One of Babylon 5's
many strengths is the multi-layered depth of its characters. And perhaps
no character on Babylon 5 is as much of an enigma as Delenn,
the Minbari ambassador who followed prophecy and underwent a transformation
that made her a hybrid of the human and Minbari races. Delenn represents
a bridge between two cultures, and in many ways, the same can be said
of Mira Furlan, the actress from the former Yugoslavia who plays the
strong-willed yet graceful Minbari. Taking a break from filming the
seventh episode of season five, Furlan reflects on the small miracle
that a fifth season of Babylon 5 is shooting at all.
"Babylon 5 defies all
odds, that's for sure," she says, her voice holding a touch of wonderment.
"Nobody really thought that it could do it. To me it always seemed that
[the show] was ending and somehow, miraculously, something happened.
This time, we were certain it was the end because we shot the last episode
of the whole series, and then somehow these rumors started that it may
not be the end - there were many anti-climatic moments."
The luxury - and
rarity - of the experience of being with a show for five years
is not lost on Furlan. "On one hand I have the feeling that the time
flew like crazy; all at once it's five years and I didn't even notice,"
says Furlan. "But I know rationally that it's a long time. You can develop
this incredible familiarity with the characters, with what you're doing,
for better or for worse. You know the landscape of the role. It's a
new experience for me to do something for such a long time."
On the whole, Babylon5
has represented a conglomeration of new experiences for Furlan. Although
she'd been regarded as one of Yugoslavia's top theatrical, film, and
television actresses before the war, when she emigrated to the United
States six years ago, Furlan was uncertain of what to expect. "Every
actor worries, that's nothing new. Now, I'm in the minority category
because I'm a foreigner and because I'm a woman, It's just how it is,"
she says matter-of-factly.
When she first auditioned
for Babylon 5 less that a year after resettling in New York,
Furlan didn't think twice about what she might become a part of. "I
was totally new to the American industry, but I knew very well that
90 percent of the pilots never get picked up and never become a series,"
she recalls. "I had no idea where it would go and what it would become,
of course."
In talking with creator
J. Michael Straczynski, though, she learned what would be in store for
her if the pilot were to become a series. What impressed Furlan the
most about the opportunity to play Delenn was the direction Straczynski
had in mind for Delenn. "Joe told me what he wanted to do with the character,
how the character would go through a major, physical change. The character
seemed very interesting to me because it had the male element, and it
had a lot of intellectual power, which is so unusual for a female character."
Over the past five years,
Delenn has journeyed far from where she started. But the fundamental
strength, fortitude, and conviction of Delenn remains. "She is just
such a rich character and throughout these five years the richness has
come to life," remarks Furlan. "We've discovered her humanity, her ethics,
her vulnerability, and her fragility, but we've also seen her spiritual
and intellectual sides, as well as her militaristic wisdom and toughness.
All of those things have been emerging. Sometimes they are in conflict,
but then you see that they actually add up to create this rich personality.
Adding up the subtle
pieces of the puzzle Straczynski has crafted is part of the challenge
inherent in playing Delenn. "It's just unbelievable how Joe weaves that
web that he does with all these characters and all these hidden meanings,"
marvels Furlan. "Everything has its explanation and its reason for existence.
Nothing is random. Sometimes, I have to read [the script] a couple of
times to grasp what the story is actually about, and [to catch] all
the hidden things." Of course, Furlan has an added advantage that the
average viewer does not: "Whenever I have a problem with the story line,
when I can't really put together all the pieces from these different
years, different episodes, I go to Joe and he explains it to me. And
I feel like a bad pupil," she admits with a laugh.
Particularly striking
are the parallels you can draw between the character of Delenn and Furlan's
own experiences. "An actor brings a lot to a character," begins Furlan,
"and in the case of Delenn, it even surpasses this. Somehow all of these
coincidences - Delenn's loneliness, Delenn's being away from
home, Delenn's not being sure what she is or who she belongs to and
so on - these are all the questions that I had. Someone once
said it was fate that I came to Babylon 5, because Babylon was
not one of my first auditions. Somehow it makes sense in many ways."
Ironically, when he first
hired her Straczynski knew only of the fact the Furlan was originally
from Yugoslavia, and not of the circumstances that forced her to emigrate.
The underlying subtext that the series has taken since its inception
has proven to have an eerie resonance for Furlan, who left Yugoslavia
after conditions there deteriorated. Even Furlan saw the parallels from
the outset. "Then again, the fact that we think it refers to the former
Yugoslavia is because that was happening right at the time we were doing
the show," muses Furlan. "But Joe always writes in such a universal
manner that it can apply to anything else in history which is bloody
and horrible."
Still, there are elements
of the series which have struck a nerve with Furlan - Delenn's feelings
of isolation, the cycle of hatred between the Narns and Centauris, the
questions of whether there should be intervention in the war between
the Centauris and Narns. "Some things were unbelievably coincidental,"
she admits softly, "and moved me very much when I read them. I was amazed
that Joe understands so much about these things that I had the misfortune
of experiencing myself. But he knows it from the perspective of a human
being who is aware of what is happening in the world. Parallels not
only with the former Yugoslavia but all kinds of human conflicts. The
thing with Yugoslavia is that it's so universal, it could happen anywhere,
anytime. That's what Joe sees, and that's what Babylon 5 shows
us."
