Original is here.
From Battlestar to Bionic
Sackhoff is redefining the action hero
Al Norton TV Editor
Katee Sackhoff was named BostonNOW's # 2 TV Entertainer of the Year in 2007 for her Saturn Award winning performance on Battlestar Galactica as well as her scene stealing role on Bionic Woman. Recently BostonNOW talked with her about her career and the upcoming final season of BSG.
BostonNOW: How often do you use the work "frak"?
Katee Sackhoff: Never. Are you crazy? No, I never use it but what it did make me realize is that I use the word "f--k" way too much, excuse my language. I used it way too much and now I've got a bunch of nephews and my boyfriend's got 5 nieces so I've got to be aware of what I'm doing. Now I just say "eff it." I've met some people who use it all the time, though, which is funny. When you hear it you turn around like, "what the hell was that? (laughing)...I know that but I don't know how."
BN: Had anything in your career prepared you for the adoration and devotion for Battlestar Galactica from both fans and critics?
KS: Having my Mom and Dad (laughing), that's the only thing I can compare it to. Sci-Fi fans are so loyal and you really can do no wrong once they love you. Even if they have to watch a really bad two hour movie that you did, they'll watch it and they'll love it, even if it's so bad you feel like you should pay them for your time back (laughing). The only thing I've ever run into like that before is with my Mom and Dad. And maybe my boyfriend, but he might beg to differ.
BN: Does that love from the fans make up for the seemingly bizarre absence of Emmy nominations for the show?
KS: Of course it does. It is frustrating because you want the highest accolades you can get for the jobs that you do; we're brainwashed in this business to think that that then is validation for your work. You do want it because your ego takes over and you want those accolades but at the same time I know that we're doing good work on a daily basis.
I know that our show is the best Sci-Fi show - if not one of the best dramas - that's been on television in the last 5, 10 years. So as long as I know that, even if I'm lying to myself (laughing), it's totally fun so I don't care. We won a Peabody; how many shows can say that? We won it the same year as South Park, which was pretty fantastic; I think we all broke the mold that year.
BN: Do you remember what you expectations were when you took the part of Starbuck for the mini-series?
KS: My expectations were just to do the mini-series; I had no expectations. I had done so many failed television shows that I learned you can never know. On paper something can look so fantastic and you think it's going to blow up and it doesn't...Case in point, Bionic Woman, so you just don't know. You learn to be disappointed in this business so I try not to get too excited and I really didn't have any expectations other than a paycheck.
I mean, I knew it was a good script, and my manager told me not to do it and I told him to go fly a kite because I knew it was a good script. It came down to me taking Battlestar Galactica or testing for NCIS and I took Battlestar.
BN: Not that there are a lot of parts like Starbuck out there but was that the type of role you had been reading for at that point?
KS: No, never. I got the role when I was 22 so for four years I'd been playing the angst ridden teenager, the stereotypical girl next door, and at times I played the stereotypical blonde in the horror movie that you hope dies. It took a lot to convince them I was right for Starbuck. I knew I was right for it, I knew I could pull it off, but it was a stretch, a real stretch. It was hard for me to go in there and I had to convince the producers and the casting people to take a chance. It was taking a chance, not to mention I was 10 years younger than what they wanted.
BN: From your take on the show in general and the character specifically when the series began, to where things are now as we enter the final season, what have the biggest changes been and are you happy with them?
KS: There are always improvements on what you can do but as far as the show changing, they always have this mission statement and for the most part Ron (Moore) and David (Eick) have stayed pretty dang close to what it was from the very beginning. They've never really squashed any ideas or been scared of breaking the mold or scared of ruffling feathers.
I think if anything's changed it's that now we believe in the show so much. When you're first starting a show you know it's good but in the back of your mind you wonder, "is it just me? I'm kind of biased." I think now we know it's good, so much so that I don't think we question and I think we listen to our gut more, our instincts. I think that's what drives the show, Ron and David's instincts. That comes with success - a very strong belief in who you are - which tends to not be the case in this business.
As far as the character is concerned, she's come so far but she's also been kicked back so much that I kind of feel she is, in a sense, the emotional undertone of the show...She's kind of the voice of the audience. I love what they've done with her. There's been questions about what she is right now and what's going on.
No one really knows but if it is what I think it is it makes complete sense because this is a person that has been at the bottom of the bottom. She's probably gone from being the most selfish person on the show to being the one person you can count on in a pinch. That's the growth that she's had. I still think she's the same person, she's got the same struggles now that she had in the beginning; I think the difference is now she's starting to believe in herself and trust herself outside of the cockpit, which had never been the case before.
BN: By all accounts BSG seems to be a dream workplace, so did that make the uncertainty that went on with Bionic Woman that much more striking to you?
KS: It makes it that much more easy to walk away. I think it gives you a very good idea of what a well oiled machine is. When you have that, with a cast and crew that comes together in a real comradery because there's an outline so you know exactly what you're doing when you're doing it, within that comes a relaxation on set, a different type of atmosphere, that on Bionic Woman was... "less than I'd hoped for" is the nice way to say it.
BN: This question is predicated on the idea that actors pay attention to what the press says, but there were more than a few critics who suggested re-booting Bionic Woman around the Sarah Corvus (the character Sackhoff played). Can that cause an uncomfortable tension among cast members?
