In nearly seven decades of trips around the sun, Kate Mulgrew has learned a few things.
“Lament age never ever, ever,” says the star of stage, screen and “Star Trek,” who turns 70 next month. “Otherwise, wake up, eat well, move and love, love, love people — and especially pour some of that love on yourself.”
The actor, best known for portraying Captain Kathryn Janeway on “Star Trek: Voyager,” is dishing out some tough love these days on her Apple TV+ series “Dope Thief,” debuting March 14.
Mulgrew plays the street-wise Theresa Bowers in the crime drama based on a 2009 novel by Dennis Tafoya. The series revolves around two friends from Philly who pose as DEA agents to rob a drug den — which turns out to be part of an extensive narcotics operation — and then face severe consequences.
Bowers is the foster/adoptive mother of Ray (Brian Tyree Henry), one of the two fake DEA men. He says that working with her was a dream come true.
“She is salt of the earth,” Henry says. “When you get to the set, she literally elevates every scene. She made Theresa funny, endearing and someone who loves.”
The second of eight children of a contractor father and artist/painter mother, Mulgrew grew up in Iowa and then studied acting at the Stella Adler Conservatory in New York before getting her break as Mary Ryan in the soaper “Ryan’s Hope” and later as Red on “Orange Is the New Black.”
Her good life advice:
Embrace today
“I think to myself, ‘There will never be another day like this day. But this day will end,’ ” she says of trying to squeeze as much as possible out of every 24 hours. “Everything passes with alarming speed. You need to enjoy it while it’s here.”
Do what you love
When Mulgrew got the call for “Dope Thief,” she didn’t have to think twice. “It’s one for the books that appeals on every level. Every part of this story will touch someone,” she says. Mulgrew knew this character fit from the start. “There is nothing about this woman that I didn’t love,” she adds. “I loved her loneliness, her longing for what she had lost in life and her determination to save what she fights for every single day, including Ray. … I went into this with absolute investment. She raised Ray in absolute chaos, but she’s not a whiner. She does. She moves.”
Use your imagination
Mulgrew admits she didn’t have the same hard-knock life as her character, but that doesn’t matter. “I don’t care what you do in life. The imagination is a minefield,” she says. “That imagination is in my body, my voice and in my eyes. … I’ve had a much happier life, true. And yes, I could have gone and sat with people who lived her life. Or I could go into my imagination, which is a tool we all possess.”
Grace and tenderness
Mulgrew isn’t the least bit bothered by her big birthday looming. “I’m fascinated by mortality,” she says. “As I get older, I have moments when I say, ‘Who is this? What is this?’ But, in the end, I can only go forward with a modicum of grace and tenderness toward myself and others. As for the rest of it, at this age, I have the capacity to say, ‘It’s out of my hands. It’s unknowable.’ That’s where the grace part comes in.”
Quit bad habits
Mulgrew says she quit smoking while filming her “Star Trek” series years ago. She says those scenes as Captain Janeway may have actually benefited from her nicotine withdrawals. “She was in a bad mood in that episode, so I not only worked on my health, but used it to inform those scenes,” she says.
She’s a fan
Mulgrew says no one is more loyal than her “Star Trek” fans. “It’s wonderful to have these fans of all ages in my life. It’s mothers and fathers who watched ‘Voyager’ with grandparents who watched ‘Next Gen,’ ” she says. “Even now, I’ll go out and the fans will come up and want to have deep conversations about ‘Star Trek.’
“It happens all the time, and I welcome it because all the shows have such a great message, which is: ‘We’re all in it together. We’re searching for excellence.’ That’s a message of hope.”
Use it
The best advice Mulgrew ever received? Her teacher Adler told her something that would define her career. “She said to ‘use it,’ ” Mulgrew shares. “Whatever disappointment, pain or anger life throws in your path, channel it into your work.”
More advice
Her character in “Dope Thief” delivers another piece of sage advice. “’Stick with me. We’ll be OK,’ ” Mulgrew says. “It’s what I say, and it’s good advice. Stick with the people you trust.”
Forget about perfection
“I’m at the age where I accept that certain things about myself aren’t perfect,” she says. “I think you get out of the perfection trap by getting rid of stories you make up about how you have to be perfect. Perfect makes us feel afraid. Perfect makes us stop trying. I say, ‘Try. Fail. Life goes on.’ ”
