'Star Trek: Deep Space Nine' Star Almost Turned Down Role, Was Told It Would Ruin Their Career

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine was arguably way ahead of its time, bringing a new sort of complex storytelling into the iconic universe. But as it turns out, that desire to pave new ground almost discouraged one of the show's stars from taking the job.

In a recent interview with Variety, Nana Visitor revealed that she almost didn't take her role as Major Kira Nerys, after her agent claimed that it would sink her career in the process.

"[I was told] 'You will kill your career if you do this job. Turn it down,'" Visitor revealed.

But as Visitor explained, she was ultimately convinced to take on the role after a lengthy phone call with Deep Space Nine co-creator Rick Berman, which proved that this sort of complex female role was a unique opportunity.

"By the end of the call, he had convinced me that I did want to be a part of it whether it impacted the rest of my career or not." Visitor explained. "When I read the script, I thought, 'That's a man's role. That's not for me.' Yet it was all I wanted to do. I hated every part that I had to play where I was chastising a husband or getting upset about the carpet. And I did a lot of those. Any time I could get my teeth into something, that was my flow state. That's why I was an actor. Major Kira was like Disneyland for an actor."

As Visitor admits, Kira wasn't immediately well received by all Star Trek fans. But the actress never strayed from the main point of her role - something that ultimately paved the way for Star Trek: Discovery's Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and the various other female characters on television today.

"Some people in the 'Star Trek' world were like, 'That's not what a woman in "Star Trek" should be. That's the wrong thing to be teaching,'" Visitor added. "But what I saw her as was a woman of appetite and gray area — lots of gray area. Very fallible, but growing and trying. And that's all over television now."

Deep Space Nine is currently streaming on Netflix, and you can check out the list of our favorite episodes here.