She’s Got a Standing Lunch Date

“Star Trek: Voyager” may not be able to find Earth’s gravity as it wanders through the Delta Quadrant, but Capt. Kathryn Janeway cannot escape it.

“I’m on my feet all day, so when I talk about gravity, I’m saying that it’s probably wise to put your feet up a couple of times a day,” said actress Kate Mulgrew, who plays Janeway in the third generation of the “Star Trek” TV series.

“I have a small frame, so the pull on my body at the end of the day can sometimes be a little rough, especially if I exceed 14 hours. And I’m in 3 1/2-inch heels, so the back takes it, the butt takes it, the stomach takes it, the uterus probably takes it as well.”

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Question: You know we’re going to explore your fitness program--exercise and food--right?

Answer: That should be the shortest column you’ve ever written. I subscribe to no physical regimen of any kind. Nor have I ever.

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Q: Uh-oh.

A: I mean, my physical regimen is the sheer work schedule, which keeps me hopping. I should not discount the fact that if I can swim every day, I will. I never feel that it’s a terrible labor of exercise, which is what I object to.

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Q: Sweating it out for hours in a gym, you mean?

A: I don’t get that. I don’t know--I guess for some people it’s a drug. I think that exercise for women my age, and I’m 42, is borderline unattractive, unless she’s doing it for her emotional well-being. When I go to the gym and I watch them all there for hours--and this is not a judgment call--I’m just wondering why they’re not reading a great book or having a long, intimate lunch over white wine.

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Q: You want to talk about your diet?

A: Yes. I’m going to lose my entire viewing audience. . . . I don’t eat until I am hungry, which means I have never had breakfast in my life.

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Q: Kate, you’re going to get us both into trouble.

A: I know--it’s awful, it’s awful. And I jump-start myself with coffee. I have very good Costa Rican coffee.

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Q: I use Viennese. Keep going.

A: Uh-huh. And I’ll have two or three cups of coffee. I used to be able to go all day, but now I get hungry, peckish, around 1. I run on fuel. I don’t run on fat and I never overeat. So I’ll have fruit or a piece of chicken or salad. Now, I eat standing up.

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Q: You’re standing?

A: Yeah, I eat lunch standing up and on the run. I’m moving while I’m eating. But the big thing is--I cook dinner every night for my sons.

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Q: A sit-down dinner, right?

A: We sit down to dinner every night. I have always loved preparing dinner. And I’m a very good cook. I love to feed other people. I’ll set a great table and I try to visit different countries--I prepared an Indonesian meal for them the other night. So there’s terrific joy in the nightly ritual of dinner. And I’ll have a couple of glasses of wine with dinner, which I think is very good at the end of the day. It lets your body know that it’s done a good day’s work and now it should celebrate and relax.

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Q: Your weight stays pretty much the same?

A: I could fluctuate within 5 pounds, but that’s probably hormonal as much as anything. You know, I have to stay pretty trim to get into that bloody spacesuit.

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Q: It looks tight.

A: Yeah. It’s a very tight little number and my shape’s OK, but gravity takes over at a certain point, you know. I suppose at a certain point it should and then I guess I’ll just have to kick into another gear.

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Q: Just tell them to change the captain’s uniform. Add a cape or something.

A: A voluminous cape and a great big hat, right? I’ll call the producer--”Candace suggests that I wear a tent.” Red Alert would have a whole new meaning, wouldn’t it? Damn ship’ll sink. That’s one way to get home, Candace--”Here she comes with her Big Mac--homeward bound.” In about three months the ship will simply plummet to Federation Earth and that’s the end of the series. So we can’t do that.

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Q: I didn’t realize you wore spiked heels in the show.

A: Yeah, because I’m so much shorter than the men. I’m 5-5 but these guys are 6 or 6-2. We tried it at our normal heights and it was like a cartoon. A little, bossy woman shouting up at these huge monsters. It just didn’t work. So they put me in these heels and now we look like we could talk to each other. That’s why they devised the bun--give me some height.

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Q: Do you drink water throughout the day?

A: Tons of water. It’s easy to go through five or six bottles of water a day. That’s the other problem with Voyager. You cannot excuse yourself from the set. You wait until you get cut. It’s hard sometimes, but I like the fact that the show challenges my constitution. You know, the show’s rigorous and it’s fun and I adore the character that I play. Nowhere is it written that everything’s going to be perfect, but this is pretty close.

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Guest Workout runs Mondays in Health.