Katee Sackhoff Describes Shooting ‘The Mandalorian’, Her Reaction To Seeing ‘The Heiress’, and How Season 3 Also Used Real Locations
Katee Sackhoff popped by the Sith Council set in early February to record an interview with host Kristian Harloff, which aired this week shortly before the premiere episode of The Mandalorian season 3. In it, she talked about her experience on set, with other fellow cast and crew members, and gave small teases about what’s to come. What follows are some of the highlights from that interview, which you can check out in full length in the video linked at the bottom — that also contains the actress telling funny stories about motherhood, gathering her family to watch a trailer in which she didn’t appear, and much more.
At the beginning of the interview, which was recorded on February 1st, Harloff showed the actress the teaser poster that had just been revealed that morning, featuring Din Djarin wielding the Darksaber, to which she reacted by saying:
“Get your hands off my Darksaber!”
Going back to the end of season 2, saved the day and picked up Grogu to train him, Sackhoff reiterated once again that she was told and believed the Jedi that was coming in to rescue the baby was Plo Koon:
“I really didn’t know [it was Luke]. I’ve said this so many times. He wasn’t there, they said it was Plo Koon. That’s what Dave said, and everyone is like ‘Well, he is dead…’ And I’m like ‘Yeah, it’s Star Wars, it wouldn’t be the first time they [bring back someone from the dead]’. And when Dave Filoni tells you something, you believe him, you know? Dave Filoni told me I was gonna be in The Mandalorian, I didn’t believe him, ate my words, so I will forever believe him.”
Sackhoff joined the cast of the second season in 2019, even before the series started airing, so when asked if she could wrap her head around how massive the show would become, she said the following:
“It’s weird, right? Growing up a star Wars fan, I knew for me what this meant. And you always hope, but I’ve been so let down in my career in moments when people are like ‘This is gonna be it! This is gonna be the thing that is gonna catapult you…’ And then it doesn’t happen, so I’m used to having those opportunities just be the opportunity that it was and nothing else comes out of it. So I just took it for what it was, which was ‘How cool, I’m in Star Wars!'”
She got the call a couple of months after Star Wars Celebration 2019 (which took place in April), where, as she told the story, bumped into Dave Filoni, whom she knew from their time together in The Clone Wars, and joked around with him about bringing Bo-Katan into The Mandalorian at some point:
“That is where I actually cornered Dave Filoni and I was like ‘So, this Mandalorian show… I’m not dead, and technically, you know, the age is within reason.’ And he didn’t say anything. So I thought I was just making a joke to my friend, I never dreamed in a million years that two months later I was gonna get a phone call. My first meeting was not with Dave, it was with Jon [Favreau].”
The Mandalorian season 3 started shooting before The Book of Boba Fett premiered, so Sackhoff was a bit lost when she found out Grogu was on the set with them:
“So when we were filming season 3 and he was there, I was like ‘What?’ And then it made sense when he was in The Book of Boba Fett.
It is one of those things where they are just counting on the fans to have watched all the shows, but at the same time, for the casual viewer, I think that the trailer they had with the football game made complete sense, because they had to let people know who haven’t watched all of the other shows.”
The conversation then shifted towards Mercedes Moné (also known as Sasha Banks, who played Koska Reeves in a couple of episodes in season 2). Said the actress about her:
“Mercedes is one of the hardest-working, most humble women that I’ve met. She’s phenomenally talented as a wrestler and she has so much raw talent as an actor, that the sky is the limit for what she can accomplish. And one of the things that’s so beautiful about Mercedes is [her] ability to know your self-worth and to know your own worth and what you bring to something is such a powerful thing. And I think that’s why the fans got behind her. They know what she brought to the WWE, they know what she brought to women’s wrestling, she’s a phenomenal actor.”
Sackhoff attended Star Wars Celebration in 2022 for the first time as a member of The Mandalorian, and she relived the experience in the interview:
“I think that’s the first time that I felt the Star Wars love roar at my face. It was really cool, you know? I loved the trailer, I thought it was so cool, but I also knew that just because that was the trailer that we got at Celebration, didn’t necessarily mean that was the way Disney was going to publicize the show. That was a specific trailer for the fans that were at Celebration, and you can see that based on the differences between the trailers that were released.
The trailer that was released during the football game was really just to get people back in the mindset of ‘This is what The Mandalorian is, this is where we are at, these are the adventures that he goes on, and it’s coming soon’.”
She later added that she was told in advance that the trailer that premiered at Celebration, which she was a part of, was meant to be only for people in the room that would understand the larger context of the scenes, not to be shown to the general public as a piece of promotion.
In the second season, when we reunited with Bo-Katan again, we saw how she was very hesitant about taking the Darksaber from Din’s hands if it hadn’t been won in combat. This topic was very discussed back in late 2020, which Sackhoff addressed:
“And that’s the thing that a lot of people online said, you know? People who’ve watched Clone Wars and Rebels were like ‘But she’s taken it before!’ She has, and that shouldn’t be a criticism, that should make you question why did she take it then and why isn’t she taking it now? You have to think differently and go ‘Wow! Why wouldn’t she take it now? We saw her take it as a gift. Ok, something’s changed, something is different.'”
