First, I want to start this by saying that like Lia Marie Danks (author of a very nicely written report on Saturday's events, located here on the John-Delenn site) my main purpose in attending the convention was to see Mira Furlan. I was also there to meet a couple of friends who post to the Pathfinder Babylon 5 bulletin boards, David (who goes by the handle Mirafan) and Moyra. David had driven up from Houston and Moyra had driven in from Toronto (That's right; Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Just a short jaunt away from Dallas.) Louise (my girlfriend) had come along to provide me with much-needed adult supervision. Although David had to leave early, Moyra stayed and graciously held some seats near the center aisle of the room so that we could be close to the action.

Mira started off by asking how many people had been there the day before and when just about *everyone* raised their hands, she was amazed. "Oh, my God! That's scary! So, I have to invent something else to talk...about." She asked if everyone was having fun at the convention (unanimous "Yes!!"), and she seemed very pleased. She said that some conventions were very "business-like" and she described one that she had attended where the guests were not even allowed to talk to anyone. "It was very scary; the fans were just whooping [by] and they were saying "Move! Move!" Everyone broke out laughing. She said that she didn't get to see much of Dallas, but that "this wonderful lady Jennifer" had showed her around a little and that she like "those sculptures of cowboys and cows ... yeah, these were the highlights." at which point everyone started laughing (There is a life-sized bronze sculpture of some cowboys herding a group of Longhorn cattle. Ironically, it is at the Dallas Convention Center, downtown. It's beautiful, but oddly out of place. Some consider it a very 'tourist' thing to go see). "Oh, my God! I meant it as a compliment! Seeing that she was "Falling deeper and deeper, it seems." she opened the floor to questions "...to relieve me of this burden." as she said.

What happened for the next hour was amazing. She answered more than thirty separate questions, as well as responding to several comments. There were the usual, the expected, some sensitive, and one from way out in left field. She answered every question posed and with only a couple of exceptions, the answers were very detailed, in-depth and very well thought out. She often elaborated, providing wonderful insight and background on the subject at hand. I will try to cover as much as I can to provide a comprehensive look at what followed. While this is not intended as a complete transcript, I will try to quote her where it seems appropriate.

The subject of her learning how to drive came up first and she pretty much reiterated what she said Saturday, calling it "this important issue for humanity; my driving". Clearly, she has a realist's perspective regarding the importance of this aspect of her life in the overall scheme of events and a great sense of humor about it. "I'm wondering, do people around me believe that this is for real? They seem to believe it's OK! They give me signals! (lots of laughs) "Quicker!" "Nobody has beaten me up or anything, so it's working!"

Next, she was asked if she had made a cameo during the core shuttle scene in "Fall of Night". She seemed to not understand at first, then responded with, "Oh, a woman? A *human* woman?" (again, lots of laughs). "No, it wasn't me. Sorry!" A representative from a group I believe was called "Trekkers against AIDS" came forward and presented her with a gift, which she accepted graciously. They had raised almost $1600 at that point in the convention and that drew a lot of applause.

Mira then responded to a comment, which admired how much spirituality that Joe, despite his much-avowed atheism, had introduced into the series, mainly through her character. She said that religion was "a very private and intimate thing for me". That Joe, and the whole show, dealt with these questions "in a really wonderful way. Not a rigid way, but an open-minded way which is very close to my heart and my mind." She was asked how she felt when they did the ending scene for "Parliament of Dreams", when Sinclair introduced the command staff and the ambassadors to a seemingly endless line of humans, each representing a different faith or philosophy. "That was beautiful. It made me cry. It was wonderful just to be on the set that day and have that experience. Of course, it's a Utopia. It's a fantasy, which is a horrible thing. Yeah, I felt very moved by it cause that whole issue, it's so close to my experience. People who speak the same language, who look the same cannot live together or they're...brainwashed into thinking that they cannot live together. That's what I've experienced in my country. So, to see that image, just as an image, it was incredibly moving to be a part of that."

Someone asked the typical question "what's next after Babylon 5?" and she gave her typical response; an actor has no control over such things. She then started talking about her frustrations. "...There's just no time for rehearsing, for getting into things on a deeper level. Both directors and actors are forced to just function and do it very quickly...in the fifth season, we will do an episode in six days instead of seven days. That will mean...an incredible and horrible lack of time to rehearse and 'play' with stuff, which is the best thing in this profession". On being asked whether Delenn will be in the follow-on series being planned now, "I have no idea. That's up to Joe and these Warner Brothers guys...".