KS: Yes, it can. I had heard that and I heard that before we stopped filming. Michelle Ryan was put in a very tough position; she was given a job that was unlike anything she had played before, she's very young, she was in a new country, and she was carrying a show...A show that for all intents and purposes really had too many hands in the pot, and when you have too many hands in the pot you really don't know what you're making because everyone has a different idea of what they're trying to accomplish.
I think the lead in a show always gets the blame when that happens.
Sarah Corvus was just a better written character. It's always more fun to play the villain and they wrote her very well. I relished in that and I had tons of fun playing that character because she was so well written.
Michelle and I were friends from the very beginning and people tried to make us hate each other in the press but that never was the case. There was just a lot of honesty between the two of us. But yes, it can lend to an uncomfortable work situation but she's hands down one of the most sincere, sweet people I've ever met.
BN: In the past couple of years you've given TV two very well drawn, complex, strong in different ways, characters, so I'm curious as to who you watched on TV growing up, who you looked up to?
KS: I watched a lot of Dynasty with my Mom (laughing)...I watched a lot of 90210 and I was definitely a Brenda fan, which may be why I am good at playing that kind of bitchiness (laughing).
As far as characters, I always identified more with the men on TV, just because men in television had always been written better. I think we're in a place now where audiences and writers and networks are giving women more of a chance. I think it's true to say that women are more dimensional.
We've got a lot more going on, because we're allowed to; society allows us to go that emotional place that men really aren't allowed to go to. I never really looked up to a lot of women growing up, it was mostly men.
BN: It's interesting that you say that about women on TV right now because I was doing an interview with Alyssa Milano a couple of weeks ago and she said she wants to get back into series TV because she thinks it's where the best parts for women are right now. Do you think that will play a role in your post-Galactica career choices?
KS: I'm not one of those people who's like, "I'm only going to do television" or "I'm only going to do movies"; I think that that kind of stigma has been broken in the last 5-10 years. I do think television has better written women, stronger female roles to play because, and here's the problem, it's less of a chance to take in television than it is in film.
That's my belief but I'm sure there's a lot of producers out there that would deny that to the hilt, my boyfriend probably being one of them, but I do believe that what still sells at the box office, especially when it comes to action, are male driven movies.
It's interesting because I audition for these movies and 9 times out of 10 I hear, "we have to find the guy first, because if we get a big name guy, we can cast you. If we don't, we can't." You hear that so much, that it's so dependent on who they get as a male lead, and that's hard to hear sometimes.
BN: I interviewed (co-star) Jamie Bamber last fall and I want to ask you the same question that I asked him, which was to play pop psychologist for a minute and tell me if you think Lee and Kara could ever really work as a couple.
KS: No, I don't actually. I don't think that Kara could really work with anyone except maybe Leoben. She needs to be with a person that's as screwed up as she is because that's what makes her feel the least amount of guilt for who she is...Lee's too well rounded and too much of a boy scout and Anders is too much of a wimp, to be honest. He's too emotional for Starbuck. I think the Leoben is the only one that would match that criteria.
BN: Is everybody jealous of Jamie because he gets to wear real clothes?
KS: Yes, we are! Especially when we did Letterman. I were like, "you said we had to do wardrobe, did you mean our own, because I'm going to wear the red dress!" and Tricia (Helfer) was like, "I'm wearing the fatigues." It was pretty funny.
BN: Taking Starbuck out of the picture, who's your favorite character on the show and the one you think you'd most like to play?
KS: Maybe Gaius. Gaius or Number 6, and it's largely due to Tricia (Helfer). When they cast Tricia as Number 6 they didn't know what they had. They didn't realize they were sitting on a gold mine because this is a woman who is so profoundly gorgeous. She's got such amazing acting ability and I don't think that they knew that and when they figured it out they started writing for Number 6 and Tricia has consistently stepped up to the plate and done a brilliant job with that character.
Number 6, maybe not from the beginning but what happened because of Tricia, that role would be the most fun to play. And Gaius Baltar just because he's crazy...James (Callis) is just such a brilliant actor.
BN: This is the part of the interview when I have to ask you what you can tell me about the final season of the show.
KS: Nothing (laughing). What I can tell you that has nothing to do with the show is that you mentioned Alyssa Milano and she is one of the people I looked up to growing up. I was a huge Who's The Boss fan, and I loved Charmed, too. She became a singer and came out with an exercise video called Teen Steam in the 80's; I still have it! I used to dance around the house and sing the songs. My brother wanted to kill me and threatened to destroy it all the time. I still have it and love to put it in and crack myself up. It's fantastic.
BN: Do you think the show will end with a final resolution that sums everything up or will it go out more open ended?
KS: I believe that some characters will have their resolution but I don't think everyone will because Battlestar is always focused so much on reality and the reality of the situation is that in a time of war, not everyone makes it. Some people, whether they make it or not, you still lose them forever.
I don't think that everyone is going to get to earth and then walk off into the sunset holding hands and talking about procreation. I do think that the fans will be pleasantly surprised. Hopefully we'll ruffle a few feathers and shock some people on the way out.
BN: It's not going to be Adama and Roslin sitting at a diner with Journey playing in the background before a cut to a black screen?
KS: (Laughing) That would be effin' awesome, if Journey was playing; I would just rock out.