Six and Starbuck Speak

Source: Buddy TV

Last week, Los Angeles's Cinerama Dome movie theater was host to a screening of Battlestar Galactica's mid-season finale and a Q&A session with some of the actors. Though we weren't able to attend, IGN got to sit down with Six (Tricia Helfer) and Starbuck (Katee Sackhoff) to discuss the impending Battlestar Galactica series finale and what their plans are now that the show is finishing up.

It's not surprising that both of the talented actresses are in high demand, and both discussed their new roles on Nip/Tuck, for Sackhoff, and Burn Notice, for Helfer. They also revealed their reactions to reading the finale script for the first time – and what they have to say may surprise you

“You know, it's funny because everybody had talked about our reactions and some people started crying,” Tricia Helfer told IGN. “I didn't start crying. I just felt like somebody had punched me in the stomach . . . You know the feeling when you come out of a heavy movie and nobody moves? It was like that. I just felt like I couldn't move. And none of that means anything to be read into what happens in the script. It was just really realizing, ‘Oh wow, this is the last Battlestar script I'm reading.' And it hit me in that way.”

Katee Sackhoff's reaction was at first quite a bit different – a reaction that might scare some diehard Battlestar Galactica fans.

“You know, at first I was a little disappointed,” she told IGN. “I was like, ‘Really? That's what you're gonna do? Okay…' But then the more I thought about it, I was like, ‘Oh… this makes so much sense. That's fantastic!' And I realized that if the fans do what I did, they'll be happy. If they take it for what it is on camera, they'll be like, ‘Excuse me?!'”

Reflecting on the series, both actresses revealed that they encountered whole new aspects of acting and fandom while working on Battlestar Galactica.

When asked by IGN if she paid attention to online fan chatter, Katee Sackhoff said, “Yeah, in a sense. I mean they have online porn about us! Which is weird… That's weird . . . Yeah, the world of fan porn is a terrifying thing. But it is always interesting and nice to have the fans care about your work so much that they talk about it after it's over. That's nice.”

Tricia Helfer meanwhile got to learn how to correctly die by portraying the many deaths of the various Six models.

“You know, I remember the first time I had a death scene I think -- besides obviously the nuclear blast in the miniseries -- was being shot in the back, that white-coated Six,” Helfer told IGN. “And I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't know anything. And now I'm like, ‘Okay! Which way am I dying? Where is the squib coming out?' Yeah, you definitely learn a lot on the show.”

After Battlestar Galactica, Katee Sackhoff will be shedding the role of Starbuck and taking on a new anaestheologist character on the wild and sleazy FX drama Nip/Tuck.

“It's going great,” Sackhoff said of the role. “Dylan Walsh is fantastic. He makes the awkward moments bearable. And it's fun, it's fun. It was a nice break from Starbuck, which is what I wanted.”

When asked by IGN if her new Nip/Tuck character was going to be trouble, Sackhoff responded with, “Aren't all the women on Nip/Tuck? Come on!”

Tricia Helfer meanwhile has been filming a role on USA's Burn Notice, a light hearted spy dramedy starring Jeffrey Donovan and Bruce Campbell.

“I think the show is really fun,” Helfer said when asked about her new role. “It's a really unique take and something that's fresh and new, not unlike Battlestar in a way. Battlestar was fresh and new in the sci-fi genre and I feel Burn Notice is fresh and new in the spy genre. And it's fun to be able to just smile every once in awhile too and laugh and have the levity that the show has.”

Katee Sackhoff will be seen in a multi-episode arc on Nip/Tuck when the series returns sometime before the end of this year, while Tricia Helfer can be watched on Burn Notice when it begins airing its second season this July. Both actresses will be back for the remaining half of Battlestar Galactica's fourth and final season in early 2009.