The issue of her prosthetic make-up was brought up next and she did comment that the glue and the removers bothered her eyes a great deal and that she had a real problem with bright lights on the set. She also commented that the make-up for the pilot was "above her strength" and she didn't know if she would have been able to continue with it. Mira then went out of her way to comment on how amazing Andreas Katsulas was about his make-up:

"He's a hero. I don't know how he does it or what kind of psychological process he goes through but he claims..he's happy!" (lot of laughs) "It's August in Los Angeles, it's unbelievably hot. We all sweat; you sweat in normal clothes. To put [on] all that make-up, all that rubber through which your face cannot breathe and his whole upper body is in make-up. This huge, unbelievably thick and heavy costume, and I ask him "how are you?" with complete (pause) 'Mac-feeling' (everyone's dies laughing) and he says, "Wonderful! It's like being in the Old Country!" You know, Greece. We are neighbors." (more laughs) "In the Mediterranean, women wear black in the summer and then they sweat and the sweat makes them cold ... that's the idea. For me, it's not a thrill, I have to say." (again, lots of laughs) There was a story about once while doing a film in Yugoslavia, it was snowing and she waited, dressed in a nightgown and freezing, on a stone for eight hours just to get her shot. "It's the profession that requires patience. That's it."

Then came the out-of-left-field question. "Since you grew up in a Marxist regime...do you have any insight into say, what's happening in Cambodia...?" While the audience sat there thinking "What the...", she stared right at him and asked:

"Why are you asking me that?"

The crowd just exploded in laughter, cheers and applause. Although he tried to recover saying that it was because she had grown up in a Marxist regime, she cut him off by responding: "This was not a Marxist regime which caused the war. Well, maybe it was in the final analysis. It was nationalism of major proportions. It was pure nationalism bordering with fascism. That's a totally different discussion."

When asked what had gotten her into being an actress, she responded: "A wish to play. I grew up an only child among adults and [it] was kinda serious always, and I had this desire to play...this childish sense of play which is, I think, still the basis of acting."

The next person got back to Delenn: "We've seen a couple of the faces of Delenn; you have the very serious, 'If you want to live, be somewhere else', and we see the giggly 'Oh, John's". Mira interrupted with: "I'm sorry. The giggly side of John?" which brought the house down. The question distilled down to "do you have a preference?".

"Sometimes, I'm really bothered by all this silliness, these female, coquettish, flirtatious things that Joe writes for Delenn...I'm asking how does a wise person like that who holds so much knowledge...why is she playing those silly little games? Then Joe says, 'Because it's cute!' What can you say? As I was saying yesterday in commenting on Peter David's episode ("Soul Mates" in the scene best described as "Delenn's Bad Hair Day") you have to try to open to that whole area, and he's right. We can be wise but we can also be silly, and we are. In the same hour, we can be incredibly stupid and very clever. That's how life is. There is 'Reality' in the way Joe writes...What I like is the combination of things in Delenn. Delenn is a complicated character and it's rare to find a female character who is that subtle and complex. Usually...the female characters are always a function of the male character...This is a wonderful exception, and I'm glad I got a chance to be that."

The next question was about how Mira dealt with playing to the "blue screen" and acting around the special effects. "It's my least favorite part in acting on Babylon because you feel so fake...It's so wonderful to play with great actors because it's always real...you just have to open up to this other person and everything comes easy. It's real and it's truthful, but these things make me crazy (lots of laughs). It's really horrible. You feel like a complete idiot. You just have to trust that it's somehow going to look good, and it does...most of the time I'm surprised and think 'Wow! This looks really, really great!' It's a hard thing. You just have to surrender and kinda make a fool of yourself." When asked if she would turn down another role in a genre series because of the make-up or the blue screen, she said that there were other elements that entered into it. "Nothing comes perfect in life. Everything has a bad side...and, as I said, female characters of that strength and complexity don't appear often...You have put it on a, how you do say, a scale and just see...The answer is Maybe."

She was asked if the change in Delenn's appearance was part of the story or was it because it became too uncomfortable to wear the - "Did I kneel in front of Joe and " (crowd roars with laughter) "beg? I didn't beg him too much. I did, you know, but Delenn's change was...planned from the beginning...during the last auditions they showed me the way Delenn is going to look and Joe told me 'But that's not how it's gonna stay; she is gonna change and it's gonna be a major change.' How, into what, I didn't know. There was this fear that I would change into a butterfly (laughs) and I would be unemployed...I'm glad that it changed into what it is now." Someone asked her how many times did it take for her and Claudia to get through that scene where she was discussing those odd cramps. "We tried to get it 'Off our chest' as soon as possible. We just tried to do it and forget about it, and let you deal with that (pauses for a moment and laughs) - for the rest of your life." (lots of laughs) When asked if she watched herself on the show, she responded that she tried to stay informed of what's happening "so I don't become a complete fool when you ask me questions...but I'm not particularly in love with watching myself so it's always a torture for me. I just, again 'let you deal with that'. (laughs) I did it, so I don't have to watch it. But no, I watch it and I try to stay current."

