Silicon Valley Comic Con 2018: Katee Sackhoff

Katee Sackhoff, best known for her role as Starbuck on Battlestar Galactica, appeared on a panel at Silicon Valley Comic Con 2018 on Saturday, April 7.

Following Christina Ricci’s panel in Room 220BC, which wrapped up at 1:30pm, there was a big gap where nothing was scheduled in the room until 3pm. Initially, Stan Lee had been scheduled to be on a panel during that time, but apparently that panel had been cancelled. Instead, he was now scheduled to sign autographs during that time. Not sure when or why the change was made, but my guess is that having had pneumonia recently, he may not have been up to talking on stage for an hour. Indeed, when we had seen Stan Lee’s panel at Ace Comic Con Arizona in January, his voice sounded very hoarse and strained.

In any case, this left us with a good amount of time to go grab some lunch before Katee Sackhoff’s panel at 3pm. Unfortunately, all of the food vendors in the convention center had extremely long lines. We decided to venture outside in search of food. There was a Subway across the street, but it had a line out the door. So we walked a couple of blocks over to the area by the hotel we would be staying at Four Points Sheraton. There were quite a few little restaurants over there, including Johnny Rocket’s, a small Mexican place, and a cafe. Johnny Rocket’s was packed, so we opted for the Mexican place. The line wasn’t too long to order, and there was a bit of a wait to receive our order, but not too bad. We were able to eat and make it back to the San Jose Convention Center in plenty of time to get in line for Katee Sackhoff’s panel.

Katee talked about Longmire, which she said was actually the first series she’s done where she wasn’t worried whether they were going to get picked up for another season, because the ratings were so good. So when the show got cancelled at the end of Season 3, she was in shock. She was grateful that Netflix picked it up and they got to do 3 additional seasons. Conversely, when Battlestar Galactica got picked up again, she was like, “Really? People watch this?”

The reason that Katee got into acting is because the only way she can sing is on stage when she can’t see people. So that is why she got into musical theater, so that she could actually sing in public. However, she warned the audience that she would not be singing for us.

The panel was quickly opened up for audience questions.

The first question was about how she felt when she joined the Arrowverse, referring to her character Amunet on The Flash. Katee told us that she had never seen The Flash, but was offered the role of not just a villain, but a supervillain, which intrigued her, so she agreed to meet with the executive producer. He told her that there wasn’t a lot about the character in the comics, so it was open to interpretation. She asked if she could do a British accent — even though she’d never done one before. But when he asked if she wanted a dialect coach, she responded, “No, I don’t want it to be good.” In Katee’s mind, her character is from Clearwater, Florida, and when she got hit by the particle accelerator she decided to become a villain and start talking like what she thinks a villain would sound like — British.  Katee said that it is the funnest job she has ever had, because she can do whatever she wants with the character. She revealed that she’ll probably be back next season too.

Another audience member asked Katee if she’d ever had any interactions with cast members of the original Battlestar Galactica aside from Richard Hatch. Katee told us about a promo that Syfy did before the mini-series aired where she and Dirk Benedict (the original Starbuck) took a photo together at a Starbucks with cigars and Starbucks drinks — and they called it Starbuck and Starbuck in Starbucks. She also confessed that she’s never seen the original.

Katee was raised on watching action movies. In fact, she wanted to be Bruce Willis in Die Hard, which is her favorite Christmas movie. She pointed out the fact that there weren’t a lot of female action stars when she was growing up. Katee praised Ron Moore (creator of the new Battlestar Galactica) for never acknowledging in the show that Starbuck was a woman, because if they acknowledged that, then it would have been an issue. Katee thinks that because they didn’t make it an issue that Starbuck was a woman, the audience accepted it.

She told us a story about when she first tried to watch the original series with her friend. They were drinking wine, and got several minutes into it, and thought they must have been too drunk already, because somehow they missed her (“her” meaning her character, Starbuck). So they rewound it and figured out that Starbuck was a male in the original series. At that point, she turned it off and never watched it again.

Katee pointed out that if you go back and watch the mini-series, she plays Starbuck a little too masculine. The reason being that after she was cast, there was so much hatred for her on the internet, and she let those people get into her head. As a result, she went way too strong with her performance. After watching the mini-series, she was very disappointed in her performance. Katee realized that she shouldn’t listen to those people, and should instead be true to herself. Therefore, she became more feminine over the course of the first season.

An audience member asked about when she had to play Starbuck after [spoiler alert] her character died and came back. Katee said that was one of the hardest story arcs she had to play for Starbuck. She had called Ron Moore because she didn’t know how to play the character. When she asked if she was alive, he said no, but then when she asked who she was, Ron said, “We don’t know.” They talked it through, and eventually he advised her to play the role as desperate, with the goal of convincing the others that “you are who you are.”

Katee also shared a personal story from when she was in high school. When she was growing up, she was a swimmer, and that’s what she was going to do with her life. But then when she was 15, she got injured and had to reevaluate. She knew that college wasn’t for her, so she had to come up with something else that challenged her. At one point, she realized that she was part of a “mean girl” group, and once she realized that, she stopped hanging out with those girls, and found theater. She then spent the rest of high school apologizing to those she had been mean to. Additionally, that same group of girls turned on her, and made her last two years of high school “a living hell.” Interestingly, Katee recently had lunch with one of those girls, who apologized.

When Katee moved to California, her dad gave her some advice: to determine what sets her apart from every other blond girl, and what makes her special. It took her about five years into her career to find out what it was: it was her vulnerability, which came from her insecurity of not being liked.

Going back to Battlestar Galactica, Katee said that every one of the Final Five shocked her. She recalled, “Those actors were so angry!” — especially Aaron Douglas (Chief) and Michael Hogan (Tigh). Katee also added, “Aaron Douglas has the ability to get more angry than any human being I’ve ever known.”

As for whether Katee has ever thought about directing, she replied, “I have no desire to do anything other than what I do.” However, she revealed that she has a desire to produce, and that she is a producer on the new show she is on — which is something she’s always wanted to do. She thinks it’s because she lived with a producer for 10 years.

Katee spoke about how she likes to do charity motorcycle rides to raise money to help animals. One such ride she has coming up is the Tulip Ride, where they ride out to a tulip field in Washington, near Seattle. The goal is to raise money for the Seattle Humane Society.

She also addressed the political climate that was going on while Battlestar Galactica was on the air, such as the Iraq War. Katee recalled that there were discussions over whether they were really going to film this right after 9/11. In fact, when she and the other actors got sent to boot camp, she was worried that they might accidentally actually get shipped off! She kept making sure their military trainers knew they were actors. Katee pointed out how other shows at the time tried to address current events, but had to water it down, while Battlestar didn’t have to, because it was sci-fi, so it flew under the radar.

The moderator asked a spoilery question about the final episode of Battlestar Galactica, warning the audience before she asked it. Writer and co-executive producer Jane Espenson has said that in her mind, in the final scene between Kara and Lee, that Kara hides in the grass, army crawls away, and then secretly watches Lee lose his mind about her disappearing. So the moderator wanted to know if Katee thought that’s something Kara would do. Katee answered, “Maybe in Season 1!” She pointed out that Kara evolved so much over the course of the show, that she couldn’t imagine her doing something like that by the end of it.

Before the panel wrapped up, the moderator made sure to lead the audience in chanting, “So say we all!” (which is always a fun thing to participate in as a Battlestar Galactica fan!).

Up next in Room 220BC was Adam Savage. Stay tuned for our recap and photos of his panel!

You can view more of our photos of Katee Sackhoff at Silicon Valley Comic Con 2018 below.