http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/tv/256140_tv19.html
Thursday, January 19, 2006
Sackhoff on the flak she's gotten for her strong, sexy Starbuck: Frack it
By MELANIE McFARLAND
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER TELEVISION CRITIC
If you've never met Katee Sackhoff, the woman who brings "Battlestar
Galactica's" Capt. Kara Thrace (aka Starbuck) to life, you probably
picture her as some kind of amazon, 6 feet tall and ready to rumble.
Away from the set, the Northwest native has a delicate physique, a bright
smile and, when she dropped by a TV critics' cocktail party last week,
favors fashion more in the style of Audrey Hepburn than her alter-ego's
flight suits.
We chatted with her about what it means to be Starbuck, how fans and the
guy who previously held the role have reacted, and what's in store for her
character as "Battlestar Galactica," airing Friday nights at 10 on Sci Fi,
flies toward the end of its second season. (Please be aware that this Q&A
contains minor spoilage.)
P-I: "Battlestar" has been getting a lot of critical notice, and earned a
slot on the American Film Institute's top 10 shows of 2005. Must be nice.
Sackhoff: That's the biggest accolade that we've gotten so far. That gives
us a little more credibility, I think. We always had it. But I think as a
science-fiction show you get looked over, so many times, just because
we're on Sci Fi. I'll meet people who haven't watched the show purely
because it's on Sci Fi. I'm like, you've gotta be kidding me. It's not
really science fiction.
Do you think it's being overlooked because it's on Sci Fi, or because it's
"Battlestar Galactica," and they still remember Lorne Green and Dirk
Benedict?
It's probably a little bit of both. You know, they focus on the shows that
are on the networks. And that's fine. I was on a network show. I wasn't
happy. But I'm perfectly happy where I am. I think that's part of it; I
think they remember the original show and they're kind of wondering, "How
do you take that and turn it into something that isn't sci fi?" And that's
exactly what they've done, they've turned it into a drama first and a
science-fiction series second. So, it's really not like the original at
all.
There has been a lot a positive and negative reaction regarding Starbuck.
Initially, it surrounded just the idea of the character as a woman. But no
one had gotten a chance to even get to know your character back then. Now,
two seasons in, have you read anything about her?
I don't read them. My mom does. If there's a good one, or a funny one
that's really bad, she tells me to read it. I think one time, someone said
I was so ugly it looked like I fell out of the ugly tree and hit every
branch on the way down, and landed on my face. (Laughs.) And then, I
climbed on top of a 10-story building, fell off of that, and landed on my
ass. I was like, that's really funny! Obviously someone went through that
much effort to figure out, you know, how my ass got flat and my face ...
that's funny. You have to laugh about it.
Some people would be devastated by that comment, though.
What can you do? You're never going to be - I'm sure there are people out
there who think Cindy Crawford isn't pretty. There's always going to be
someone, somewhere who doesn't agree with my parents' opinion of me. It
can't bother you.
Everyone talks about an actress's looks. For actors, it's acting first,
looks second. But with Starbuck, it's all intertwined within the
character. You're a tomboy with sex appeal. But some sci-fi fans are
reacting adversely to that, because in so many series, they're used to
women looking like Seven of Nine. Or Number Six.
My character is not your stereotypical sex symbol. She's not. But she is
for so many women. For many men as well. That is what's interesting to me,
is that I didn't think, when I read the script, that this was the
character who would get any attention for her beauty or her sex appeal.
But she gets quite a bit. And that's funny. It's weird to me to see how
different everyone's opinion of beauty is. She's strong, and I think it
would take a very strong man to deal with Starbuck.
My mom will read a (message board), and someone will admit they think that
Starbuck's good looking, and they'll get totally browbeaten by everybody
for the next, like, 10 messages. ... It's just weird to me.
And then people like to think that that's who I am normally.
They think you walk around punching people and smoking cigars?
They're intimidated by me! If they recognize me, they don't want to come
up to me for fear that I'll hit them or something. And I'll say, "No, I
don't want to hit you. I might break a nail."
I've noticed your character is starting to get mentioned in the same
category as Buffy and Xena, the really strong female figures on television.
That's not a bad group of girls to be in. They all kick ass. And that was
my primary objective with Kara, is I wanted her to be relatable, to be
vulnerable, and yet to be terrifying if you cross her. My job is complete,
I guess. For now anyway.
It looks like your character is going to be getting more terrifying. Is
that true, or not?
She definitely does. And then at the end of the season, you see her
finally calm down, and she learns to love somebody. And she learns to be
vulnerable, not only in private, but to somebody else. She finds somebody
else with her feelings and her emotions. The outcome of their relationship
will make her probably lose her mind. And she will probably be a goddamn
renegade for quite a while. So you're not going to see the soft side of
Starbuck for too long, but it will come out for the last couple of
episodes.
You guys have already surpassed the original, both number of seasons and,
I think, number of episodes. Were you ever keeping track of that?
I never even thought about it that way until this stuff with Dirk
Benedict, this little tiff that's supposedly going on ...
I read about that! Did you read his whole masculine deconstruction of your
role? (The essay was titled "Starbuck: Lost in Castration." In another
publication, Benedict is quoted saying, "It was about why you can't have a
character like Starbuck in a show today - a cigar-smoking, drinking,
womanizing, lovable scoundrel. The feminist movement got rid of those
guys. In the war against masculinity, the only way that character could
work was to make him a woman.")
Yes, I did.
What was your reaction?
I was so misquoted ... by saying that I said that if he ever gets put on
the show, I would quit. That's not what I said. What I said was, I can't
imagine, everyone who's done television knows that if you put one bad
apple into the mix, it can ruin a show. And why, with the success that
we're having and the high that we're on, would we want to bring someone in
who would blatantly bash the show? I think if they do it, it is a
publicity stunt. That's the only reason they're doing it. If they need
that kind of publicity for ratings, then we might as well all quit because
we're going to get canceled anyway.
That's what I said in rebuttal to that. But I never really tried to match
it. But once that started happening, I was like, look, at the end of the
day, I've now played this character longer. And at the end of the day,
it's a TV show. We're not curing cancer, people. I wish we were, but we're
not. It's entertainment.
So ... tit for tat. Shut up.
P-I TV critic Melanie McFarland can be reached at 206-448-8015 or
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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