Katee Sackhoff Dives Deep Into The Sackhoff Show Podcast's Origins And Reflects On Her Work On Longmire, Battlestar Galactica & The Mandalorian

More recently, Sackhoff has dipped her toe in another art form entirely: podcasts. With The Sackhoff Show, Katee Sackhoff is sharing her honest and open personality with the world, inviting listeners (or viewers on YouTube) to join her in casual conversations with representatives across the industry. Her partners in intimate discussion range from Battlestar Galactica cast members to sci-fi legends like Jonathan Frakes, and the topics cover both personal triumphs and tribulations as well as candid industry observations.

ScreenRant had the honor and pleasure of interviewing Sackhoff about the origins and goals of The Sackhoff Show, as well as the fascinating discoveries the actor made about herself in the process of producing the podcast. The sci-fi veteran also looked back on some of her old work, whether it be The Mandalorian and Battlestar Galactica in live-action or Batman: The Long Halloween and Watchmen in animation, and offered advice to newcomers based on her own experiences.

Katee Sackhoff Understands Herself Better Than Ever Thanks To The Sackhoff Show Podcast

“What it did was give me the desire to learn how to have conversations with people again and actually listen.”

Screen Rant: I just listened to your episode with Jonathan Frakes, and the thing I loved is that it felt like I was a fly on the wall of a conversation between two guests at a convention. There's so much insight and knowledge I learned about just based on your conversation, like how you auditioned for Roswell. I loved that show, and you auditioned for Isabel. How did that come about?

Katee Sackhoff: Pretty much like every other audition and job. They sent out a breakdown, which I think everyone is familiar with, [where] they tell you what roles are available for a show, and what the age range is. Then your agent will send your headshot and your resume saying, “I think they're right for this character,” and the casting director says yay or nay.

Then you end up going in and auditioning with a hundred of your closest friends, if not more. And it was just one of those things; Katherine [Heigl] and I are very similar in so many ways that it actually makes a lot of sense. It was just an audition, and I was very green. I had just moved to California in ’98, and that's when I was auditioning. That audition would've been like one of the first probably massive pilots that I auditioned for, for sure.

Screen Rant: I feel like this podcast is great for any creative type that wants to get into acting or who are any fan of any these sci-fi genre shows that we all fell in love with. What was your biggest inspiration to create the podcast?

Katee Sackhoff: It was right before the pandemic between The Mandalorian and my show Another Life on Netflix. I had downtime because I was contracted, so I couldn't do much of anything, and I was so bored. I said to my boyfriend – now husband – “Can we just start a YouTube channel or something? I am so bored.” We started this YouTube channel, and I went out and did a lot of different things and made a fool out of myself and had so much fun. I loved it. But the thing that I loved the most about it was the conversations I was having with people when I would go out and interview for the episode, or when I would just talk to the camera. I loved that. I loved the conversation element with the fans as well, or the person who was watching at home.

When work started back up again, it just got too hard to produce episodes of that magnitude. We were burnt out and making no money on it, so it was just really just for fun. With one of my friends, Kristian Harloff, [I had] the first conversation where he was like, “I think you should start a podcast.” He really helped me get it off the ground and figure out what it was, and that's sort of how it started. I wanted to have authentic conversations with my friends, with people I had worked with, people I haven't worked with but met on the convention circuit that I never really have had the opportunity to sit down uninterrupted and just talk for an hour and a half...

Life is so busy. We've got kids, we've got work, we've got all of these things, and we have these five-minute interchanges where we're like, “Yeah, I talked to them last week.” Well, did you really? Or did you just spend five minutes? I wanted to have conversations with people again, and I wanted to give people listening and watching at home that fly-on-the-wall experience where it just felt very easy, like you caught up with two friends having coffee.

Screen Rant: What have you learned about yourself through doing this podcast?

Katee Sackhoff: I have ADHD, which I had no idea that I had. I just thought I was always really good at creating lists and multitasking; I didn't realize that I had a superpower. When I started the podcast, my husband and I listened back to my first episode with Bryce Dallas Howard, and he said, “Would you like some constructive feedback? You’ve got to stop interrupting.” And I was like, “What? But that's a conversation.” He goes, “You’ve got to give her the time to talk and to answer the question. I know you want to say something, but you’ve got to remember it and then come back to it.”

