• Stills – 08:00-10:00 pm x6

Holy frak! An interview with Cally Henderson Tyrol and Lieutenant Kara Thrace! Who would have thought that Ron Moore and David Eick’s re-imagining of Glen A. Larson’s 1978 television series Battlestar Galactica would garner such a wide range of critical acclaim? From the Peabody Award to the Television Critics Association’s Program of the Year Award, to Emmy nominations for its writing and directing, Battlestar Galactica has changed the way science fiction is perceived. Katee Sackhoff and Nicki Clyne reflect on the production of that series in the following Fulle Circle exclusive interview, and also discuss a few of the stories and inspirations that got them there.

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Episode 7 10:00-11:00 pm preview

While at the TCAs last week in LA, BuzzSugar got some one-on-one time with my favorite BSG alum, Katee Sackhoff, who’s settling into her new role on Fox’s 24. Although we’re used to seeing Kara Thrace bust some heads on the small screen (and it doesn’t seem that there’ll be any shortage of drama in her new role), the real Katee has a vulnerable side which keeps her from pointing her browser to Google to see what fans are saying about her. It’s really quite sad, and kind of intense! When asked if she likes to keep up with her fans online, she said:

I learned a long time ago not to go online when a guy said I was so ugly it looked like I fell out of the ugly tree, hit every branch on the way down, fell on my fat ass, crawled back up, fell down again, and landed on my ugly face. I learned at that moment you can never make everyone happy and that it’s better just to avoid it. What the Internet has provided is this wealth of information and knowledge, but I think it’s also allowed people to be critics without having to step up. And the reason I remember that is because it was so painstakingly written to be cruel. And it’s amazing to me the things that people say online. I would never say something like that about a person. It’s hurtful. And so I learned a long time ago just to avoid the Internet like the plague.

Yeesh! I for one think she’s gorgeous, and unfortunately her experience isn’t unique. No wonder she doesn’t Google . . .

You probably recognize Katee Sackhoff from her iconic role as Starbuck on Battlestar Galactica, but the actress is ready to keep her feet on the ground as a newcomer on 24. Sackhoff will be playing Dana Walsh, a CTU analyst with some skeletons in her closet. Season eight kicks off its big season premiere tomorrow night, and I recently had the chance to chat with Katee about her character, Kiefer Sutherland, and why she still hasn’t seen Avatar. Here are highlights:

• On landing her new part: I was excited. When it was presented to me, I had another offer to do a TV show at the same time. As a fan of 24, I was so curious. I dug a little deeper and talked to the producers about it, and obviously I had auditioned for it. Ultimately it was such a great move for me, creatively and career-wise. I just kind of jumped at it, it was fantastic. And I continue to be excited about it, it’s great.
• On the sense of camaraderie on the set: It’s all like a big family. 24, if there’s anything they do well, it’s welcome new cast members. They have so many new cast members that come on every single season that they’re very good at it. Especially Mary Lynn [Rajskub], she’s like “Hey, welcome aboard, I hope you don’t die!” So, it’s great. I’ve learned over the years to treat this as a job and not get too caught up in it and emotionally attached to anything. It’s difficult but it has served me well on 24, because you never know what’s comin’. I’m very aware that my place on 24 and in this business is finite.
• On keeping things light on the set: Kiefer has Air Supply “All Outta Love” on his cell phone. So every time it rings, we hear Air Supply. That kind of starts it. Like, at one point we all broke into song. So it’s great. Kiefer is a very, very, very funny man. I know that on the panels he doesn’t show that side of him, but he is absolutely hysterical and everyone on the show has a great sense of humor. It’s pretty easy to have fun.

