Kate Mulgrew (Photo by Max Schwartz courtesy HarperCollins Publishers)
Actress and author Kate Mulgrew has had a distinguished career on stage and screen. Best known for her roles as the fiery Russian “Red” on the Netflix series “Orange Is the New Black” and the steadfast Capt. Kathryn Janeway on “Star Trek: Voyager,” Mulgrew has written a new memoir, “How to Forget.” The book is a deeply personal tale of her love for her parents as she returned to her hometown of Dubuque, Iowa, to care for her father, suffering from lung cancer, and her mother, living with Alzheimer’s disease. This is the second memoir for Mulgrew, a passionate advocate for Alzheimer's disease awareness. Her first, “Born With Teeth,” details reconnecting with the daughter she had given up for adoption decades before.
We spoke with Mulgrew via phone from Charleston, South Carolina, as she was wrapping an appearance on the AT&T Audience Network’s “Mr. Mercedes,” based on author Stephen King’s best-selling detective trilogy. Mulgrew will discuss her new book at the Science Museum of Virginia during “An Evening With Kate Mulgrew” on Wednesday, June 26.
Richmond magazine: You’re currently filming “Mr. Mercedes.” Did you join the cast for season three?
Kate Mulgrew: I’m the guest for season three — I’m a psychopath.
RM: What’s it like playing a psychopath?
Mulgrew: Heaven — make no mistake, absolute heaven.
RM: Do you get to draw on your "Orange Is the New Black" character, Red, for that?
Mulgrew: No, because Red wasn’t a psychopath. She was good, eminently, eminently sane until she wasn’t, but I’ll leave this season seven [of “Orange Is the New Black”] to the viewers. She was hardened by circumstances and by her time in prison, but she had a good heart, very good spine. This character that I’m playing — her name is Alma Lane — is a … psy-cho-path. And it’s strangely liberating, because I always played good girls, but it looks like they’re discovering in me all the hidden shadows. [Laughs]
RM: On July 26, the seventh and final season of “Orange Is the New Black” will be available on Netflix, so how has the journey of playing Red been for you?
Mulgrew: It’s been terrific. Very rewarding. I’ve made some terrific and, I believe, enduring relationships: Cindy Holland, the vice president in charge of original programming for Netflix; Taylor Schilling [who plays Piper Chapman]; Natasha Lyonne [who plays Nicky Nichols]; Neri Tannenbaum [producer] — wonderful women. I will not let go of them in my life. And the part itself was marvelous and based on a real character. The writing was incomparable, penned by Jenji Kohan, who is one of the great original minds of our time, and to get a seven-year run at something is very unusual, and I felt quite privileged.
RM: Switching gears to the book, why did you decide to write this particular memoir?
Image courtesy HarperCollins Publishers
Mulgrew: It found its way to me. I went to Ireland to write a different book, but that is not what emerged. I mean, I didn’t have a definitive sense of where I was going, but I thought perhaps a novel, certainly not another narrative of this nature. But I guess my subconscious simply was unrelenting, and again and again, it kept going back to my father, the last night that I spent with my father after he had been given the death sentence, and then the nine years that I had spent with my mother as she took that awful journey through Alzheimer’s and what they had meant to each other from my perspective as a daughter and how that had shaped me. And that just kept returning in an elliptical but unrelenting fashion to my mind, and so I said to myself, “It needs to be written,” and when something needs to be written, you have to pay attention. So I did, and that’s what came out.
RM: Did you find that writing this book was cathartic?
Mulgrew: No, not in the least, nor should it have been. I don’t believe that when you write an honest book it is cathartic. I’m not a student of psychology, but I didn’t find it remotely therapeutic. I found it to be an emotional archeological dig the likes of which I had never undertaken before, so it was fascinating, and it was continually surprising, but it was hard. I cried a lot. I cried every day.
RM: Do you think someone will be able to read this and relate and maybe find some kind of hope or solace in your words?
Mulgrew: Well, I mean, it’s the human condition, so of course I’m hoping that people will. And I think particularly given the relationship between fathers and daughters, that there are daughters out there who can understand that when my father was told that he had very little time to live, I just sort of forced his hand, and I made him come clean about all of the things that had been left undiscussed between us, and he was brilliant that night. He was forthcoming, and he was tender, and he was gentle, and he was brave, so I think I would encourage daughters to seek their fathers out and for everybody who has anybody going through Alzheimer’s to know that you have to find solace in one another. … It cannot be done with a sense of stoicism, it must be shared.
RM: No interview with you would be complete without mentioning your role as Capt. Kathryn Janeway, so how has the legacy of starring as first female captain on "Star Trek" continued to affect your life even now?
Mulgrew: Well, this is the defining role, the life-changing role. I was told that at the time, and it’s not that I dismissed it, but I was so busy trying to wrap my head around what was happening to me that it didn’t register. But within about two years, it was very apparent to me that I had stepped into something much, much bigger than I could ever have foreseen, and it has continued to direct my life. First of all, it’s the gift that keeps on giving, but secondly, it was a part of a lifetime in so far as I was the first female captain of one of the most successful franchises of all time, and I changed the nature of television, the history of television, and I believe the status of women in science. I believe that Janeway helped to change that. And that, above and beyond all the rest, was deeply gratifying, and the fact that I’m going to be at the Science Museum I think is just wonderful. But she was a scientist first and foremost, Janeway, you know. Before she was a captain, she was a scientist. How do you think she got lost in the Delta Quadrant? Curiosity.
RM: When you come to Richmond for “An Evening With Kate Mulgrew,” what can attendees expect?
Mulgrew: I’ll read a little passage, maybe two, but it won’t be long, enough to give everybody a flavor, and then I will talk a little bit about my experience writing the book, but then I’m going to open the floor to questions because that’s when the dialogue really begins, that’s when an interesting conversation unfolds. … I like to enjoy that with the audience. I want to get into it with them. I want to know what their experience is. I want to know what the commonalities are and how we can come together to help each other.
Kate Mulgrew will conduct a book reading and discussion during “An Evening With Kate Mulgrew,” Wednesday, June 26, at 5:45 p.m. for the VIP ticketholders' meet-and-greet and 6:45 p.m. for general admission ticketholders. Tickets are $30 to $100. Science Museum of Virginia, 2500 W. Broad St.
