The Star Wars Track at Dragon Con took over the Hyatt Centennial II-IV Sunday morning to welcome Katee Sackhoff, who played Bo Katan Kryze across several animated Star Wars series as well as the live action television series The Mandalorian, to Dragon Con. Moderated by Primetime Steve, the session began with a reflection on her Battlestar Galactica days and affection for the cast, but quickly turned to focus on her work in Star Wars. As soon as they opened the floor for questions, however, the first member asked, “what roles she’d be interested in doing in Star Trek?” After a slight pause Sackhoff declared: “I would be a rock!”  Raised on, and always interested in working in, the science fiction realm, she would do anything! Her only requirement would be that it not require hours in the makeup chair. “Maybe some cute ears,” she said, but no green paint.

When asked about working with George Lucas and Jon Favreau, Sackhoff turned her focus to her long-time director, and close friend, Dave Filoni. She described Filoni as an incredibly open, giving, and collaborative person who is truly excited by the Star Wars universe. He respects it and she enjoyed talking with him about it because he knows it intimately. She used to text him before a scene and he would write back entire missives providing the full context behind what she was about to do. Beyond the work, she pointed out that Filoni is a fundamentally good person who also happens to have a very cool dog (Wolfie).

Sackhoff then turned to the transition between animation and live action. Animation and live action are different media, each with their own inherent rules and reality. She was worried about how the live action transition would go. She simply did not want to look “out of place” in the Mandalorian. She remembered walking out of the trailer in full costume and make-up for the first time and being met by Dave Filoni. “Buddy, this is so cool” he declared as they both teared up. She pointed out that the animated Bo Katan was “not me.” She was Filoni’s creation and her job was to make the character sound the way he wanted it. Sackhoff almost never had a script, just lines, and her job was to set the tone and inflection the way he wanted it. The animated Bo Katan was very much Filoni’s vision.

It becomes something else with the transition to live action. Now, the character became hers, and she fully appreciated the responsibility that came with it. One of the things she had to work out in live action was making peace with what she couldn’t do. At various times during the production there were five women in the suit. Sackhoff had to learn to let others help. It took some time, but she came to realize that she was not the best person to do the work in every situation. She had to be open to allowing others to help. She illustrated this through her discussion of the stunt work. At first, she felt stifled by the crew’s insistence she not do a stunt, but when she did one (a knee slide), and realized how difficult it was to do properly, she changed her mind. Bruised knees that take a week to heal will do that….

Sackhoff did have a suggestion for Bo Katan cosplayers: booty shorts. The onesie created a completely flat back side with no curvature. “It is not flattering to your ass, at all!” The solution was to find shorts on Amazon that lifted her bum “super high”.

A member asked Sackhoff about working in the “Volume,” the digital, immersive sound stage developed by Industrial Light and Magic. She’s conflicted by it. On the one hand it is amazing technology that really does put the actor in the “place.” In fact, it is so immersive that it can literally cause motion sickness. It is an amazing technology but at the same time it reduced the use of the actor’s imagination. Sackhoff believes that some of her best work occurred with tennis balls (referring to the green screen technique of focusing on a spot marked by a ball) in which she had to imagine the character across from her. In the Volume you “unplug” that part of your imagination, and that saddens her.

Having grown up watching science fiction with her dad she began to “fight” for roles in the genre as soon as she could. She “fought” for Battlestar Galactica and Riddick, and working on these projects are points of pride that she’s been able to share with her father. She pointed out that her dad has always been incredibly proud of her. She has been an actor since the age of seventeen, and she could always rely on his advice and guidance. Sackhoff would call him with concerns as well as to share the news of a part she’d won. What was special for her was when she brought him to the set (of Riddick) for the first time. She not only sensed his pride, but for the first time he was in “awe.” She made it possible for him to experience something he would otherwise never be able to do, and that was extremely gratifying.

It was an amazing hour and though she was the only Star Wars actor representing the franchise at the panel, she did an outstanding job.