I started thinking about that a little bit more, and then I was talking to my therapist, and he goes, “Would you like my diagnosis?” I was like, “Diagnosis? Not me. I just came to you to talk about my s--t. [Laughs] Fine. Tell me what my diagnosis is, Doc.” And he said, “You're classic ADHD.” He started running me through all of the things, and I was like, “Oh my God, I have ADHD.” I go back to my husband and tell him, and he goes, “Well, yeah, I knew that.” Everyone around me knew that except me!

What it did was give me the desire to learn how to have conversations with people again and actually listen. That was a tremendous tool for me; to finally know that I needed to relearn something. It wasn't because I was rude. I always thought, “I'm just a bad friend. I just interrupt people all the time. It's just me. I am a terrible person.” And all of a sudden I was like, “No, it's just my brain. It’s not [that] I'm an asshole, I just need to figure out how to control this a little bit better.” It was invaluable to me to learn that.

Katee Sackhoff Reminisces About Past Projects & Explains Her Nostalgia For Longmire

“That's the first and only time I've ever played someone like that.”

Screen Rant: I feel like I'm learning so much just about communicating through this brief conversation. You've had so many incredible guests on your show. Is there a bucket list interview or podcast guest that you'd like to have?

Katee Sackhoff: God, just pulling from my childhood… Sigourney Weaver, Linda Hamilton, Lucy Lawless. There are these women that shaped my persona, who I wanted to be as a performer – and ultimately as a woman – and I would love to interview them. To share space with them would just be glorious.

Brian Cranston's on my list, and I would love to talk to my friend Aaron Paul. The first lead of a pilot I ever got was a show called Locust Valley, and Aaron Paul was in it. We were 18-year-old kids. Alexandra Breckenridge was in it, from Virgin River, and she’s coming on the show. I haven't seen Alex since she was 16, and we were on this show together – which didn't get picked up, obviously. I haven't really talked to [Aaron] since then; I’ve seen him every once in awhile, but we don’t really talk. People like that that I've worked with, who I haven't talked to for many years, I would love to sit down with.

Screen Rant: There was a tidbit that you gave in a recent episode which that surprised me, but it makes so much sense. You said that if you could go back to a show and be on it for the next 10 years, it would be Longmire. Can you talk about your experience on that show, and what you enjoyed most about playing Vic across that five-season arc?

Katee Sackhoff: Yeah, I think what I loved about her was that every one of us women identified with her. She was a real woman that could be any person on the street. I think that's what drew me to her; she was just so normal, and her struggles were normal. Her love was normal, her pain was normal. It was all grounded in this feeling of, “I know someone who went through that.” That's the first and only time I've ever played someone like that. Of course, I've played people before that are very grounded in our world, but I loved her story. I loved her arc.

I loved that she was a fish out of water, and she moved to this place. She followed her husband, but she also had to get out of town. She finds herself in this town that is the last place she wants to be, and it ends up being her home. She ends up finding her heart and her soul in this place and these people, and it's just such a beautiful story to me. I loved her, I loved her relationship with Walt, and I loved working with Rob Taylor. Rob is incredible.

Screen Rant: I didn't know he was Australian until I listened to your show.

Katee Sackhoff: Isn't that crazy? Australians have the ability to do accents like no other. You throw an Australian any accent, and they can do it. It's so weird. I don't even understand it. He and I had this really beautiful chemistry where we're peers, but he's also a teacher, and that's what Vic and Walt had. I miss the show. I miss those people.

Katee Sackhoff Has Some Thoughts About Rebooting Power Rangers

“I know this is going to upset a lot of Power Rangers fans, but…”

Screen Rant: Luckily, now you can reconnect with everybody doing this podcast. I'm a big Power Rangers fan, and I know that you were in Adi Shankar’s bootleg Power Rangers universe. How did that all come about, and were you a fan of the franchise prior to working with Adi on that?

Katee Sackhoff: Oh my God, yeah. I grew up on Power Rangers, and I auditioned for Power Rangers as one of my first auditions in California. I don't even remember what it was for. I don't remember anything about it. I just know I went in on a Power Rangers audition when I first moved to California for something, and I loved it.

