CHASE MASTERSON
OFFICIAL FAN CLUB
TRACKING DOWN THE HARDEST WORKING WOMAN IN SCI FI SHOW BUSINESS by JEFF BOND If you’re a fan of DEEP SPACE NINE, if you cruise the internet or attend science fiction conventions, there’s one face you’ve probably run into in physical, video or digital form more than once: the face of actress Chase Masterson. The DS9 ‘Dabo girl’ Leeta defines not only the words cute, perky and sexy, but also ‘ubiquitous.’ She’s everywhere! It’s inescapable! As if uncounted convention appearances and her own fan-based website aren’t enough, Chase recently achieved an unprecedented honor by beating out VOYAGER’s Jeri Ryan (Seven of Nine) by a country mile for the coveted title of "Queen of Science Fiction." Fans voted all through the month of July, and Masterson wound up with more than 11,000 votes, 32% of all those cast. Ryan, who’s been on more magazine covers than Monica Lewinsky, could only muster 25%. And she’s on VOYAGER EVERY WEEK. For Masterson, being elected sci fi Queen was a complete surprise. "I thought for sure it was going to be Jonathan Harris!" she quips. But seriously... "A fan told me when I was in Toronto that I was in second place," she recalls. "I said ‘Second place for what?’ and he said ‘Queen of Science Fiction, science fiction actress. And I said what, who, why? And I looked on the computer and lo and behold, there it was. At that time Jeri Ryan was in first place. 36 of D." Ouch! Despite kicking the VOYAGER cutie’s ass (and sharing the title with the elected "King" of sci fi, BABYLON 5’s Bruce Boxleitner), Masterson is taking the honor philosophically. "It’s pretty cool, but let’s face facts: queen of science fiction can mean several different things. I don’t have a crown or anything, although I suppose I could buy one. I don’t know...do I get to say ‘Off with his head! or anything?" Masterson is circumspect about just how P.O’d Jeri Ryan might be about losing out to an actress who only gets about 3% of the screen time she does. "I think we’re generally supportive of each other," says Masterson. "You might have to ask her that, though. I was personally quite surprised."
For Masterson, the honor just plays in to the whole thrill of working in the genre. "The medium of science fiction has such a lot of power in it and I love it," she notes. "It’s passionate, it’s creative, it’s imaginative, and the sky’s not even the limit. There’s always a big ‘what if?’ and I tend to think that way, too. But there’s other things too. Science fiction draws parallels that we can take a look at the world around us: people, politics, money, everything. But in sci fi the lessons and the principles don’t smack us in the face. So it’s very powerful, and one of the things that’s constantly going through my mind as work happens more and more, besides how fun it is, is that there’s just so much more that we could be doing." One of the ways in which the actress tries to give something back to the community is through her fan club, which is currently the largest private contributor for Babies With AIDS. "I’ve worked for them since before my career got started," she says. "I was really destitute and I was co-producing a benefit for them, but I was so dirt-poor I couldn’t take care of myself let alone anyone else. I had one of those cars that you turned on but you couldn’t turn off because then you wouldn’t be able to start it again. And so I would leave it running outside with the Club on...not that anyone would have stolen it. But the woman I was working with would say ‘Chase, is that your car running outside?’ And I’d say ‘Yes.’ And she’d say ‘Do you want to turn it off?’ And I’d say ‘No...’ So it’s nice to be able to come back years later and have people who are really behind you." While Masterson is all over the place now, she’s a relative newcomer who’s just made her name in the last four years in her recurring role as Leeta, the popular Dabo girl (and wife of Quark’s brother Rom) on DEEP SPACE NINE. Nevertheless, she’s not new to the business.
"I’ve been doing this all my life," she reveals. "My mom was an actress and a director. I grew up in the business, never went to my high school prom or even a football game. I was usually last to be picked on any teams, painfully shy, and still am in some ways. We all have our demons to conquer and I think that making myself to be available emotionally and passionately is both a challenge and something that comes really naturally to me." The role of Leeta actually came about after Masterson lost out while auditioning for another role on the series. "Actually I heard from the producers recently that they wrote the role of Leeta for me," Masterson explains. "I’d had an audition for the role of Marta, which is Jake’s little girlfriend, in the third season. It got down to two of us for the role, and the girl who got it got it because after all he’s sixteen and she’s nineteen, and I’m...not. So I had really wanted to do this show, I’ve always liked Star Trek, and I guess they liked me too because the word from the producers is they said we couldn’t cast you in that but we had to find something for you to do, so they wrote this role. It said a possible recurring role. I still had to audition for it, mind you; I guess that’s how Hollywood works." If fate hadn’t lent a hand, the Leeta we know and love might have looked a little bit different according to Masterson.
