A Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home Extra Only Got The Part Because Production Towed Her Car
Layla Sarakalo has exactly one (1) credit on her IMDb page. In Leonard Nimoy's 1986 film "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home," she played a passer-by on the street who stopped briefly to talk to Pavel Chekov (Walter Koenig) and Nyota Uhura (Nichelle Nichols), who sought the location of nuclear vessels parked in Alameda, California. The scene sticks out in the memory because of Koenig's notorious pronunciation of "vessels" as "wessels." Koenig, as one might predict, has been asked to say "wessels" at multiple Star Trek conventions over the years, and is quite likely very sick of it. Keonig turns 87 in September, so please stop asking.
Sarakalo, however, only ever appeared in this one scene in "Star Trek" and hasn't acted before or since. According to her IMDb page, Sarakalo landed the role as an extra through a stroke of bad luck. In order to clear the San Francisco streets for the scene in question, the production towed her car away. In order to pay for the ticket and get her car out of impound, Srakalo offered to work on the film for a day, get paid, and get her car out of hock.
Sarakalo revealed her story in a 2005 interview with StarTrek.com, wherein she finally revealed her identity; up until that point, the role was only credited as "mystery woman." The StarTrek.com articles have since been swallowed by the caprices of shoddy internet archiving but enterprising message board operators have maintained them for posterity. Sarokalo revealed that she was originally slated to merely walk past. Her one line, wherein she actually responded to Koenig about the location of Alameda, California, was improvised. The filmmakers liked it so much, they left the line in the movie.
Layla Sarakalo
An amusing detail: Sarakalo was asked at the time if she was a member of the Screen Actors Guild. "No," she replied, "I'm in the neighborhood." She had no ambitions to be a professional actor.
Sarakalo was, according to online sources, a professional costume designer who attended the University of New Mexico to study the history of textiles. She worked for the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe wherein she eventually became an instructor herself. Sarokalo also lived in Paris for a spell where she hosted one of the city's only English-language radio shows on (now-defunct) station KLOD 96.6. Her show was called "Radio Free Gypsy," and she would interview notable music personalities of the time, including Eric Clapton, Janis Joplin, and Limi Hendrix.
Also, by a wild coincidence, Sarakalo eventually discovered that an unspecified relative of hers was married to Steve Meerson ... one of the credited screenwriters on "Star Trek IV." Meerson also wrote "Back to the Beach," "Double Impact," and "Anna and the King." Whether or not Sarakalo confronted her in-law about her mutual experience working on "The Voyage Home" is not a matter of record, but one can merrily picture a Thanksgiving dinner wherein she expressed her frustration on having her car towed, and the subsequent experience of seeing her face in hundreds of previews and publicity materials surrounding a high-profile studio picture.
Sarakalo has not been associated with "Star Trek" since, although given the franchise's current ethos of resurrecting every available reference and guest spot for "Star Trek: Lower Decks," one might expect a return regardless.