• On preparing for a role when you never know what’s next: You just have to be committed to every moment that you play. It’s a blessing and a curse, but I knew a little bit more about my character than most people would going in, just because I had so many questions about it. It hasn’t shocked me too much, and I kinda knew how to play her. But it’s definitely something that you have to think about, that they could turn you into a German tomorrow. You have absolutely no idea what’s gonna happen.
• On BSG’s rabid fan base: I love the fans. I owe Battlestar and SyFy channel so much that the only reason I would be sick of it is if I didn’t have something to look forward to right now. Because I do, I get to look back on it fondly instead of with resentment. It’s great. I love the show, I love the fans. It’s phenomenal. I have no desire to go back — it was two years ago, and I’ve definitely left it behind me, and I’ve moved on to hopefully just as exciting work.
• On loving sci-fi: I grew up watching Star Trek, because in my family we had one television and two channels. So it was between Star Trek and the mating rituals of beavers. With a school teacher for a mother, you’re kind of like, “Dang it, please don’t make me watch another beaver special.” So I definitely love sci-fi. The first movie I ever remember watching with my father was Alien. Sigourney Weaver is still my favorite actress of all time. I could only hope to have the career she’s had. She’s pretty amazing.
• On Avatar: I haven’t seen Avatar yet, ’cause I’m avoiding it until people stop seeing it. I’m not very good with crowds. I went to go see Sherlock Holmes over the holiday, and there were so many people in there. I cracked open my beer and everyone turned, and I was like “Why is everyone looking at me? Oh, it’s because I snuck beer into the theater. I forgot about that.” I like to sit there and pull out my food from home, like my veggie snacks and my Miller 64. I don’t want to be judged. So I’m gonna wait until people stop seeing Avatar, and I’ll be like the second billion dollars they make.
• Will we ever see her in comedy? I don’t see anyone hiring me for a half hour comedy in the near future. Which is fine, I enjoy drama. And for right now, I’ll do what people want to see me do. Which is beat people up.

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• 7:00-8:00 pm x46

Plus Episode 5 preview

• LAVO in Las Vegas for a special 24 celebration (Jan 16, 2010) x19

• 04:00-05:00 pm x36
• 05:00-06:00 pm x98

Plus a preview of episodes 3 & 4

Sackhoff talks 24 and a possible new BSG TV movie.

The good news is you’re going to see Katee Sackhoff on TV again. The bad news is, she can’t tell you anything about it. She’s joined the cast of 24, perhaps the only show more secretive than Battlestar Galactica. Still, we managed to keep a roundtable going on the new set of CTU: New York (still shot in L.A. of course). 

 Q: How do you clash with Chloe? 

Katee Sackhoff: Yeah, my relationship with Chloe’s very interesting. It’s a situation where Chloe’s been gone, CTU has now been picked up and my character is very good at her job. She’s now Chloe’s boss so it’s an interesting, fun relationship and working with Mary Lynn’s fantastic. I think we laugh so much it’s kind of hard to get through the day. 

Q: What’s it like jumping into this cast and crew? 

Katee Sackhoff: You know what’s funny is I think that had this been the first year where they had new people come out, I think that it would be awkward but because this is a show where every season they have someone new, if not multiple people new, they’re used to it. So Kiefer and the crew and Mary Lynn are pretty much just like, “Hey, you’re the new girl, hi, how are you? Welcome.” Because it’s been really great that way. 

Q: Is there a sense of relief not walking around with show secrets anymore? 

Katee Sackhoff: Are you f***ing kidding me? Like I don’t have to walk around with secrets anymore? I’m sorry to swear at you. No, it’s very funny that you say that because I went from a show that’s clouded in this secrecy of who the Cylons are and blah blah blah blah blah and then I come to a show where I’m told right before I come out here, “You can’t tell them anything. You do know that, right?” So it’s very similar. I’ve said this before, I couldn’t have found a more similar situation to Battlestar Galactica. Its subject matter, not only subject matter but the crew is like a family. The shooting schedule is very similar to Battlestar so for me, it was a very, very easy transition and it’s been great 

Q: So you’re not a mole? 

Katee Sackhoff: I’m a Cylon. I think that because 24 airs so quickly, in fact that episodes come out so fast, that you kind of have to keep everything very secret because there are so many twists and turns that if I were to sit here and say some random thing, if it was a Starbuck thing, like I die in an episode or something, it could potentially ruin the entire season. So it’s one of those things where you just kind of have to keep your mouth shut, which I got accustomed to on Battlestar. 

Q: Has continuity been a nightmare? 

