Katee Sackhoff Talks ‘The Mandalorian’ and Acting Struggles

Battlestar Galacta alum Katee Sackhoff has been in genre TV for years. After voicing cultist turned mercenary/freedom fighter Bo-Katan Kryze for Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Rebels, she reprised the role in the live-action series The Mandalorian. She’s gotten to play Bo several times since then, but as the actor herself tells it, coming back to that role hasn’t been without its challenges.

In the latest episode of her podcast, Sackhoff told her Battlestar co-worker Tahmoh Penikett how she lost “all of my confidence” after filming The Mandalorian. “I’ve always played two steps removed from myself, [and] it always felt grounded in some part of my belly, of who I was,” she explained. Her usual acting method has been to go with her “first instinct, play the reality of the situation,” but that wasn’t the case with Bo-Katan. Playing the character in live-action made her realize how much Bo is “nowhere near who I am as a human being. As much as I stood her, I never identified with her, and I didn’t know how to find her.”

Sackhoff went on to say Bo-Katan “broke” her, enough to keep her from further acting in the past three years. She credits an acting coach and a new manager with helping her turn things around; the former reaffirmed her talent and said she just “need to get you back in your belly. You just need to find your confidence again.” As of this year, Sackhoff’s done voice work for Warner Bros.’ animated Watchmen duology and showed up in this year’s Fight or Flight, and she’s also in Prime Video’s upcoming Carrie series.

Star Wars-wise, it’s unclear whether she’ll appear in The Mandalorian & Grogu or the second season of Ahsoka, both of which Bo-Katan is some connections to. The show is currently in production, while the film is due May 22, 2026.

[via Variety]

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