Garrett Wang’s Job Was Kept Thanks to People Magazine
When ‘Voyager’ writers created Seven of Nine, they had to kill off another character. Rather than kill off Neelix, they chose Kes. But they originally wanted to kill off Harry Kim. Actor Garrett Wang was for a long time frustrated over hardly being seen in the series and was even told to tone down his acting so that the alien characters could seem more animated.
Source: FanWorld
So Harry became as stiff as Chakotay. Wang started showing up to set intoxicated, and it bothered the producers. But then Garrett Wang landed on People Magazine’s “50 Most Beautiful People in the World.” Producers banked on this and kept Harry Kim alive.