Katee Sackhoff: What Dana’s wardrobe is now is that you can pretty much tell when something’s missing. I think the crew would be able to tell me if my watch wasn’t there. Be like, “Katie, something’s odd with you today. Oh, it’s your watch.” So that’s been nice. Also, interesting to get used to to begin with because they shoot two episodes at the same time, which makes complete sense when you think about it logically because it all takes place in the same day so you could probably shoot a scene from episode 2 and episode 15 on the same day and it works because it is technically the same day. So it was interesting to get used to that shooting schedule where, “But this is in episode 1. Why are we shooting episode 3 when it’s my fourth day here?” It takes a little getting used to. 

Q: Did ever think about taking a comedy or something lighter? 

Katee Sackhoff: I tried that. I did a pilot that was very interesting and funny and it just didn’t get picked up. I think something that I always thought that I would fight against is being typecast because I started out in comedy. That’s kind of where I should be or whatever and I just happened to end up on Battlestar Galactica. So for me, I was like no, I’m going to do something different to prove that I can. Then I kind of thought to myself, “Well, that’s kind of stupid. If I have this fan base over here that wants to see me do this, why am I then on purpose going over here just to prove that I can?” When in reality I’m probably more castable and likeable on this side of things. So I kind of pulled myself back, came to that realization and I think everyone would be really happy to see me on 24. 

Q: How about nip/tuck? Will we see you on there any more? 

Katee Sackhoff: No, no, my nip/tuck days were very short-lived because of the pilot that came up. I was only supposed to do four episodes of nip/tuck and then obviously the cliffhanger came and I was then already on another show. So I loved it. It was very interesting because my first day here, I showed up and I had the same makeup artist that I had on nip/tuck so I was like, “Oh, hi.” 

Q: It was a cool character. 

Katee Sackhoff: She was great. It was fun to play that character. It was fun to finally play a character where they were like, “So, you actually have an hour of hair and makeup today” which was nice because on Battlestar I wore no hair or makeup. I would just roll out of bed and come to work and do my job. It was really nice. I always joked that the pilots had a certain amount of makeup and the Cylons had their makeup and then there was Mary who had her own hair and makeup and did her thing. So it’s interesting to get used to because now I have like an hour and a half of hair and makeup here and it’s like cool. I miss the days when they were like, “Just punch her in the face again.” 

Q: Can you have your tattoos on the show? 

Katee Sackhoff: No, I can’t have my tattoos on the show. 

Q: What’s on your arm? 

Katee Sackhoff: It says a couple things. Good property, public property, good money, good year. It could mean a lot of different things depending on who wants to translate it, what book you look in. 

Q: Wouldn’t a data engineer be allowed to have tats? 

Katee Sackhoff: Right, so we have to cover them. They’ve put me in a jacket. 

Q: No one ever eats either. 

Katee Sackhoff: And no one goes to the bathroom for 24 hours. We have bags. 

Q: That’s the technology they don’t talk about. 

Katee Sackhoff: It is. I brought that over from Battlestar. It’s like the whole plane thing, just pee on your leg. 

Q: You didn’t go on BSG either, did you? 

Katee Sackhoff: That’s not true. I was sitting in the bathroom in one of the last episodes. 

Q: Eddie always shaved. 

Katee Sackhoff: Eddie was always. I have such an awesome story about Eddie and this is so inappropriate. So I get a phone call from one of the executives over at Syfy or NBC, I don’t’ remember what it was. He’s like, “You have to come and see these dailies.” I was like, “Dailies from the movie The Plan? I’m not even in The Plan? What do you want me to see The Plan for?” I ended up not being able to but he walked me through what happened. Because it was straight to DVD, they didn’t have to worry about nudity. So when it was discovered that they could have nudity, all of a sudden they got really excited and Eddie was like, “Fantastic, it’s my goal to have nudity now because we could never have it.” 

Q: Will you ever get closure on Starbuck? 

Katee Sackhoff: I don’t know. I don’t know. There’s been talk of doing another Plan-esque movie. I didn’t do The Plan not because I didn’t want to be in it. There was the option for me to be in it but we finished shooting and I was so exhausted and really sick, so I was like it’s better for me to not do it so maybe Starbuck would have gotten some sort of closure had I done that. I kind of like the way how it’s been so vague. Every person I talk to has a different idea of what happened to Starbuck. I have my own. I’m sure it’s completely different from what the writers had in mind but it’s really nice to kind of allow her to just have people have their own opinion as far as what happened to her and who she was, because I have my own. I like it. I like where she went. Whenever I tell people, they’re like, ‘That’s not what happened.’ Okay, whatever. 