As an actress, it's been
both difficult and cathartic to play scenes which mirror events that
occurred in her own life. "Somehow, it's therapeutic to do things that
are close to you," says Furlan. "That's the reason why you're an actor,
so you can take those painful things in your heart into an open space
where you can relive them and in that way release them. It's definitely
draining and hard emotionally, but I was never against doing things
that are hard emotionally. I like the intensity of that experience.
These are the best moments in acting."
Furlan was afforded the
opportunity to travel backwards in time when filming the prequel movie
last summer. "It was a return to the innocence of Delenn," says Furlan
of the experience, which is set before the Babylon 5 pilot. "I
enjoyed very much the chance to be a child, to be 'baby Delenn' again.
Delenn has a major role in the movie because the prequel explores the
situation during the Earth/Minbari war, and especially Delenn's role
in it. Delenn poses all kinds of questions to herself, tries to answer
them, and is confronted with her own mistakes and must deal with that."
Also, adds Furlan, "it
was a learning experience going back to the make-up and seeing how lucky
I am to not have to wear it all the time." When she first filmed the
pilot, Delenn's facial make-up required four hours to apply, but didn't
cover her entire face; now, the process is down to about three hours,
but covers even more of her face than before Delenn's transformation.
For the actress, wearing
the facial prosthetics is akin to wearing a mask. "You have a totally
different face." she says. "You don't know who you are anymore. Your
face, which you've learned how to use, is no longer there. [The make-up]
is limiting, but it also gives a certain amount of strange freedom because
you're not bound by any realistic boundaries. You can do whatever you
want."
Although she finds it
difficult to choose a favorite episode, Furlan readily cites "Comes
the Inquisitor," "Severed Dreams," "Atonement," and "Babylon Squared"
as memorable experiences. Not coincidentally, these episodes are also
among those that have showcased Furlan's formidable acting talent; in
fact, the second season's "Comes the Inquisitor" is a subtly-nuanced
tour-de-force for Furlan. "Sometimes," she offers, "a scene that is
not really written as a very significant scene stands out in your mind
because the other actor brought so much to it that it becomes something
else."
One thing Furlan is enjoying
is the direction that Delenn's relationship with John Sheridan has taken.
"They went through so many difficulties together, and so many thing
were in the way of their being together that it's a really rewarding
thing when they finally can be together," she says. "I'm enjoying
that happy ending; it's so rare in life."
Furlan understands all
too well the rarity of happy endings. Her career in Yugoslavia was thriving:
having studied languages at the University of Zagreb, she was in her
second year at the Academy for Theatre, Film, and Television when she
began acting on television and the stage. Furlan's status as one of
Yugoslavia's premier actresses was further cemented when she was twice
recognized with a Golden Arena award, the Yugoslav equivalent of the
Oscars.
"My work was done in
the whole of Yugoslavia," she recalls with emotion, referring to her
work with the Croatian National Theatre and the Belgrade International
Theatre Festival, among others. "My husband lived in Belgrade, I lived
in Zagreb - two cities that became worst enemies. Life was
getting more and more unbearable, and politics got into our private
lives. Everybody was supposed to choose sides and go to their own little
backyard. And in our case, that would mean that my husband and I would
go to two different sides, opposite sides. Which I couldn't imagine,
and couldn't accept." She pauses, collecting her thoughts. "Totalitarianism,
that's what actually what was happening, where people were told what
to think and what to feel. Something in me rebelled horribly against
that. It was not my country anymore; I didn't recognize the people."
Things went from bad to worse when Furlan found herself a target of
propaganda and threats, and ultimately, she and her film director husband
Goran Gajic made the decision to leave Yugoslavia in November 1991.
Furlan landed her first
role in America just a few months after arriving in New York; starring
in the title role in a 1992 Indianapolis production of Garcia Lorca's
Yerma. "That was a big test for me," she says, "whether I could
do acting in this new language. And I won that battle." Soon after that,
she auditioned for Babylon 5, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Even though Babylon
5 keeps her busy, Furlan hasn't abandoned her love for the theater.
She's appeared in three stage productions in Los Angeles, including
1995's critically-acclaiming Antigone, which was directed by
her husband. Furlan and her husband worked together to adapt Antigone
to reflect the troubles in the Balkans. "Antigone is such an important
archetypal story which can be applied to any kind of troubled environment,
including Yugoslavia," she notes. "[The play reflected] our need to
speak about what troubles us, what we saw and what we felt."
Looking towards the future,
Furlan is uncertain of what she'll do when Babylon 5 finishes
its run. What she does know is that being on Babylon 5 has been
a life-altering experience. "It's changed my life completely. Babylon
5 gave me stability, it gave me a new life in almost every aspect.
I'm really grateful for that."
Meanwhile, Furlan remains
undaunted by the fact that the final episode of Babylon 5 has
already been filmed - and that Delenn's fate has been sealed.
However, there is a sense of impending closure. "It's a tough thing
to deal with," she says. "The awareness that there is an end to Babylon
5 is very present in my mind. And filming the episode was very,
very emotional for all of us; it dealt with death and endings and farewells,
it was the end of a life that we've spent together in this job."
Copyright
© 1998 Melissa J. Perenson
This article first appeared in the February 1998 edition of SCI-FI ENTERTAINMENT,
The Official Magazine of the Sci-Fi Channel.