Nana Visitor revealed a bias she had towards how Jeri Ryan was promoted

Jeri Ryan has become one of the most vaunted and beloved actresses in Star Trek's history. Her portrayal of Seven of Nine added a deep and layered character to Star Trek: Voyager that elevated the stories being told on that show. Yet, when she came in, she came in with a marketing push that focused on how attractive she was.

Kate Mulgrew has often spoken about how that was a reason why she was unfriendly to Ryan, but over time the two women worked past their issues and mended fences. Yet, it was a bit surprising to hear that Mulgrew wasn't the only stalwart of Star Trek who had an issue with how Ryan came into the series.

Speaking at Virtual Trek Con 5 (via ScreenRant), Nana Visitor revealed she had her own issues with how Ryan was presented coming in. Visitor of course played Kira Nerys on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and was finishing up her run on the show around the same time Ryan joined Voyager.

She goes on to talk about when she finally got to talk to Ryan herself, with Visitor going on to say;

[When I talked to Jeri Ryan], I met with my bias, very much so. The heuristics for me were: Seven of Nine, they're using her as this sexy thing on all these posters and that's taking us back to another place. This is awful. And I never bothered to watch. When I actually watched the show, and understood the character, and understood not only the relationship for two women -- which was mentoring, mothering, it was everything -- I also understood my bias about sexuality, because it was like, 'oh, the sexy one, she's going to get everything,' because that's how we were all brought up. Instead of 'who is that woman? Who is SHE? What's going on? What is she bringing? What can she teach me?' I wouldn't stay open enough for that before. And now, I'm a lot less quick to make those easy, comfortable, snap decisions.

Visitor's openness to talk about her own issues with how Ryan was presented is refreshing. Part of Star Trek's ethos is to accept those who are different and a lot of times we hear stories about how one actor or actress was too hard on the other for whatever reason, that was until people started to actually get to know one another and get past their issues.

Ryan's Seven of Nine character wasn't just popular because she looked good, she was written very well and the more people took the time to see that, the more people understood that was the reason for her success.