Q&A: For ‘The Mandalorian’ actor Katee Sackhoff, space is the place

Katee Sackhoff arrives at Houston’s Comicpalooza conference this weekend as a type of visitors whose queue of excited followers runs throughout a number of franchises. She began appearing greater than 20 years in the past and located her first position of a lifetime in 2003, reinventing the Starbuck character within the reimagined “Battlestar Galactica” miniseries and TV present.

Since then, Sackhoff loved a protracted arc on “24” and landed one other position of a lifetime with the Western crime story “Longmire,” which ran six seasons till its conclusion in 2017. She has continued to work within the science-fiction realm with the TV sequence “One other Life,” the second season of which is forthcoming. And in an fascinating arc, Sackoff joined the hit “The Mandalorian” for its second season. Although new to the present, she drew from the acquainted, taking part in the warrior Bo-Katan Kryze, a personality she voiced on two earlier “Star Wars” animated exhibits. Given this physique of labor, Sackhoff is at all times a beloved draw at comedian conventions. She mentioned her profession and her affinity for science-fiction tales.

Q: I hope this isn’t too unusual a topic, however I used to be considering the way you got here alongside at such an ideal time for TV. Was an actor might get outlined by a single TV position. However you’ve managed to have a number of now with devoted fan bases. A few of it’s this golden age of tv. A few of it’s the rise of comedian conventions.

A: No, I fully perceive what you’re saying. I grew up at a time … I moved to Los Angeles on the excellent time for a younger actor. It was a time when younger TV actors might get work that translated effectively in the event that they had been focused on movie. And that was new within the business. There was this time the place it appeared like an individual needed to be one or the opposite. However you possibly can achieve success in each. There weren’t loads of choices on the time. However the business was altering. And “Battlestar” — I don’t wish to sound self-aggrandizing — however it was a groundbreaking present. It simply was. Round that point, individuals began to take discover exterior of fundamental cable and HBO. So with nice content material got here nice alternative. So I used to be fortunate and blessed and ready to be in the suitable place on the proper time with these three exhibits that outlined me for durations of time however by no means pigeonholed me.

Q: For an actor, being pigeonholed is a blessing and curse. There’s safety for a short while, however then when the present goes away …

A: Proper. And folks deliver this up rather a lot with me. “Are you frightened at being typecast?” And I can have a look at it in a really black-and-white form of manner. You would see me as being typecast as a robust feminine. Nice. However that’s not how I have a look at it. I like to consider myself as a personality actor in these large worlds, whether or not it’s “Battlestar,” “Longmire” or “The Mandalorian.” In all three, they’ve outlined my profession, however a very powerful world has been the exhibits themselves. That’s what they’ve in widespread.

Q: You’ve gotten an odd historical past with Bo-Katan on “The Mandalorian” in that you simply return with the character to the animated “The Clone Wars.” I do know there’s an unseen physicality that comes out doing voice work. However I assume you’ve needed to do the identical character very in a different way throughout these exhibits.

A: It’s wildly totally different, though they’re like totally different sides of the identical coin. You need to perceive the character and the world they’re in. And I say this on a regular basis, I transfer manner an excessive amount of. I’ve had producers inform me issues I do with my face are unattractive. However that’s what I’m recognized for, like it or hate it. Bo-Katan is fascinating, although. On digicam, she’s a tree, an unmoving tree. She stands and watches and waits. Nothing is completed on accident. It’s deliberate and meticulous, and he or she’s stoic. And that’s not who I’m as an individual. So it took a beat for us to seek out her on digicam, for me to seek out her. However one of many nice issues about “The Mandalorian” is Bryce Dallas Howard, who directed my first episode, and Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau, who developed the present. They created a tempo that was extra like movie to seek out her, as an alternative of getting to ship in a single or two takes and transfer on. So it took some time to seek out her, however we did. It’s humorous, I’ve a better time contained in the helmet. Then my face strikes the best way it at all times does.

Q: I can’t think about it’s nice to have a colleague say, “Cease doing that factor along with your face.”

A: No, it’s troublesome. However I’ve come to consider what I’m doing on digicam is simply this one piece of me. It’s one piece of me that works on this explicit venue. There are different items of me which are extra upbeat. Which might be large and daring, an individual who laughs rather a lot.

Q: Your YouTube sequence affords a few of that.

A: And even then, that’s not all of me. I don’t suppose there’s a spot the place all of me has proven up but. It’s humorous, once I was 20, I tattooed “Public Property” on my arm. I firmly consider on this business you give a bit of your self away that you simply by no means get again. There have been moments in my profession once I might inform one thing shifted, getting acknowledged extra or supplied extra alternatives. And that was the second the place I might have stop or determined to guard some a part of me and push ahead understanding I’d be giving one thing away. Twenty years later, I now not really feel like public property, however I’m nonetheless guarded and protecting of me and my fiance and our lives as individuals. So it’s not nearly me anymore. I lined up that tattoo with one other on my arm.

Q: Tattooing over tattoos has a popularity for being painful.

A: Oh, my god, I sat nonetheless for eight hours, and never one minute of it was enjoyable. It’s one of many hardest issues I’ve carried out in my life.

Q: You’re attending to act in “One other Life” but additionally work as a producer. It suits the science-fiction world you’ve come to know so effectively, however it has a really totally different tone.

A: Sure, there was this totally driving drive to be a part of this present. I’ve been type of overwhelmed and exhausted by darkish exhibits which are metaphors for the human situation. And there’s a spot for that, belief me. I like that (expletive). As an actor, you wish to do one thing with gravity to it, with heavy themes. However I additionally wish to do one thing enjoyable, the type of sci-fi I noticed as a child within the ’80s and ’90s. There’s a spot for each in sci-fi. So if individuals go in searching for “Battlestar Galactica” they’ll be upset. This present is popcorn. It’s speculated to be enjoyable.

Q: So have you ever plotted methods to maintain your “Mandalorian” helmet when the present is over?

A: (Laughs.) So Filoni and I’ve been conniving and attempting to determine a manner to purchase two of them, considering perhaps that may be inexpensive. However we should not have them. That mentioned, we’ve each been blessed to have had helmets made for us by these good armory makers and cosplay individuals. I’ve a beautiful helmet sitting in my home, and I like it. There’s this teenage child on Twitter who requested if I appreciated the helmet he’d made. I retweeted it. And now he does it as a job, a summer season job creating helmets. That’s what I like about this complete world, the conventions. You discover these individuals who uncover their creativity all by way of the world of cosplay.