Q: So what happened to Starbuck? 

Katee Sackhoff: I think, when I read the final script or when I saw that they were pulling her away from Apollo, it just was naturally happening on the show, and I think I realized that when he had such a hard time losing Dee, I realized that he and Starbuck probably weren’t going to end up together just because of how grief stricken he was. And I was like well, knowing that Starbuck, from what the writers have told me and what Ron Moore told me is that the Starbuck you know is dead. I said, “I want her to have peace.” I’ve always said that. When people are like, “What would be your end for Starbuck,” I was like I just want her to be at peace. In some way, shape or form to just have some sort of closure for herself. I said, “She’s never going to walk into the sunset with Apollo. That’s never going to happen.” So I slowly, Michael Trucco and I, kind of slowly had our characters come together. You don’t change dialogue. You just linger on things. You change the intention of what a line was and then all of a sudden now you’re more in love with this person. 

Q: When did Ron tell you the Starbuck you know is dead? 

Katee Sackhoff: He told me that right when I died, when the plane blew up. He said, “The Starbuck you know is dead but you’re coming back.” And I was like oh, okay, perfect. So I knew immediately that she was gone. 

Q: Did he get more specific on what you were? 

Katee Sackhoff: Never. No one’s ever told me what she was. I have no idea what she was and that’s the thing I don’t know. I don’t think anyone knows and I think they had her disappear because no one knows. I think that was part of the reason for that was because it was something that, I don’t want to say they wrote themselves into a hole because I don’t think they did. I think the writing was absolutely superb on that show but I think how do you explain something that’s so unexplainable? So you just kind of don’t. 

Q: Will we see any former BSG cast mates on 24? 

Katee Sackhoff: Callum’s on the show. I pushed for that because I didn’t get to see him at the very end and I was like, “Oh, Leoban.” And I’m really good friends with Callum so I was like I want to work with Callum again. So when they cast him and the whole bouncing around of his name was happening, I was calling him going, “Close the deal you *sshole.” He’s like, “Well, I don’t know if I can. I have to do this thing in Canada.” And I was like, “Just close the deal!” Speaking of which it was his birthday yesterday so I’m having lunch with him today but when he showed up, and I have no scenes with him. Isn’t that horrible? The crew is coming up to me. They’re like, “Callum’s so lovely. We love him. He’s such a great guy.” I was like, “I haven’t seen him yet.” 

Q: Have you been watching everyone on Dollhouse? 

Katee Sackhoff: I would love to tell you that I watch TV but I don’t. Isn’t that so cliché? I don’t watch scripted television. 

Q: What do you watch? 

Katee Sackhoff: I watch like The Discovery Channel and National Geographic. 

Q: Not Real Housewives? 

Katee Sackhoff: I watched The Real Housewives of New Jersey for like three episodes because it was f*cking hysterical. I mean, seriously, could you get closer to what we think the mob is? I don’t even think, that’s not who they are but it’s hysterical. Like in my mind, that is Goodfellas. It’s just with chicks. It’s awesome. I was like, ‘This sh*t kicks ass. She just threw a table on that girl. It was awesome. You can’t write this sh*t. This is fantastic.’ So I watched it for a little bit but then when the whole book thing started coming out, I was like, ‘I can’t watch this anymore. I don’t care if you were arrested and a crack whore. I don’t care. I just want you to continue to throw tables on people. Stop talking about literature. That’s not what this show is.’ 

Q: What’s your life like working in LA? 