In another make-up related question, someone asked how did they attach her headpiece. "...Let me see. What do I remember? (crowd laughs) By means of incredible, technological devices called 'The Pins' (crowd really roars laughter) and also 'Glue', another technologically advanced sci-fi thing called the glue. Yeah, glue and pins, basically." When the questioner commented that she thought it might be a comb, Mira interjected: "Yeah we tried that, too. We were trying everything...It's a complicated make-up and it needs a lot of maintenance on the set because it tends to slip and to (begins pantomiming the tiara shifting this way and that with her hands)".

She was also asked which of her costumes were her favorites. She likes the silk dresses best for a very practical reason; they were lighter and cooler to wear. She was very complimentary of Ann Bruice (B5's Costume designer), saying that "...she's so incredibly sensitive and gentle and wants to hear any advice, and really, really takes good care of us so I'm very satisfied with how it looks." She did confess to liking the appearance of the outfits that she typically wore when shooting scenes on the White Star: "That what you call the 'White Star' dresses are called the 'active-wear', for some reason. I don't know...active, passive...A photographer came to the set and he was taking pictures and he said, 'It's so difficult to take pictures of Delenn because she's never doing anything.' (lots of "Aw"s and sad sounds from the audience), and I got *completely* mad! (crowd laughs enthusiastically) I really, really was angry, 'cause he came like two times in a year and he never watched the show, but he immediately had his assessment of what my character is. 'What do mean, she's not doing anything? What do you mean, to do?' And he said, 'To do, you know, like having a gun and (lots of laughs as she acts out this action sequence), so that reminded me...It's all active, I guess. Delenn is very active in many ways. It doesn't have to be only 'holding the gun' but that's the formation of the unbelievable amount of action movies, where people want so-called 'action', whatever that means, on a very, very superficial level."

When asked if having Melissa Gilbert on the set during the shooting of "Z'Ha'Dum" caused any problem for her or upset the chemistry between her and Bruce, she asked: "What, that she was his real wife? No, it never...we are professional actors. It doesn't really matter. She was phenomenal; I really admire her. She came; she didn't make one - single - mistake. She did these unbelievable monologues in one shot. She came, she did it, she went home." (at which point the crowd came apart at the seams in laughter) "No, she was wonderful! The fact that she's Bruce's wife...didn't really enter into my consciousness. And she didn't make any, any, any (repeating herself while searching for the right thing to say without being undignified and finally giving up), you know. It was unimportant for me. We tried to hit our marks and say the lines and be real and that's it."

The questions then shifted back to the real world. When asked if she had a preference between state-sponsorship of the arts or commercial sponsorship, she said that she was "comfortable" before. "It was comfortable, I'd say. Comfortable, but unexciting...You had your own little salary in your theatre...feeling comfortable can be very demotivating. I can see both sides to it...State-sponsored art gives you, in many ways, more freedom, more peace of mind. But it can also make you incredibly lazy, very apathetic...Countries like England, Germany, European countries that are not socialist but do have this kind of sponsorship for arts have a balance...but Yugoslavia, made you lazy, and I never really liked that...socialism kills the initiative, which is very dangerous. But we had free education and free health insurance, which is something that's unbeatable...It was bad though; the dentists were so bad (lots of laughs). It's so complicated. That's why I'm not a politician."

The next topic was about the difference in acting in Europe and America. In Europe, actors play in all mediums, the stage, television and film whereas; here in America, actors were not encouraged to do that. "Yeah that disturbs me. It's such a huge country, that the 'Labeling' happens so quickly. The superficiality is so much stronger here. They want to pin you down. They want to know what you are, which category you are, because, otherwise, it get too complicated and that's very dangerous and very frustrating. That's the battle that actors here have, to fight for being who they are." Another person brought up a story about a group of actors doing a wonderful play in several obscure little theatres but nobody ever notices it so there's no incentive to support it. Mira commented "...It's such a huge country that everything depends on marketing and publicity and the actual product is less important than how it's marketed. That's the tragedy of the system."

