Marina Sirtis Reveals Hollywood Pressured Her About Weight, Dashes Hopes for ‘Star Trek: Legacy’

Sometimes, a direct approach is best, and Star Trek: The Next Generation’s Marina Sirtis is known for her candidness. The actress, best known for her role as Counselor Deanna Troi, recently shared frank thoughts with fans about the challenges she faced in Hollywood and the slim chances of a return for the TNG crew.

“You Look Fat”

During a Star Trek: The Next Generation panel at last month’s Star Trek: The Cruise, Sirtis discussed how modern Star Trek shows have made progress in casting women of diverse body types. However, she revealed that producers used to critique her weight. Co-star Jonathan Frakes added that executive producer Rick Berman told both him and Sirtis they were not in solid enough shape.

Sirtis recounted the experience (via the Talking Trek Starfleet Fleet Command podcast), describing it as a “good news/bad news” feedback session.

“I know this doesn’t happen in Hollywood anymore, because I look at the new Star Trek shows and there are women of every shape and size as there should be. But I used to receive the calls, ‘Do you want the good news or the bad news?’ I was like, ‘I don’t care, what?’ And they’d be like, ‘Okay, the good news we watched the dailies, your work was fabulous.’ ‘Thank you.’ ‘The bad news is you look fat. We pay you a lot of money to look good.’ That was Hollywood in the ’90s, and actually, to be honest, MeToo has changed some [of it]. What MeToo has changed is that they don’t put their hand up your skirt anymore, right? But what hasn’t changed in Hollywood is their attitude to women, because watch TV, watch network TV, the men can get as fat and as ugly as they like, and the women are all skinny and gorgeous and usually blonde, so it hasn’t changed. It’s just the actual assault part has gone away.”

Sirtis noted that moving back to England improved her career. “If I was still in the States at my age I would never work. In England I did two movies in a series last year,” she said.

Denise Crosby added, “The women — me and Denise — we survived Hollywood and came out stronger on the other side. It was a battle.” Crosby also expressed frustration with the limited input she had regarding her character, Tasha Yar, feeling it was unfulfilling.

No Hope for Legacy

The panel, which also included Jonathan Frakes, Denise Crosby, and John de Lancie, was moderated by Todd Stashwick of Star Trek: Picard’s third season, where the TNG cast reunited for the first time since Star Trek: Nemesis in 2002. However, when asked about the possibility of another TNG reunion in a series called Legacy, Sirtis delivered a firm response.

“Legacy is never going to happen,” she stated. “You know, you hate hearing the truth. There is not a single studio in America that is going to make a series where most of the leading actors are over 70 years old. I’m sorry, but just that’s just the truth. It’s just Hollywood.”

The concept of a continuation of Picard’s final season gained momentum in 2023, but Paramount did not greenlight showrunner Terry Matalas’ idea. Matalas envisioned a show featuring characters from the TNG era in guest and recurring roles, centered around the USS Enterprise-G under the command of Captain Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan), with a younger cast including Ashlei Sharpe Chestnut and Ed Speleers.

Despite Sirtis’ assessment, Paramount+ has found success with shows featuring older stars, such as Landman starring Billy Bob Thornton (age 70), 1923 with Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren (ages 80 and 77 respectively at the time of premiere), and the upcoming The Madison featuring Michelle Pfeiffer (67) and Kurt Russell (75).

You can watch the full panel discussion here.