She also explained how this was a hard season for her mentally, and she required a lot of help from Jon Favreau to get through it:
“This was a hard season for me, in the sense that there was a lot of me sitting down with Jon, just needing pep talks.
I think I’m just an inherently insecure performer that… I know there are good moments where I think I’m a good actor, but this is the first time in my career where I think I’ve stepped up into something that’s bigger than the career that I’ve amassed. So I was really intimidated so I think I needed a coach that kept telling me… He just rooted me the whole time.”
She also added how she is an actress that likes to be directed on set:
“Most TV directors, at least back when I started… There’s no time to direct actors. And I always talk about myself in the sense that I felt like I was the good child that doesn’t need parenting, so they just leave you in the corner to do what you do well. And they never direct you. So I was craving direction as I got older. Please, somebody tell me what to do, what I’m doing wrong, give me something! So I love being directed. It’s one of my favorite things about this business.”
Sackhoff also added that she’s seen parts of the show while doing additional recordings in post-production and she can’t wait for people to finally check it out. She has also come a long way since the moment in late 2020 when she first appeared in The Mandalorian, as she was terrified of the response her appearance might get from the fans online:
“I was sitting in the bathtub, I was terrified to watch the show. Bo’s episode had already aired. [My husband]’s mother were visiting us up in Canada where I was filming Another Life, and they went to go do something. And I was in the bathtub when they came back, in cold water. I’d been in there for so long, it was like two o’clock in the afternoon, holding a glass of whiskey, shaking.
Have you ever had that, where your adrenaline is so high that you’re cold, like shaking? I just had so much adrenaline because I’d been doing interviews all morning with people who had seen it. And my husband said that I looked up at him like a child, terrified. And I hadn’t even drank any of the whiskey yet.”
That episode, titled “The Heiress”, was directed by Bryce Dallas Howard, whom Katee Sackhoff can’t stop gushing about:
“So I actually met Bryce years ago when I was on set with my ex, he filmed a movie with her and I was there during that time. And she and I really hit it off. Didn’t keep in touch for whatever reason, but we completely knew of each other. And then one of my really close guy friends went to college with her. So she and I sort of run in the same circles for quite a while.
So there was an instant familiarity when I showed up on set that day. The love that I have for her is amazing. She gives tons of direction, she wants to try it a million different ways, and we have fun. That’s the biggest thing about it — this job is supposed to be fun. And she makes it fun. Long days, a lot of takes… It’s her process and in turn it becomes my process when I’m there with her.”
A key element of Howard’s directing in that episode, as the actress said, was finding how Bo-Katan walks and talks in live-action:
“When we were finding Bo, she was directing. So we tried it a million different ways because we didn’t know who Bo was, really, in live-action. We’d never seen her face move, we’d never seen her move. We’d just seen her in animation. So we really had to figure out who this person was aesthetically.”
When asked about what working with Pedro Pascal is like, she couldn’t resist but sing his praises:
“The characters on this show are such a collaboration. Even myself, I’d be remissed if I didn’t talk about the amazing stunt-women that are also in my suit. There were no less than five people that were in my suit this year. And if they let me try everything once, I would have, but there’s not two of me and it’s a big production. And also we don’t want us to get hurt. There’s just not enough time; this is such a huge show and we shoot it so quickly… There’s just not enough time.
And one of the most responsible things for an actor is to acknowledge and to be humble about what you bring to the table, and wanting to create a character that is believable as this amazing warrior. Well, that does require people with different expertise, so let’s bring in the right people, especially because we have a helmet on. It’s the most amazing opportunity to bring someone in with the level of expertise that I can only pray to have.”
She added that one of the benefits of having such a large ensemble of stunt people is that she could be with her newborn more than she thought she would, as she was born two months into filming season 3. She also told amazing stories about motherhood that we highly encourage you to check out for yourself in the video linked below.
Towards the end of the conversation, Sackhoff was asked about whether or not Kathleen Kennedy is ever on set, to which she replied:
“She is seen on set. And what a smart woman. I love her so much. We got to sit next to each other at a dinner and I just… And not just about business, but being a working mom and being so successful, juggling so many different hats, really really important… Meeting women like that is so important to me and talking about how they’ve managed to do so much in their lives.”
Finally, to wrap up the interview, the actress confirmed that the first season didn’t only use the Volume, but they also shot on location. (In fact, the castle that we meet her in in the first episode is in the Scottish highlands.) She went on to describe her experience shooting on the Volume:
“No, it’s location as well. That’s what I loved about Andor. I think that the Volume is a phenomenal tool, it allows creators to do something they otherwise wouldn’t be able to do. But I think there’s something [special] about seeing a real location. Although the Volume, listen, there are so many times where I can’t tell.
I had to do a scene this season where I’m flying a ship, and the Volume… It was like playing a video game, and the Volume was pre-done. So I’m literally having to move the ship as the thing is, so I’m learning the way the ship is flying with the Volume, and we did it so many times. But the crew can’t stand inside because it makes them noxious.”
You can check out the interview in full here:
Additionally, another episode of Sith Council was recorded on Wednesday, where Harloff and co-host Steph Sabraw talked about Chapter 17 of The Mandalorian in depth. If you’re interested, check it out here:
The Mandalorian season 3 returns with new episodes every Wednesday. You can check out Miguel’s review of the premiere here.
Miguel Fernández is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings, but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as movies from Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.