When asked about the possibility, she did state that she was definitely considering moving back to Europe. She felt that Los Angeles was a very transitory place where people go, they do a job, make some money, then they go away "because, in many ways it's a very dangerous place for your soul; for anything that's spiritual because it's so unspiritual, so machiavellistic. It really gets to you, whether you want it or not. It somehow eats you in slow bites and you don't even notice it, how much it affects you. I don't want to spend my life being surrounded. It's a battlefield, where you're surrounded by these beasts who want it now and want it all and are prepared to do anything to get it and, it's just like, 'Please, leave me alone!' (crowd cheers and applauds) But where you go...I have no idea. I stopped making long-term plans 'cause life taught me that nothing happens as you planned it. So now I'm there (LA), and I'll probably stay there a couple more years then I'll see. Europe is definitely a possibility." For her and her husband, Europe is reality. They call it their "Reality check", going to Europe. They can see real people living real lives, something that they have no time for living in LA where their careers and frustrations and the struggles consume everything.

Asked if the popularity of Babylon 5 has forced her to give up going out in public, "I don't get recognized a lot. More in England than in America...there are so many ex-Yugoslavs there...who know me so I get recognized from the Babylon 5 fans and from my former career...In many ways, it's like going home. Sometimes, it's very emotional. (pauses just a bit) But that doesn't happen very often, and I like it! (crowd laughs) ...I never felt comfortable with losing my anonymity, which also means losing your freedom, in many ways. As I lived in a very 'macho', Balkan country, to be recognized in the street was not always very nice. People would be rude; they would insult you and not even know they'd insulted you. But they would. I always took side streets and I always tried to avoid that. So, there is justice with this whole make-up thing with me in some weird way."

The next person has two questions. His first was what did Mira think Delenn's biggest weakness to be. "...That's a hard question. (someone yells out "John!") What did you say? John? Yeah, I guess so. Love is not a weakness; it's a strength. It's a force. It's a good thing. I don't know? Does she have any weaknesses? (looking over at Peter David, who is seated in the first row) She doesn't have any weaknesses. Her obsession with hair (lots of laughs on that). I don't know? What would you consider to be Delenn's greatest weakness?" The questioner kinda gulps and mutters that love could be a weakness. Mira responds that it could if you love the wrong person. "...but John is the right person. That's what they all think, so far! (lots of laughs and some "oohs")." Peter David (I think it was him): "She never did get the hang of profanity." Mira came back: "She never did, - but she's trying to! Yes, that's a good one." (by now, Mira is starting to get a *lot* of "help" from the audience) "She has trouble what?" "Lying? Yes, lying. Yes. she does." Someone reminds her that Minbari can't drink alcohol. "Alcohol! That's right; she cannot drink alcohol. Too bad! Poor Delenn! (crowd roars in laughter)...What was your other question?" He wants to know where she wants the character to go in the fifth season. Hmmm!

"I would like some dramatic scenes, but I've also got nothing against these cute, funny scenes. I would like Joe not to write these unbelievably huge monologues for me (lots of laughs)...I have to remember to talk to him about that (laughs). So, good scenes. Good acting scenes." ("Sorry; no spoilers allowed here!")

The next question, at first thought, seemed like the kind of thing she would get asked all the time. Then, my conscious kicked in and I thought that it might be a really sensitive subject area to go into. I was wrong, of course. From her response, Mira had clearly been waiting to answer this one. The question? "Do you ever find language still being a barrier to you in acting?"

"Nobody ever asks me that and that's such an important area of my work, the language. Yes, of course. You never ever get to the little tiny things, the deepest subtleness, that you can master in your own language. That's the curse of changing countries and your language. The freedom is not there to the degree I had in my own language, that's for sure. Sometimes, when there are these huge, long speeches I get really frustrated by that...and there's just this helpless rage. But I'm trying to get to the point where I really feel that English is my language; it's not a foreign language, it's my language now. There is an enjoyment in that. There's also this funny feeling that you are always improving. You're learning new words like a child...For me, almost every day brings a new word, a new expression, a new slang expression, a new little thing that I learn and that's enjoyable. That's wonderful! It makes you think that you're progressing, which is an illusion, of course. It gives you that false feeling."

She was then asked what she thought about the Emmys and the award system in general. "...you mean in the way that science fiction, the genre, is completely unobserved...completely excluded from the Emmys? Yeah, it's a shame...That's a frustrating thing. It's not about the Emmys. It's about the industry, which doesn't take it as an important thing, as an equal-standing thing as others are. I think Babylon 5 is definitely a drama. It's dramatic acting, whatever genre it is. For me, the genre is not really the most appealing thing of Babylon; it's the drama, the relationship between the characters. It's such a character-based show. That's what I enjoy as an actress and as an audience, too. If it's an alien or a woman with a hairstyle it doesn't really matter, but they don't see that. It's a closed-minded, very rigid way of thinking which excludes the whole genre from serious consideration. And it's incredibly frustrating."

