Auberjonois has played a wide array of characters in his long and distinguished career, such as Father Mulcahy in MASH, Frasier Crane’s pink-satin-dressing-gown-clad mentor Professor Tewksbury in Frasier, and of course DS9’s security officer Odo, to name but a few.
When I heard that Mister Auberjonois would be attending LFCC, I knew I couldn’t miss the opportunity to talk with him. Although things had to be cut short due to a queue forming behind me, it was absolutely fantastic to chat with him: he is genuinely a most excellent gentleman.
Hello, Mister Auberjonois! A pleasure to meet you, sir. How are you?
Hello! I’m well, and you?
I’m well, thank you.
First of all, I just wanted to say how much I loved your portrayal of Odo on Deep Space Nine. As this year marks the 20th anniversary of the series, could you please describe a little about what it was like working on DS9?
Well, it was a gift. It came at a wonderful time in my life, and it was a great character to portray, and a lot of wonderful people to work with; not only the other actors, but the crew and the directors, the writers... It was getting to be part of an ensemble for seven years, which is a really rare opportunity in this very unstable business. It was great.
What would you say was your favourite thing about Deep Space Nine?
Well... The ongoing story, the complexity of the stories and the characters, and I liked the fact that compared to the other versions of Star Trek, I think Deep Space Nine is the most gritty and dark and perhaps neurotic. That appealed to me, because it's more complex.
And no matter how alien any of the characters were, there was always this sense of... Well, humanity is probably not the right word to use, but it's the only word we have! Every character had this sense of humanity about them, and Odo in particular started to develop a burgeoning sense of humanity that grew as the series went on.
How was it portraying Odo's character? Were there any aspects of yourself in the role?
Well, I think any actor who creates a character, there are aspects of his own personality that come through into the character. Not the complete picture of who I am, of course...
I'm not suggesting you are a shape-shifter!
Obviously I'm not a shape-shifter! There's a lot of Odo's sense of integrity I like to believe is part of the way I've learned to live in the world, and his sort of covered sense of humour is something that I feel I brought to the character. I'm a character actor, that means I play – and have throughout my life – many different characters, and Odo in his flexibility to be able to shape-shift, and the fact that he was masked in a way, seemed to me like a kind of symbol of what I do as an actor.
And as a character, he grew a lot throughout the series. Especially when he discovered his own people, he became a new person.
How did you feel about his overall character development as the series progressed?
It was always an adventure to get the scripts each week, to see how the story would evolve, and I would say that in the end his returning to his people – to the soup – was inevitable. He had been sent out by a planet, a community of creatures, that were very fearful and paranoid about what was out there. In the end he has to serve as the healing force, and return to where he had come from.
Well, as it appears there's a queue gradually growing longer and longer behind me, this'll have to be the final question. How did you feel about Odo's relationship with Kira? Was it a direction you could see the character going in?
Well, it was a surprise to both Nana and I. It was not anything we had anticipated, and it really wasn't anything that the writers had anticipated. It seemed to evolve out of their friendship, and it was a very interesting aspect which – to a certain part of the audience – was very important, and they responded to it with great passion. So, in the end, although I think both Nana and I thought “where did that come from?”, I think we were both very satisfied with that development.
Thank you for your time, it was an absolute pleasure, sir. Enjoy the rest of your weekend.
Thank you, and you too. Take care.
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I wish I could have spoken with René Auberjonois for longer, about his current work and his support for Doctors Without Borders, but unfortunately I had to move on due to the queue forming behind me. It was absolutely brilliant meeting him: he's a truly fantastic gentleman.
Visit www.renefiles.com for the latest news and updates about René Auberjonois’s and his work.
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