"I bought long hair for the role, I bought this like $300 wig and this really girlie dress because I thought that’s what they wanted," Chase remembers. "I mean, when will we figure out that if we’re just ourselves we’ll get what we want? I’ve told this story before, but when I first moved here I thought that to be an actress you had to have long, curly Julia Roberts hair and wear spandex black things 24 hours a day. And that may be true...but since I didn’t look like that I went out and bought this whole hair system for $2000 that matched my hair exactly, and you could put it on and even the guy I was dating thought it was my real hair. So I wore this hair 24 hours a day and it was my new identity... until one day I left it on top of my car and drove away. So there it was, gone with the wind...not only my hair but my identity! I can just imagine some drag queen in West Hollywood wearing one. Or maybe Animal Control came and picked it up. So I realized, since I couldn’t afford to buy it again anyway, that I just needed to be myself." Marrying the big-eared Ferengi Rom was an unexpected move for the character, but Masterson points out that it’s par for the course for TREK. "I’ve been surprised every step of the way, especially with me marrying Rom and getting involved in that whole family portrait," says Masterson. "And I had fans saying ‘how could you turn down Dr. Bashir for Rom?’...but that’s really what Star Trek is all about. It is infinite diversity and looking at people for who they are on the inside, not the outside. It’s really a very Star Trek choice, plus there’s a lot more comedy." Of course, Leeta returns this year for the last season of DS9, and has already completed work on at least one show. "I’m in an episode called ‘Take Me Out to the Holosuite’ which is a baseball episode where DS9 plays the Vulcans," says Masterson. "I play outfield and I get to say a little more than ‘Oh, Rom!’ It’s very fun." The actress is still in the dark as far as how her character arc will be wrapped up on the show but is eternally grateful for the opportunity. "I’m happy it’s gone as far as it has," she says. "If it goes farther, and Leeta gets to expand, I think that would be great. Not just for fun and work, but because it would be a big surprise to the fans. I think that they think that she’s demure and good-hearted and maybe even sexy; now she’s strong too. That’s science fiction." And how does she feel about finishing her run on the show? "We’ll all miss it. I’ll miss Leeta as a person; I’ll miss Rom as a person. It’s a pretty close-knit set. But I think we’ve all got other projects we want to move on to." One of those projects is Masterson’s current cohosting duties on SCI FI ENTERTAINMENT on the Sci Fi Channel.
"It’s really a fun show because we cover not only science fiction entertainment news, like ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT for the genre, but also science fact. So it’s both hip and informative; we’ll have interviews with Wesley Snipes from Blade or Chris Carter and Gillian Anderson from The X-Files to the world of science. Things that once were only science fiction are now available in our everyday life, like cloning and bio-perfection and all that; the whole computer age is moving really quickly. So we cover the best of both." Masterson also has a number of film roles coming up, including an ambitious independent film called Sammyville. "It’s based on a true story about a child protective services worker who goes into a private town in Oregon to try and recover a lost child," says Masterson. "The laws were different 50 years ago when this town was created and it’s literally like trespassing now. And I go toe-to-toe with Sammy, the man who owns this town. They’re rednecks, it’s a boy’s club, and mine is a pretty gritty role, not at all like Leeta. And I have another one that will be released early next year which is another Stephen King movie, and I play a military commanding officer and wear no makeup except to make me look really bad. It’s like Leeta goes Rambo. And early next year I’m playing another sci fi film where I play a detective, and it’s called Abattoir Exile." Masterson’s projects aren’t limited to acting roles either. "I’m also starting to produce," she explains. "I’m doing an animated series called Manboy. It’s really fun, a la Comedy Central. There’s also a feature and a movie-of-the-week that are in development, and two more series that we’re working on. One is science fiction and there are a couple of children’s series. And I’m doing these things because I’m really passionate about these projects, not because I want to be in them but because I want them to be made. I want to make sure that I’m a part of that."
When you get right down to it, Chase Masterson is still just playing a small, semi-recurring supporting role on a television series that isn’t exactly at the top of the ratings. Yet she’s parlayed her DS9 appearances into a kind of one-woman multi-media show that’s made her one of the most familiar faces in science fiction. What is it about Masterson (and the role of Leeta) that fascinates fans to the point that they’d elect Chase Queen of Sci Fi over movie stars like Sigourney Weaver and Carrie Fisher, TV series stars like Kate Mulgrew and heavily-hyped regularly-appearing players like Jeri Ryan? "I don’t know but I sure appreciate it," Masterson admits. "If there’s anything I can say it’s not that I think that I have this more than anybody else, but I’m a fan of the fans, and maybe it’s because for the first time in a long time on STAR TREK there was a recurring character who just dared to be sexy without having to cover it by being official or denying it. You know, I’m so over people having to explain over and around the fact that they have a push-up bra yet they’re still intelligent. It’s like, if they can’t tell that Leeta is smart and pretty and passionate, that’s their problem. I can be sexy without having to explain it or defend it or be angry about it." Meanwhile, Chase Masterson has at least one other project moving toward the front burner. "I’m working on a charity project right now that will be a joint venture between the entertainment industry and the fans," she concludes. "There’s a lot of energy there and if we harness it the right way, we’ll do a lot of good for the world. It’ll be announced definitely by early 1999; watch for it here. You’ll say you saw it here first." One thing else is for sure: you’ll be seeing Chase Masterson here, and everywhere else, as the Millenium turns... ISSUE 8.0 - SEPTEMBER 1, 1998 (Check out EON MAGAZINE October 1 when Chase Masterson adds yet another notch on her sci-fi belt when she begins her own monthly column in our Opinion pages)
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