Andromeda

For Andromeda news, see:

In Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda (2000- ), Laura plays the role of Trance Gemini, described as follows:

The most mysterious member of Dylan's crew is Trance Gemini, a beautiful young female alien of a completely unknown species. Trance doesn't like to speak about her people or her past, and her crewmates have mostly given up asking.

She manifests a startling ability to predict possible outcomes. Can she see the future, or is she just adept at making lucky guesses? Only Trance knows for sure, and she's not talking. Trance serves as life support officer as well as the crew's botanist, xenobiologist, make-do medic, and when necessary, spy and thief.


Kevin Sorbo discusses Laura on the Mike Bullard show (MP3 - download and unzip).

Some "Trance Trivia":

  • An article in the Chicago Tribune discusses Andromeda, specifically the changes to Trance.
  • Robert Hewitt Wolfe (Andromeda producer) describes Laura's audition for the part of Trance as follows: "We started her off fairly simply, but then decided she could handle something a bit tougher, so we had her do all these tongue twisters and weird time-logic-type stuff. She just rose to it, but it was one of the cruellest auditions ever." Read the audition scripts.
  • Robert Hewitt Wolfe posted the original "Writers' Bible" entry for Trance on the Slipstream BBS. Read it here.
  • During the initial casting call for Trance, Laura was busy with another project (her stage production of Cinderella). When that wrapped up, the part had still not been cast, so she auditioned at that time. The producers had been debating several other actresses, but Laura's audition made the decision easy.
  • Laura was ill during the shooting of the opening scene of The Sum of Its Parts. Her part was filmed later and spliced in.
  • According to Zack Stentz (in a discussion on the influence of Anime on Andromeda, "Trance . . . was designed to be a live-action version of an anime heroine."
  • Robert Hewitt Wolfe says that only he, the writing team, and Laura know exactly who/what Trance is, and it will probably be the fourth or fifth season before we find out.
  • The tattoo on Trance's back (a sun with a mask of comedy) is actually Laura's tattoo. The writer's liked it, so they're working with it.
  • Laura's make-up takes approximately 3-3.5 hours to apply (makeup starts at 5 am on a typical working day for Laura). In the first few episodes, it took as much as 5 hours (this is why Trance now wears catsuits, instead of shorts & halter tops). It also takes 1 hour to remove. If the purple makeup gets wet, it turns blue (which is why we don't ever see Trance in outdoor shots). Laura speaks very highly of her makeup artist, Francesca von Zimmerman.
  • The make-up is uncomfortable - it's hot and itchy. This is one of the reasons that Trance is not in every episode.
  • There are several different tails used for Trance - one she wears, an animatronic one, and some of the tail effects are done with CGI.
  • The "Hey! Watch the tail!" line in "The Pearls that Were His Eyes" was not in the script. One of the actors accidentally stepped on the tail, and Laura's reaction was so "in-character" that they left it in. (In fact, the tail gets in the way and gets stepped on a lot, by Laura as well as the other actors. Once, she even completely lost the tail during a stunt.)