Uh, oh. Another potentially sensitive question. She was asked if they had a lot of help when they got to this country. "I don't want to paint a dark picture, but I didn't feel that there was a lot of desire to help. The whole society is constructed in a way to, "Fight for Yourself". They give a job if they think you'll do it well, which is, in a way, just...There were a couple of people who did things for my husband and me...This whole move from our country to this country was, for me, the experience of total solitude. Being left completely alone and on your own and you have to fight for every single little thing on your own. There was an actor who helped me to find an agent in New York, and I'll always be grateful to him. A wonderful New York actor, but apart from that...On the other hand, we've talked about these differences, socialism and capitalism. For all of you, it's the same. There's no help unless there's interest in you. Unless somebody thinks that you can do a good job, make them more money or whatever. It's sad, but that's how it is, and in the end that's why the system is so incredibly strong...I never knew that I was that strong and that I could do it on my own. I never knew that and I experienced that and it's a good thing. It's that sentence: Whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger."

The next questioner asked if she had any English-speaking or American projects prior to Babylon 5. She then told us a most extraordinary and wonderful story:

"You know, my very first acting experience in my whole life was in English. It was a play that we did. I went to an English-oriented, language-oriented school in Zagreb. A high school and we had English every other day. I had a wonderful teacher of English. Then this professor of English who just finished Oxford. He was a wonderful guy; we were all in love with him. He taught at the University and at our school and he did a play with us, and we rehearsed for one - whole - year! (lots of 'Wows' from the crowd) Every Saturday we would do the play and it was a play called 'Live Like Pigs' (laughter erupts) by a very socialist, left-winged writer by the name of John Arden, an English writer. The whole play is happening in the docks of Greece, or something like that. All of the female characters were prostitutes and the male characters were sailors and they were cursing all the time throughout the play (lot of laughs). I played this prostitute called Daffodil (more laughs). And then we finally did it at the end of the year, and I'll never forget that. I stood on that stage and the spotlights were there. I was thinking, 'A catastrophe's going to happen. It will never get done. Something horrible is going to happen as soon as I come to the stage.' And then, it didn't. Somehow, I felt the audience looking at me. This whole 'vibe' between them and me. I knew that's the thing I want to do 'cause that amount of adrenaline and that amount of excitement, you can't compare it to anything in the whole world. So, I loved that experience. On top of that, the headmaster of our school, who was an old, wonderful, incredibly fine lady, *hated* the play! (everyone rolls in laughter) and thought it was a disgusting thing for her pupils to do. It was a very elite school, mainly female school. There were five boys in our class. It all had to be lovely and clean and beautiful and tidy and, all at once, she saw this production. People cursing and smoking. We wanted to play it. There was a theatre which was interested in doing it. She cancelled all that and she wanted to throw us out of the school if we continued playing it. And she wanted to throw out the professor, this Englishman, David Jomie (I hope that's at least close. She spoke it very quickly) was his name. He was called to Zagreb University and threatened. They said, 'If you continue doing [this], spoiling our little children you're...going to be fired.' So then, the excitement grew, and we felt like illegal, guerrilla, freedom fighters...we all had meetings at his house and we all said 'No, if you are fired we all leave the school!' (lots of laughs and applause)...So that whole experience was so exciting and wonderful. It immediately grew to this action kind of thing. I just fell in love with it. From then on I prepared for the entrance exam to the Academy. So this man is responsible, that play, that production, this whole experience is responsible for me being here today. And it was done in English, yes." (more laughs)

Time had just about run out. One woman commented: "We do have movie studios in Las Colinas. You're more than welcome to stay here a while." (cheers and applause) Mira asked, "You mean where those beautiful horses are?" (So she *was* paying attention during the tour!) The woman replied that we'd hate for her only experience to be Los Angeles (which brought a lot of laughs) "No, no, no. I like some things about Los Angeles. I love the nature in Los Angeles..." The woman then replied that the people here were a lot friendlier, and someone said that if she moved here, she'd have to wear boots. Mira caught that and replied, "Yeah, I will. Next time when I come." (laughter all around) Another guy in the back said:

"You can drive my car and we could go out for burgers and beer if you like."

The whole place just started laughing and she turned around and looked right at him with a real sincere look. "Thank you! That's wonderful!" She then kinda half-turns, smiling, and adds "I'll have that in mind when I think of my life." The place just *explodes* in howling laughter. Just as it starts to fade a *little* she adds "Yeah, (pause) My plans for the future." and the whole place explodes once again! Touché!

It was done far too quickly. She faced the audience and thanks us for being so lovely. She stood there smiling to a standing ovation for a couple of minutes before she left.