Katee Sackhoff: It’s fantastic. It’s really nice to be back in LA. I think being in Canada was so hard. I don’t think that anyone realizes that for six years I wasn’t home. So people are like, “Canada’s not that bad.” I’m like it is when your significant other lives in L.A. It sucks and it is a different country. I was going to call it the ass crack of the U.S. I’m so kidding. I’m absolutely kidding but the South Park song Blame Canada just kind of hits my head every time I show up there, only because they wouldn’t give me my fast pass card. That’s the only reason. I was denied. Anyway, I don’t want to talk about why. So it’s nice to be back here because going through that border just made a flight five hours. It’s not two and a half like everyone thinks it is. Once you go through that border, it’s five hours. You can’t go home for a second. So it made, which I still did every weekend, it just sucked. So it’s nice to be in L.A. It still takes me an hour to get to work every day. I’m like this is insane. I still have to drive Topanga every morning.

Q: With the schedule, what nights in do you have time for? 

Katee Sackhoff: You know what’s funny? I think I’ve worked a total of 15 days on this show. Because they shoot two episodes at the same time and because locations are so specific, they shoot all of CTU in one day and all of this location one day. So in 18 days, I’ll work three days which is really nice but I’m kind of bored. 

Q: How are you spending your down time? 

Katee Sackhoff: Well, my dog’s in physical therapy so I take him. He’s on an underwater treadmill. You’d think he was a f*cking race horse. He’s fantastic. He’s getting little stem cells injected into his spinal chord and it’s amazing. Absolutely amazing, acupuncture. 

Q: What’s your dog’s name? 

Katee Sackhoff: Meatball. 

Q: What kind? 

Katee Sackhoff: He’s a mutt. I adopted him from the shelter like nine years ago so I think it’s my responsibility to do whatever I can to keep him alive, even get another dog. Someone’s like, “Get another dog. It’ll keep him alive so much longer.” So I did. I got him like this little pug puppy and I was like, “Here. Here’s a present for you.” He was like, “I hate this thing.” And she’s like the spawn of Satan. So she’s like, “Oh, you don’t want me to eat this? Oh, I’m going to do that anyway. I’m not supposed to sh*t here? Okay.” 

Q: Which one are you closer to? 

Katee Sackhoff: Probably the pug but Meatball’s awesome. He’s just such a phenomenal dog. He’s so cute and then Nellie Bean is the other one. Satan, she really is. Absolutely horrible. 

Q: But a lovable Satan? 

Katee Sackhoff: She is. And I don’t know if you’ve ever seen a gorgeous pug but she’s gorgeous. They should make calendars out of her. She’s like one of those pugs that you see and you’re like, “Oh my God, that is what I think all pugs look like.” And then you see the rest of them and they’re like, “Wow, that thing’s ugly.” 

Q: Do they get along with your boyfriend? 

Katee Sackhoff: Well, we’ve been together for years now so she came into the picture with him already there. So it’s one of those things where now she wakes up and dj dj dj dj dj to his side of the bed. “Wake up.” Ch ch ch ch ch, my side of the bed. “Come on, guys.” Back to his side of the bed and he starts playing. It’s so funny. It’s very cute. So now they’re like best friends. It drives me nuts kind of.

Katee Sackhoff agrees that it isn’t a spoiler to reveal her new “24″ character, Dana Walsh, has secrets. “Everyone keeps going, ‘Are you bad?’” Sackhoff told me this week from L.A. “And I’m like, ‘Well guys, it’s “24.” It’s not like her secret is going to be that she raised show ponies in Kentucky.’” Although that would be a kindler, gentler twist for TV’s most action-packed, kill-heavy series. It’s hard to imagine Sackhoff, who has played such butt-kicking women as fighter pilot Kara “Starbuck” Thrace “Battlestar Galactica,” and bionic baddie Sarah Corvus on “Bionic Woman,” sweetly brushing her pony’s hair.

Dana Walsh oversees the computer analysts at the new CTU, which means she must handle job pressure, her boss’ demands, working with her fiance, CTU Agent Cole Ortiz (Freddie Prinze, Jr.). Dana also keeps her cool when dealing with a very frustrated Chloe O’Brian, who is no longer the smartest techie at CTU, the intelligence unit that has employed Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) for the better part of seven seasons. “I do like Dana; she’s fun. She’s the most outwardly normal person I’ve played so far,” Sackhoff said. “She felt more like myself right now, which is easier for me. It’s like stressful when you go to work and play someone like Starbuck. I don’t have to be so emotionally damaged [now].”
Playing Starbuck, however, brought Sackhoff fans, job offers and a prized trophy–RedEye’s 2008 Best TV Character title. Coincidentally, she beat Sutherland’s Jack Bauer to take the honor, a fact she decided not to bring up while working on his show. “Could you imagine had I walked in the first day and been like, ‘I just wanted to let you know, Kiefer, that I was voted more kick-ass than you,’” she said, laughing. “I might have been fired. When you’re the new chick on the block, you tend to mind your Ps and Qs a little bit better than I would have normally done over on ‘Battlestar.’”

