Although Katee Sackhoff has been professionally acting since 1997, she scored her breakthrough role when she was cast as Kara “Starbuck” Thrace in the Battlestar Galactica reimagining in 2003. Originally conceived as a miniseries, it evolved into a four-season series (plus two tie-in movies) boasting an ensemble cast anchored by Edward James Olmos as William Adama. Battlestar Galactica ended in 2009, but there was an acting note that Olmos gave Sackhoff early into its run that has stuck with her through her career.
The actress shared this note during an episode of Back to Battlestar: Katee's First Watch, where she watches Battlestar Galactica episodes for the first time alongside her husband, Robin Gadsby. For this installment, the duo watched Season 1’s “Act of Contrition,” in which Kara reveals to Adama that his late son Zack failed basic training, but she passed him anyway because they were engaged, which paved the way for him to die in a flying accident. Ahead of starting “Act of Contrition,” Sackhoff recalled the following to Gadsby about when she and Olmos were filming this:
And I would do the take and then I would walk off and I would joke around with the crew. And he pulled me aside and he goes, ‘Hey, come here.’ And I walk over, and he's like, ‘You know, you would be really good if you tried.’ And I was like, ‘I’m sorry, what?’ I was just sort of taken aback because it was just basically, he was like, ‘You're not good.’ So he said, ‘You need to listen to Adama. Listen to me when I'm talking to you, Kara. Listen to the words coming out of my mouth. Really listen before you speak, and put yourself in her shoes and just listen. Take your time.’
Ouch! Talk about coming in hot with the constructive criticism. At this point, Katee Sackhoff and Edward James Olmos had been working with each other on Battlestar Galactica for roughly a year, so it’s not like they were still strangers to one another. Maybe that’s why Olmos felt the need to give her that piece of advice, as he was legitimately interested in seeing her succeed, whereas he might not have made that same effort with someone with whom he just started working. Whatever his reasoning, Sackhoff took this note to heart because it was the first time she’d ever heard something like this:
And I was like, ‘Oh.’ No one had ever said that to me before as an actor. No one had given me advice and been like, ‘Are you listening to what the other person's saying?’ No. I was memorizing my dialogue and I would say my dialogue when it was time to say my dialogue in a convincing way. I'd never had somebody say, ‘Are you listening?’ Of course, you're listening. You're listening for your cues. Somebody says their last word, then you say your line. But I'd never actually stopped and been like ‘Oh, ok.’ And he said, ‘Try it again and listen.’
Katee Sackhoff later pointed out the moment when Kara is telling Adama the truth about Zack’s death about what prompted Edward James Olmos to speak with her in between takes and advised her to listen. It’s served her well since then, and it’s advice that all actors should take to heart. Memorizing lines is obviously important, but you also still need to be absorbing the dialogue your scene partner is delivering rather than just waiting for your next cue to speak. I’d like to think Sackhoff was doing this without second thought by the time she shot Season 3’s “Unfinished Business.”
Unfortunately, Battlestar Galactica is not streaming on any platform at the time of this writing. So if you’d like to go through the series again to follow along with Katee Sackhoff and Robin Gadsby, you’ll need your own physical or digital copy. Otherwise, you can see Sackhoff next in the Prime Video subscription-exclusive Carrie, though this TV adaptation of the Stephen King novel doesn’t have a release date yet.
