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- <title>Lt. Commander Susan Ivanova</title>
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- <h1>Lt. Commander Susan Ivanova</h1>
- <h4>As written by series creator J. Michael Straczynski</h4>
- <p>
- Quick sketch of Ivanova: Russian, pessimistic, wry, very sharp. She
- isn't in "Believers" because there was a one-week overlap with a prior
- committment on a film project, which we accommodated.
- <p>
- Being of Byelorussian descent, I've always wanted to write for an ethnic
- Russian character. Not someone with an accent, any more than I have an accent
- even though I have a last name with 10,000 consonants and no vowels. There's a
- wry and formal and stiff-necked and sometimes very passionate streak that runs
- through the Russian spirit, and a certain rough-hewn mysticism, a sense of
- absolute fatality and doom punctuated by moments of great belief in humanity.
- It's a mix of traits you don't much see in American television.
- <p>
- Which is why the new second in command is Lieutenant Commander Susan
- Ivanova, who will be played by Claudia Christian, a fantastic and very strong
- performer who just knocked us out of the room. Very much a commanding
- presence, a little quirky when she wants to be, a shade on the pessimistic
- side.
- <p>
- Having come out of an Eastern European background, I've long lamented the
- stereotyped roles usually written for that kind of character, and look forward
- to drawing upon the real thing for her character.
- <p>
- ---<br>
- I like Ivanova as well; she's got a very sly, very *sharp* intelligence
- going there. She can deadpan you and whap you upside the head with a comment
- delivered almost as an aside, or an afterthought. It's the difference between
- wit and humor. She doesn't tell jokes, but she's got a great sense of wit.
- <p>
- ---<br>
- There's a Billy Joel song, where one particular lyric (and I'm quoting
- from memory) says, "You still have a pain inside you / That you carry with a
- certain pride / It's the only part / Of a broken heart / You could ever save."
- That's Ivanova. <cite>[Editor's note: I'm told the song in question is
- "Code of Silence," from the album "Bridge."]</cite>
- <p>
- She's had her heart stomped on a lot. And she's been holding it in. Even
- with her father's death, she sucked in the pain, fought back the tears. There
- is one episode, which will be right at the end of the year, where she finds
- she can't run from her pain anymore...can't run from the tears...and deals
- with them in a scene that's very moving and absolutely brings tears to the
- eyes.
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- <h5>
- Last update:
- October 8, 1995
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