I always loved what Saban did, but Adi had this understanding that there is more growth to the story that could exist. The audience of Power Rangers, they're my age now. I would love to see blood and guts in Power Rangers because the story is so cool. So, when my old manager was like, “I know this guy, and he's doing this thing…” As soon as he said gritty Pink Power Ranger bootleg fan film? I was like, “I'm in!” I think we did it for free too. I don't think we got paid, or I don't remember if we did. If we did, it was in bubblegum and duct tape. But it was so much fun, and I love that s--t. I love sci-fi and action and fantasy. Every space in my brain, when I think about film and television, that's what I want to see. That's what I want to do.

Screen Rant: Power Rangers was on the air for 30 consecutive years, which is crazy to me. If you really take a step back and think about it, there's not too many shows that have been on the air that long. It seems as if they're going to reboot that universe. Would you rather see that 30 year lineage continue, or reboot it as we've seen so many other things do?

Katee Sackhoff: I don't know. I mean, selfishly for myself, I would love to see it rebooted. I want to see something different; I want to see it taken to the next level. There was something about Power Rangers that was so… We were all in on the joke too.

I know this is going to upset a lot of Power Rangers fans, but I would love to see that thrown away. I would love to see a Power Rangers that is grounded and real and gritty and PG-13. It doesn't need to be R, fine, but go for it a little bit. You know what I mean? Cast really good actors and see what happens.

Screen Rant: Your love of sci-fi is very apparent, and I love it too. As a matter of fact, Battlestar Galactica was really what jumpstarted my drive into Sci-fi. I was introduced to that show, ironically, by a friend of Richard Hatch. I feel like sci-fi can sometimes be a cautionary tale. What are some of your favorite standout moments from the sci-fi roles that you've had?

Katee Sackhoff: God, the cautionary tale is so true. One of the things that's so great about science fiction is that you're able to touch on subjects that you wouldn't necessarily be able to in something based in our world, because you immediately get dismissed as, “Oh, it's not real, or it's fantasy.”

Like on Battlestar Galactica, when [we did] the suicide bombers. That was a very crazy storyline, but we were allowed to do it because it's sci-fi. It’s things like that which I've always appreciated. You're right, it is a cautionary tale, and I think good sci-fi makes you question your existence and makes you think about the future and the past. That is good.

Watchmen Chapter I Is One Of Katee Sackhoff’s Proudest Voice Acting Accomplishments

Bringing Bo-Katan from animation to Star Wars live-action is most certainly another one.

Screen Rant: You also have an extensive background in voice acting work. Obviously, Bo-Katan Kryze is incredible, but also Poison Ivy and Silk Spectre. We have the Watchmen animated film, which I think is probably the most faithful adaptation of the graphic novel. Can you talk about your experience working on Watchmen specifically?

Katee Sackhoff: Absolutely. I think that was honestly one of the questions I had when this was brought up to me. “Why this? It's been done. What are we doing?” And when I realized that it was going to be so true to the book, that's when I was like, “Okay, let's do this.” I love that book. There are moments in life when you can go back and look at your childhood when something shaped you. I think the moment I realized that there was a difference between a comic book and a graphic novel as a kid, moments like that broadened my horizons and my imagination. Watchman is one of those books that changed the game, and to be able to be a part of that and to respect it in the way that we did, I think is really cool.

That's not to say that I didn't love the movie. Of course I did. Malin Ackerman is crazy good, and it was a great film. If done correctly, there is a place for many different adaptations of a certain property. This is going back to the Power Rangers too – if done respectfully and correctly, there are many different iterations of things that can exist and that can be successful. And it meant the world to me.

Screen Rant: You voiced Bo-Katan, and then you brought the character to life, which is something we haven't seen done often. When did you have your pinch-me moment of, “I'm getting to be this character in real life?”

Katee Sackhoff: Oh my God, so many of them and so many different times. I think it happened constantly while I was working. The first moment I stepped on set was crazy. I think the moment when I got scanned for my suit, and I didn't have to cast my body [was one]. I had to be fully cast for my Power Ranger suit, so to be able to step on a pedestal in my bra and underwear and have them spin me in a circle for five seconds and be done and then have my suit fit like a glove? Crazy, that's a pinch-me moment. That is the moment you realize you've stepped into a big budget property.