Sackhoff talked a little bit more about “24,” motorcycling cross country with “BSG” co-star Tricia Helfer, what she thinks happened to Starbuck and how she doesn’t need career advice, thank you very much.

How’s it going?
It’s good; it’s going very well.

Before we get started. For this show, unlike “Battlestar Galactica,” you don’t have to keep secrets, right?
Ha, ha, ha. I’m just going to laugh the whole interview. Yeah, I left one show that was clouded in secrecy and went to another one that was clouded in secrecy. They all seem to be these political dramas that I get myself attached to. One just happened to be in space.

How have you adjusted to the new show?
It’s been quite an easy transition actually. Everybody’s very nice and very fun … I auditioned for Brad Turner who … directed “Flesh and Bone,” which is a “Battlestar Galactica” episode where Starbuck tortured Leoben and was like, “Oh my gosh. I know you.”
Then I was in the writer’s room and they were thinking of who to hire for one of the Russian roles and I was like, “You do know Callum Keith Rennie, don’t you?” So it turned out my first little bit of “24″ I was surrounded by “Battlestar” people. So it made it a lot easier.

Do you have any scenes with Callum? Or can you say?
I can’t say if I do or not.

I figured.
I could be Russian.

You could be. But I don’t think you are. But I do have to wonder: Does CTU have like the worst employee screening program ever?
They do have the worst employee screening ever. I’ve always wondered that, like how there’s always a mole at CTU or the FBI. You’d think that they’d be a little bit more careful, especially since it’s happened so much in the past.

I love the stuff between you and Mary Lynn when Chloe gets angry and snaps at you. But Dana’s so even-keeled.
Yeah. She’s like, “It’s totally fine that you don’t know what you’re doing. I’ll help you every step of the way Chloe.”

Dana does have some history
Oh she’s got some secrets, but it’s 24. What would it be without secrets? … I keep telling everyone that this entire season of “24″ is just going to be Jack Bauer at Starbucks. Can you imagine? … They needed a change of pace. People got bored with the way ["24"] was last time so they just decided that they’re going to follow Jack around: He’s going to run errands; he’s going to pick up the dry cleaning.

Right. Do you get any face time with him?
I do have some scenes with Jack. … I don’t know how much I can tell you for fear of repercussions from the Fox network.

Can you tell me about this old boyfriend at all?
What old boyfriend? My old boyfriend?

No, no. Dana’s old boyfriend.
Oh. [Laughs.] Dana’s old boyfriend. I don’t think I can. … She’s got a past and someone from her past comes to haunt her and she did have a romantic relationship with him so it could pose a problem with Cole. As far as how much I can tell you about that relationship? I think very little.

As a fan of “BSG,” I have to say it’s weird to see you looking scared.
I know. Because you’re like, bad Katee looking scared doesn’t really look normal.

I have to say you look really good though on those first four episodes.
Thank you.

You look very much like yourself and not like Starbuck.
I know, right? I know, people are like, “Oh my God, Katee’s smiling.”

How are you doing with all the tech stuff?
The tech stuff is like my worst nightmare. It’s harder than “Battlestar Galactica” because on “Battlestar” I would tape my dialogue to the Viper screen. So every time I didn’t know a line I would just pretend that I needed to touch a knob or something and then I would just get my line that way. So now I’ve had to pick up a folder. Every time you see Dana with a folder in her hand it’s because I couldn’t memorize a line.

And you have to rattle off some nerd-word heavy instructions.
Yeah. There are some doozies. I got to tell you, they get worse. So I wish I could say that the inner dialogue gets easier but that’s not true. She’s head analyst or something. She’s very smart.

