Alley recalls where she was in 1982 professionally, which is to say, nowhere at all. She was, she said, working as a housekeeper and interior decorator, hustling to make ends meet. She auditioned for the role of Saavik, and Nicholas Meyer seemed to like her. She passed several more auditions and callbacks, and it was looking hopeful for her. She then got a call that her parents were in a terrible car accident. In her words:
“I was supposed to have a meeting on a Monday for my final audition for ‘Star Trek,’ in front of Paramount and the studio guys. That weekend, my parents were in a car wreck and my mother was killed. That was on a Friday night. I flew back to Kansas. It killed my mother, and my Dad was in bad condition.”
While dealing with all the heartbreak and horror of dealing with a sudden loss, Alley also had to call her agent and talk about the state of her role. Alley, understandably, was frank about wanting to stay with her father and mourn; the audition wasn’t as important.
“I called my agent and I said, ‘I can’t make this meeting Monday.’ He said, ‘Well, what do you want me to tell them?’ I said, ‘Well, I want you to tell them what happened.’ He said, ‘But you realize it’s already iffy to hire you, because you’ve never done anything. You’re not in the Screen Actors Guild, and this could be your first movie. And now you’re telling them that your mother died, and your father might be dying. And they start shooting in a month (or something). And all that pressure on someone will probably mean you won’t get the role.'”
Alley understood all that, but wouldn’t leave her father.