Key Takeaways
- Confidence Loss: Katee Sackhoff experienced a significant loss of confidence after her role in The Mandalorian.
- Acting Approach: Sackhoff’s acting style involves playing characters two steps removed from herself, making it challenging to connect with Bo-Katan.
- Support System: After struggling, she found a new manager and an acting coach who helped her regain her confidence.
- Upcoming Projects: Sackhoff will appear in Mike Flanagan’s adaptation of Carrie, highlighting her trust in the director.
Katee Sackhoff voiced Bo-Katan Kryze in Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars: Rebels, but when she brought the character to the realm of live-action in The Mandalorian, the actress said she lost her confidence after appearing in the show.
“I lost all of my confidence after Mandalorian — all of it,” Sackhoff said on her podcast The Sackhoff Show. “My style of acting has always just been [that] your first instinct is the right instinct. Do that. Play the reality of the situation. And I’ve never really played a character. I’ve always played two steps removed from myself, in a sense. [My characters] always felt grounded in some part of my belly of who I was. Bo-Katan is nowhere near who I am as a human being. Her life, what she wants — like, I didn’t understand her. As much as I understood her, I never felt her in my stomach. I never identified with her. I didn’t know how to find her.“
Sackhoff continued, “It broke me. It just broke me, where I started doubting everything about myself. I’m not a strong auditioner on tape, and I was having to put myself on tape. I wasn’t booking anything. And for three years, I basically didn’t work. And it just destroyed my confidence. I broke down and was like crying … I’m not OK, man, I’m so broken, I have no confidence left. I’m lost.“
The actress added that her former manager didn’t get it, telling her, “This is easy for you… Stop trying so hard.” Needless to say, she got herself a new manager who connected her with an acting coach. “[The coach] said to me, ‘My goal is not to teach you how to act. You know how to act,’” she said. “‘I just need to get you back in your belly. You just need to find your confidence again.’ That’s it.“
Sackhoff will next be seen in a recurring role in Mike Flanagan’s upcoming adaptation of Stephen King’s Carrie. The Prime Video series is a reunion between the pair, as Sackhoff previously appeared in Flanagan’s 2013 movie Oculus. “I trust Mike,” she said. “I’ve relinquished control and I trust Mike, ’cause I’ve worked with him before and I know he’s amazing. I don’t know if I trust myself yet.“
It’s hard to lose confidence, especially in something you’ve always believed was your strength. Suddenly, what felt natural now feels uncertain, and the doubt stings because you know you can do better. It’s very tough.
