KATE MULGREW'S/JANEWAY'S STAND-IN

Kate Mulgrew's/Janeway's stand-in was Sue Henley. The following post once appeared in the newsgroup alt.tv.star-trek.voyager:
Kate's stand-in is Sue Henley...she's from Billings, Montana, but that's not why I know who she is. She happens to be my daughter! She's also been a "far-off" member of the crew on Deep Space 9. In fact in the recent (Volume 11) of the "Star Trek Deep Space Nine" Official Magazine by Starlog ... Sue is pictured on page 45 sitting next to the character called Morn. She's the red-head on the right in the "red" DS9 uniform. --BigSkyMac

SUE HENLEY: I look a lot like Kate. It's very bizarre. The other day before we left, someone put up a picture of Robert [Beltran] and Robbie [McNeill] playing stickball out on the lot, and you can see me in uniform with Kate's hairdo, and when I first looked at it I thought I was Kate.   Left: Sue Henley as an unnamed ensign in [#60 Darkling]. More pictures below. I believe that the Maquis crewmember Mariah Henley was named "Henley" as a tip of the hat for Sue Henley.

Being a stand-in means playing Janeway (or playing Kate Mulgrew playing Janeway) completely: poses, walking style, hand movements. Standing-in for Mulgrew means that lighting and other production crew can line up and prepare in detail for specific shots.

SUE HENLEY: I've gotten to the point where I can guess where she's going to put her hands, but it's part of my job to remember the details from scene to scene. If she says 'Go to red alert' and then starts crossing the bridge, I have to remember what order that happens in.

Stand-ins are required to undertake much of the same physical performance as the actors, without receiving screen time or credit or the chance to really act. However Sue Henley did not mind this.

SUE HENLEY: I love her [Kate Mulgrew] to death, she's helped me so much. I've stood in for a lot of actresses and I don't want to name names, but most of them are not very nice. But Kate's always fantastic. She'll say, 'Thank you, Susie, thank you very much' when she comes in to do the shots. She gave me a bottle of really good champagne for Christmas. The whole cast is very open and friendly and warm--I have all their pictures on my wall. John [Ethan Phillips] is funnier than anything, Jennifer [Lien] is really a sweetheart, the rapport on the set is great -we laugh all day long, off-camera they're joking all day long. Robbie and Garrett Wang have this 'Running Boy' joke--they get into this pose like someone just starting to run, Garrett will say, 'Do the Running Boy!' and they're like little boys. But when they get into character, there's such a change. They're so focused.

Sue Henley was a Star Trek fan from the age of two.

SUE HENLEY: One of the times when they were going to cancel the original series, when I was in junior high school, I wrote to my school newspaper asking people to write in to save the show. Some kids called me up as a prank and pretended to be from Paramount, and called me names - I was just devastated.

Sue Henley was born in Billings, Montana, the youngest of four. Her father, Bud Henley, writes that Sue "was always pretending or 'acting' since she was old enough to walk!. She moved to California to attend the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Her credits include industrial films on how to be a nurse and improvisational shows on CableVision.

SUE HENLEY on how she became Mulgrew's stand-in: I was working on DS9, and I interviewed to be Genevieve [Bujold]'s stand-in. Thank God I didn't get it. I stood beside her as in how's your height, etcetera, but someone else got the job. And, well, we all know what happened after that. A few days later I heard that there was going to be another captain, so I asked someone across the street--that's how we talk about the distance from the DS9 to the Voyager stage--and he said, she's got red hair, you're probably her height, you should talk to them! They said come in on Monday, and I stood in on her first day, and it's been a great job ever since. Kate has a much stronger, chiseled face than I do--mine is more mushy. She has a very strong chin.

Sue Henley normally had to arrive arrive about half an hour before crew call at 8:30 a.m., but when on location or when scheduled to appear as an extra she was required to arrive earlier, sometimes 5:30 a.m. She did two main types of work in front of the camera: (1) double work for Kate, in which her hands or feet will appear in a scene (2) background work, in which she appears as a different crewmember altogether. Re hand double work in the series generally, see behind-the-scenes article The Work Of The Second Film Unit.

SUE HENLEY: I don't do much background because I look too much like Kate with my hair up Starfleet style. When I do, I have to wear a hideous black dead-rat-looking wig. I'm a redhead, I have a light complexion, I'm everywhere but you wouldn't recognise me from this wig!

[Displaced] - Sue Henley is the one indicated by the pointing hand

In [The Raven] Sue Henley is one of the crewmembers given the task of examining cargo bay 2; examining the enormous raw screenshot it is possible to see the single rank pip i.e. she is an ensign, and probably Ensign Brooks (see below)

As Kate Mulgrew's hair got redder, however, she did not have to wear the wig as her stand-in, but could not appear in the background of a scene with Mulgrew in as they looked too much alike.

Particular on-screen moments:
She can be seen with her own hair in [#1 and #2 Caretaker] on the illusory farm, where she is one of the people walking near the dog, immediately before the woman comes up to Tom Paris and Harry Kim.
Her hands shoot pool in [#6 The Cloud] but the balls scattering into the various pockets were all separate shots. Kate Mulgrew played the 8-ball into the side pocket herself, whereupon everyone applauded. Sue Henley can be seen in [#6 The Cloud] "wearing that awful wig" in the holographic pool hall standing behind Tom Paris and Sandrine.
shooting pool
Contrary to expectation not Sue Henley but Kate Mulgrew got clobbered on the head in [#4 Time And Again].
She plays an unnamed ensign in [#60 Darkling]. Her character speaks a few words with what she assumes is the Doctor, but it is really a "dark" character comprising the dark side of famous historical figures such as Lord Byron, Mahatma Gandhi and the Vulcan T'Pau. Screenshots of Sue Henley as the ensign are below.
Sue Henley plays Ensign Brooks in [Year of Hell, Part One]. The show laudably keeps her on as an ensign, probably as Brooks, when she appears in [The Raven] (in the enormous raw screenshot her single rank pip can be seen). Likewise, in [Displaced], she is in the background when Tom and B'Elanna rematerialise in the human habitat - again, the single rank pip can just about be seen.

Sue Henley's final appearance is in [Homestead]. She is one of the crew lining the corridor leading to the shuttlebay in a silent but emotional farewell to Neelix as he leaves Voyager for good.

SUE HENLEY: My whole dream in life is to open a wildlife sanctuary; I'd like to start in northern California, there's lots of land and the weather's great, but I really want to go to Australia. Acting has kind of gone by the wayside.

MOTLEY CREW: behind-the-scenes: stand-ins and recurring Voyager crew extras