Anybody who’s ever had a ardour for films and exhibits possible had this thought cross their minds sooner or later: Actors have the best jobs on this planet. To have the ability to play dress-up, put your self by means of a crash course to study some ass-kicking new abilities, and have each aspect of manufacturing tailor-made to make you seem like essentially the most interesting one who’s ever lived? All whereas (ideally) getting paid commensurate to your expertise and arduous work? Yeah. To not be a hot-take machine or something, however that appears like a fairly candy option to make a dwelling to me.
Till it is not, that’s. Even essentially the most glamorous-looking vocations have (ahem) a darkish facet to them, which looks like the right segue into the entire purpose why you clicked on this text on the primary place. For “The Mandalorian” actor Katee Sackhoff, who initially voiced the fan-favorite character Bo-Katan Kryze within the animated “The Clone Wars” and “Rebels” collection earlier than reprising her function in live-action, she discovered herself going through a very troublesome problem. How do you get into the headspace of a personality who’s so arduous to know and consistently hidden underneath a masks — each figuratively and actually?
In a latest episode of her podcast “The Sackhoff Present” (by way of Leisure Weekly), the star admitted that she by no means fairly managed to get into the thoughts of the ultra-cool and picked up (and sometimes violent) Mandalorian revolutionary Bo-Katan. Whereas speaking to her visitor (and former “Battlestar Galactica” costar) Tahmoh Penikett, Sackhoff mentioned the concept of determining her “course of” as an actor at such a longtime level in her profession and the way simply she misplaced confidence in her talents. Because it seems, all of it got here to a head after filming “The Mandalorian.” As she defined:
“I misplaced all of my confidence after ‘Mandalorian.’ All of it. My fashion of performing has at all times simply been […] I’ve at all times performed [being] two steps faraway from myself, in a way. It at all times felt grounded in some a part of my stomach, of who I used to be. Bo-Katan is nowhere close to who I’m as a human being. Her life, what she needs — I did not perceive her. As a lot as I understood her, I by no means felt her in my abdomen. I by no means recognized along with her. I did not know the way to discover her. And it broke me.”
Katee Sackhoff struggled to seek out work for years after her function on The Mandalorian
Appearing is not at all times sunshine and rainbows, people. Oftentimes, performers who take their craft severely need to scratch and claw their method for years to change into observed in any respect. As soon as they lastly get there, they might need to put up with some unbelievably powerful working situations — simply ask any of the solid and crew engaged on grueling productions like “Sport of Thrones.” However for somebody as completed as Katee Sackhoff, most well-known for her efficiency on the hit sci-fi collection “Battlestar Galactica,” her downside considerably resembled one thing nearer to a midlife disaster — a debilitating second of self-doubt that almost put a cease to all her ambitions. Sackhoff went on to explain how this distinctive inflection level left her “scrambling” to dig herself out of this rut:
“I began doubting every part about myself. I am not a robust auditioner on tape, and I used to be having to place myself on tape. I wasn’t reserving something. And for 3 years, I mainly did not work, and it simply destroyed my confidence.”
In the end, it took some drastic measures for the actor to get herself again on observe. Surrounding oneself with the correct individuals is at all times an excellent first step for anybody, well-known or not, and Sackhoff ended up having to discover a new supervisor who actually understood the struggles she was going by means of — who, in flip, launched her to an performing coach for the primary time in her profession. For these interested by how this helped floor her and regain her confidence, the remainder of the dialog is nicely value testing for your self (at this hyperlink, roughly 35 minutes in).
Fortunately, it seems these darkish occasions are nicely and actually behind her. Sackhoff will subsequent be seen on Mike Flanigan’s upcoming “Carrie” collection for Prime Video. And for “Star Wars” followers, Pedro Pascal’s Din Djarin and little child Grogu will reunite on the large display screen for “The Mandalorian and Grogu” subsequent 12 months.