I think season 3 was a pinch me moment in that I didn't know I was in all eight episodes. I just knew that they held me for 8 episodes contractually. When they dropped the scripts off at my house for season 2, I only got pages. Season 3? I got a pile of eight scripts brought to my house and handed to me. Then I started reading them, and I literally put them down, and I went to my husband and went, “I think I'm in the whole thing. I think Bo-Katan is season 3.” And he was like, “Oh, s--t, cool.” I was like, “No, this is terrifying. I didn't know this.” That was a crazy moment. I was terrified by the responsibility in that moment.

Screen Rant: From everything that you've done, from getting out here in ‘98 to working on some of these Star Wars things, what's been your biggest takeaway? I know that journey is obviously continuing, but right now where you're at, what do you think you've learned the most from?

Katee Sackhoff: Oh my God, so much. I wish that I could go back and talk to my 18-year-old self and say, “Try not to grow up too fast. I slow down. Appreciate these jobs that you're getting.” I was trying to amass jobs; I was just trying to climb a ladder. I never stopped to appreciate where I was because I knew it would end, and I'd need to find the next thing. I was always looking forward instead of staying present, and I think that looking back on it now, after being in the business for more than 25 years, it went so fast. I think what I've learned is to just appreciate what I have. That comes with age too, though.

Katee Sackhoff Reveals Which Star Wars Characters She’d Like Bo-Katan To Meet

As Bo-Katan, you've crossed over with so many different Star Wars legacy characters. Are there any characters that you'd like to see Bo-Katan interact with that she hasn't yet?

Katee Sackhoff: In live-action, I would love to see her with Satine. I would love to see that, even if it's in flashbacks. And we saw her with Luke, so I've always questioned whether or not Bo knew Yoda. It's a question on my mind, and we've talked about it. I might have to keep that between me and them, but it's one of those really cool things where when you're aware of timeline, and you look at the Filoni-verse and the films, and you see where they fit together. The timeline becomes really precious and cool, and there are so many really wonderful characters that exist in both timeline. I think that the universe is large.

Screen Rant: You've gotten to play in the DC sandbox as Poison Ivy and Silk Spectre, and you were on The Flash in live-action. Are there any characters that you'd like to bring to live-action for James Gunn’s DCU?

Katee Sackhoff: Black Canary, for sure. I don't know. I still have this dream of playing Poison Ivy in live-action. There's something about her. There's a pain in her that I loved playing when I voiced her. I find that so many villains are cautionary tales. We are talking about this with my daughter right now because in her books, Ivy is not bad. Harley is not bad. There are so many characters that haven't turned yet in these books, and the other night when we were going to bed, she was like, “It's okay, Mommy. Bad characters do good things and good characters do bad things. It doesn't make them bad.” And she's not even three yet!

I think that's it. I think that I would love to play Poison Ivy in live-action. I think it'd be so cool.

The Sackhoff Show Has Great Advice For Aspiring Actors – And Important Truths

“If you love acting and you want to be an actor, don't let anyone stop you.”

Screen Rant: I actually think your podcast is perfect on so many levels, but for a lot of young aspiring actors out there, you're very open with your in acting experience. What's the one bit of advice that you would give listeners to motivate them and just carry on the process?

Katee Sackhoff: The industry is changing as we speak. It is a very, very different landscape than it was even two years ago, and I don't quite know what it's going to look like. And there are so many reasons why: COVID, the strikes, productions going overseas, AI, streamers realizing they weren't as profitable as they thought... There are so many people not going to movies anymore, and there are so many reasons why our industry is changing.

You cannot control what this industry is going to use you for, and there is so much of it that is out of your control. But the one thing that I think still rings true to me is something I heard once, that if you want to be an actor, you can do that tomorrow. You can do that anywhere. You could do it with your phone, you could do it on a stage at your school, you could do it at local theater, you could do it on Broadway, or you could do it on YouTube. There's so many different ways to be an actor.

If you want to be famous? I have no idea how to do that. If you want to be an actor that makes millions and millions and millions of dollars and be that 1%, and that's your goal? No one has any advice for you because there's no rhyme or reason to why it worked for some people and it didn't work for others. So, I say that if you love acting and you want to be an actor, don't let anyone stop you. Do it tomorrow because that joy is the thing that you need to hold on to because it's going to be hard.

Check out new episodes of The Sackhoff Show on YouTube every Tuesday. The podcast is also available on various platforms, including Spotify, iHeart, Apple Podcasts, and more.

Source: Screen Rant Plus