Does she get to see any action out of CTU? Can you tell me that?
I said to someone the other day that I was doing night shoots and they were like, “Well, how could she do night shoots if you were–Ohhhh.” So that was my first “Oops!,” like the cat’s out of the bag. So, yeah, and then you get these phone calls where you answer questions about what episode you’re filming and they’re like you can’t even answer that.

So you were on “The Big Bang Theory.”
I was on “The Big Bang Theory.”

In the bathtub.
In a bathtub.

And geeks’ hearts soared.
[Laughs.] I read this very funny interview–I think it might have been Maureen Ryan at the Tribune. She actually said that I was going for the geek trifecta. That I was Starbuck and I did “The Big Bang Theory.” And I’ve written and produced a comic book with my friend Sully. So I’m kind of going for the geek trifecta was how she put it.

Now you can go to Comic-Con with an actual comic book.
I can go to Comic-Con with an actual comic book. I wouldn’t know what to do with myself though, because it’s the comic book people that don’t have money for the parties. So I’d be like, “Hey, Syfy, can I come hang out at your party?”

You were on “Nip/Tuck,” which makes me have to ask if you’d ever want to guest star and sing on Ryan Murphy’s “Glee.”
I would go sing on “Glee.” I love Ryan. I love “Glee.” I think it would be really fun to do that show, whether or not I have time to put another thing on my little docket is a completely trick question. I seem to have a bunch going on. I’m producing a documentary with Tricia Helfer. I’ve written a TV show [called "Rain"] that I just pitched to Universal Television the other day. I’ve got the comic book going. So I’m a little spread thin right now.

I guess so. What you sing?
Oh, God in heaven. Anything that they could edit very easily.

Tell me about this doc with Tricia.
I can. I has to do with motorcycles. We’re doing a documentary that’s inspired by the Van Buren sisters–Adeline and Augusta Van Buren. They were the first women to ride cross-country on motorcycles in 1916. So we were inspired by them to find out what it means to be a women. We’re going to ride cross-country and do a Ewan McGregor.

“Long Way Down” and “Long Way Round” were great. That’s cool and a great story.
It’s pretty amazing. Yeah, they set out to prove that women could be motorcycle mail couriers in World War I. They were told that women weren’t strong enough and didn’t have the stamina for the job.

And they were proven wrong.
Well, that’s the sad thing about the story. I believe that the government and all the nay-sayers were proven wrong, but it didn’t change anything.

One thing I do want to ask you about going from Starbuck to “24″ and other post-”Galactica” projects comes from some comments I’ve read on Twitter and from other TV writers. They’re almost telling you what you should do with your career.
I know, right? Which ones are you referring to? I’ve seen a lot. I’ve stopped looking actually.

I was just wondering your reaction to those types of comments. That you shouldn’t be playing “just ” an analyst on “24″ after playing Starbuck. But they don’t know who Dana is; maybe you’re the ringleader.
Right. For anyone to think that I don’t have an ulterior motive with everything that I do in this business and I don’t know exactly where my career is going in my mind, that’s kind of a juvenile thought.
I am very calculated in what I do with my job to try and navigate this business and form the career that’s going to provide me with the stability and the longevity to have a job when I’m 60.

Right.
Or 70. Everything I do has a reason for it. Sometimes its just I want to have fun. But there’s a reason for everything I do. You know what? Sometimes, especially right now in this economy, it’s just nice to have a job.

Speaking of “BSG,” I have a few Starbuck questions. Was she an angel in the end?
I don’t know. I think that she is one of the only people whose origin, I guess whose fate, was left to interpretation.

And do you know where she went in the end?
I know where I think she went but do I know? No. And I have no idea what Ron [Moore] was thinking. But I think that she’s with Anders.

OK And when do you think she became self-aware that she wasn’t just human?
I don’t know. I don’t know. I’m sure she kind of knew but I don’t know. It’s been two years since we shot that stuff; I don’t remember the episode. Yeah.

Do you get tired of answering “Battlestar Galactica” questions?
No, I don’t. You know, I loved the show and I think I would get tired of answering “Battlestar” questions if I was still not working. It’s very easy to look back fondly when you have something to look forward to.