots of musical theatre while growing up and then in college, and then semi-professionally and professionally after school. It's something I've always done. I also work as a dancer. So music was always extremely important to me.
When I was fourteen years old, I choreographed a show called Rogers and Hart, A Musical Celebration, and it was [about] Richard Rogers and his first partner, Lorence Hart, before Oscar Hammerstein. I didn't know anything about this kind of music, music of the thirties, forties and fifties, and I fell in love with it at the age of fourteen. In the rest of school I always felt like a bit of an outcast, because the rest of the kids were always going out to football games, or hanging out at the mall, while I was there in love with music that was older than my parents.
So I learned this music, learned to sing it, learned the foxtrot and cha-cha and all those wonderful things and just put it away for a while because I started to work in television and film. I never forgot it, I just didn't have the time to do it so when the opportunity came up recently, where Lolita Fatjo wanted to help me produce a CD, we just sat down and did it.
We produced it ourselves and I have two offers now from labels to distribute, but we haven't made a decision yet. So it's solely available from my website which is chasemasterson.com.
A portion of the proceeds are going to an AIDS hospice in Uganda. I got in touch with them through the World Health Organisation, and we'll actually be able to get them the money without any of the corruption that you often find in third world countries. We'll be benefiting them, and as you know, the AIDS crisis is horrific over there. I'm excited to be able to be doing something good with a portion of the proceeds.
I'm really excited about it. It's extremely romantic music and very sexy too. It's an era that was certainly unlike anything before or since. Torch songs, with a kind of big band feel, a lot of horns, a lot of fun.
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Meet the band
Who else was involved in making the CD?
My arranger and one of the pianists on the CD is someone I met doing conventions. He has played for a couple of Creation conventions in the states, and we've done some work together.
I just called him up and said, "Hey Bill, remember me, I'm going to do this CD and would you like to work on it?" He has a band which he works with, it's a big band, called the Sharp Sounds and they're just a fabulous group of musicians based near LA, and we put it together.
One other note though - years ago, when we were doing Deep Space Nine, I remarked to one of the musicians in Jimmy Dalen's band that one of these days I'd like to do a CD, and I asked him for his number if I wanted to see if I could hire him.
And I did. I called him on very short notice and he wonderfully dropped other plans to be the special guest artist bass player on my CD. So there's a little bit of a Star Trek connection too, from Vic Fontaine's band.
Singing with the Son
Who, alive or dead, would you most like to duet with?
Wow. There are so many. I think that if Jesus could sing, I'd probably take him.
As far as singers go, I would maybe want to be Jane Russell to Marilyn Munroe's voice. They did some wonderful duets, and I actually sing two of Marilyn's songs on this CD. People don't know, but she was an amazing vocalist. I think she's really underestimated in that way.
I don't know, does John Cusack sing? (laughs)
DVD days
Have you done any work for the Deep Space Nine DVD releases?
Well, we were interviewed at the very beginning of the process, and I was able to sit and talk for quite a while about the show, and the wonderful family of people I worked with.
I haven't seen any of it yet, because I've been on the road. I'm not sure if any of my interviews are out yet as I didn't start until the third season, but it was a real honour to be asked to be included on the DVDs.
I can't wait to see what the others have said. Especially the writers. They're a group of people I respect more than any other.
I'm very much looking forward to it and I would recommend it to any Star Trek fans.
Sucked into sci-fi?
Did you ever expect to end up doing so much work in the sci fi genre?
I did specifically want to be on Star Trek because I knew that the world of science fiction was a vast and really intriguing one. And also because I knew of the faithfulness of the fans of the genre.
But whereas I did set out to be in the genre, I never dreamt or expected that it would become what it has to me. I'm really grateful.
I've got two genre projects coming up. I'm the lead in an upcoming film which is a genre feature with a kind of a horror bent. It's got a fabulous story and I'm really looking forward to it coming out. It's called Creature Unknown, and I was also a producer on that project. That'll be out this summer.
The next project I'm really excited about is, I am going to become the chairman of the first ever major genre film festival in the world. It's being done through Cinescape magazine, it's September 19th through 21st in Santa Monica, Los Angeles, and it's going to be called Maniafest. It's website is at Maniafest.com.
I'm honoured to say I was asked to be the chairman, and we're putting it all together. We're picking panellists, we're going to have some really fabulous top directors and producers coming to speak, and we're going to be honouring Stan Winston, who is an incredible icon in the genre. And we're supporting boys' and girls' clubs through America by doing it.
Do you think this will become an ongoing thing?
I really do. I think it's high time there was a major event put together to honour the genre film work, and to recognise the writers and directors and other artists who've created the genre to be what it is. It's exciting to be honouring some of the greats who've moulded the genre, George Romero, Toby Hooper, Clive Barker, guys like that, and we're also having a competition for screenplays, shorts and feature films. So we'll be recognising and honouring up and coming genre artists as well, and maybe helping establish some of those.
I'm really putting my nose to the grindstone and doing my homework, and learning about some fabulous genre projects. The old sci-fi of the fifties and sixties which is so camp and fun. Really, some of the effects in the old days were great, considering that television had just been invented. It's an education, and I'm more and more falling in love with the genre.
Would you have liked to have been in one of those Saturday morning cinema fifties sci fi programmes, or would you have a problem with how they portray women?
I think they're great. I love campy fun and I've never had a problem with that kind of thing being sexist. To me, science fiction is a genre where women can be sexy and powerful and smart. They can be leaders and not lose their femininity, which is great.
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