7 Star Trek Actors Who Were Fired
4. Geneviève Bujold
It's a common misconception that Kate Mulgrew played the first-ever female captain in Star Trek. While she was certainly the first full-time one, a handful of other women did beat her to that honour across the various series that preceded Voyager. What's even less well known than that though, is that Kate Mulgrew wasn't even the first Captain Janeway.
When Paramount signed off on a female captain, near-legendary Canadian actress Geneviève Bujold was the producer's first choice for the role. She was approached, accepted the offer, and the character of Nicole Janeway (as she was known then) was born. The only problem, Bujold's extensive movie and theatre experience hadn't even remotely prepared her for the rigors of shooting episodic television.
The long (often 18 hour) days on set, the constant adjustments from makeup and wardrobe, and simply having to take orders from directors she didn't know, took an immediate toll on the actress and she left the show after just a day and a half. Rick Berman commenting at the time that "it was immediately obvious it was not a good fit".
On the second day of filming, after heading to her trailer in tears followed quickly by Berman and the director. After a short conversation, it was decided that things would be better for both parties if she didn't return the next day and they recast the part. Strictly speaking, she walked, but only because a push was coming otherwise.