Katee Sackhoff became a star thanks to her role as Starbuck on Battlestar Galactica. With making such a big splash in a single genre it’s not uncommon to see actors return to that well again and again, but that’s not really what happened with Sackhoff. She only recently returned to science fiction again with the Netflix series Another Life.
Katee Sackhoff explains to CBR that once she was done making Battlestar Galactica, she had a desire to do some different things and make stories that were a bit more grounded in reality. However, she decided to return to science fiction because, while it might share a genre with Battlestar, she saw it as a very different sort of project, and it was one she had control over. Sackhoff explains…
Time was a big thing. I hadn’t done sci-fi in a television format since Battlestar. I think I needed to go do a good old Western, where things were based in reality for a second. I also think of couple of things appealed to me. Number one, having some creative control is always really beautiful. I understand this genre pretty well, or at least, I grew up on it and I know what I like to watch. Then, what I really loved about this is it’s really different than Battlestar.
On the one hand, some actors find themselves in similar roles again and again, because it’s what they enjoy doing, On the other hand, there are those that are always looking for a challenge, or just something different so that work isn’t the same thing every day. Katee Sackhoff is clearly one of these latter cases. She seems to like working in science fiction, but it’s not the only thing she wants to do.
While the SyFy Channel reboot of Battlestar Galactica was based on a 1970s series that wasn’t particularly cerebral, the reboot was quite serious and dramatic. By comparison, Katee Sackhoff describes Another Life as a “popcorn” series, and that makes it different enough to be interesting for her. Sackhoff continues...
I think for myself, as someone who enjoyed watching Battlestar Galactica, if I had gone and done a carbon copy of that, some people would have been happy, but a lot of people would have told me I was uninspired. Or, I would have been ripped apart by one section of people who were like, “She only does one thing.” I love the idea it was very different. I love that Another Life doesn’t take itself seriously. We’ve created a popcorn sci-fi show that I love. I say this all the time: Not every show needs to be a metaphor for the human condition. Sometimes, we can just watch shit blow up.
Whether you’re a fan of science fiction, a fan of Katee Sackhoff, or both things together, Another Life’s second season is now streaming on Netflix
