Interview: Katee Sackhoff Discusses DON’T KNOCK TWICE, RIDDICK & Rescuing Baby Hedgehogs

Katee Sackhoff is known for playing kick-ass characters who can take on even the most menacing mercenary, but her character in Don't Knock Twice faces a different kind of threat: herself. Wrestling with personal demons, Sackhoff's Jess shows how powerful love can be when a witch threatens to tear her daughter away forever. With Don't Knock Twice out today in theaters and on VOD and HD Digital from IFC Midnight, Daily Dead spoke with Sackhoff about bringing out Jess' vulnerability and strengths, rescuing baby hedgehogs near the set, and how she'd love to reprise her role as Dahl in another Riddick movie (even if she had to win a dance-off to make it happen).

Thank you for taking the time to talk about Don’t Knock Twice. What was it about the role of Jess that struck you and interested you in this story?

Katee Sackhoff: Horror films and genre films are interesting, because I always look for a deeper meaning or a deeper theme in the film. And for this one, it was really that mother-daughter relationship, but it was a very atypical relationship in the sense that it was a woman who I didn’t identify with in regards to the choices she made as a young adult, when she basically lost custody of her child because of the choices she was making in her life. And then she spent the remainder of her adult life doing everything she could to rectify her decision, and that I could identify with.

I could identify with—and I think most people can—making a mistake and having to atone for it for a while, or live with the guilt. After talking with the director Caradog [W. James], and realizing that at the core he wanted to make a story about a mother and her daughter, I realized that that would be an interesting thing to try and figure out.

It is definitely a mother-daughter story first and the horror comes as a bonus in the story, which is really concerned with Jess’ relationship with Lucy Boynton’s character [Chloe]. Was that also appealing to you, those great mother-daughter moments with Lucy’s character?

Katee Sackhoff: Yeah, those are the things that ground performances, when there’s something you touch back to, that you can relate to. And I’ve had those conversations with my mother—I’d like to think that every child has heard their parents say to them at one point or another, my mom has always said, “You will never understand how much I love you until you have children.” My mom has always said that you don’t know what love is until you’ve had a child. And that’s her perspective, so obviously it’s different for other people, but I do believe that there is something at the core of protecting your offspring—the love of a mother, you just don’t get in the way of it.

Even if you’re a witch, you don’t mess with that [laughs]. You’ve played such kick-ass characters, you always bring such a strength to your roles, and in this film, in addition to the physicality, we also see the psychological vulnerability, and it’s such a nice coupling to see that. Was it interesting to tap into that physicality but also have these really intense psychological moments?

Katee Sackhoff: Yeah, that’s one of my touchstones, is that if you’re going to play strength, you’ve got to marry that with a vulnerability and give your character some relatable qualities, and that’s the thing that Caradog focused on the most with Jess. He just wanted her to be vulnerable at all times. He probably would have foregone all of her strengths, just to have her be as vulnerable as possible as much as possible [laughs]. That was one of the things that we worked on the most.

So there was a good collaboration in building that character up and adding your own elements to it?

Katee Sackhoff: For sure. It’s always interesting when a director comes over with this sort of confused look on their face. And you know as an actor that they’re trying to come up with a way to explain to you how to do something and not hurt your feelings [laughs]. Every time Caradog would come over, he would literally look at me and say, “More vulnerable,” and just walk away [laughs].

This character is such an artist and she’s always sculpting. Did you get to tinker with sculpting at all during filming?

Katee Sackhoff: Yeah, I did. I actually signed on for the project when I was filming Longmire. Being in Santa Fe, which is sort of the art capital of the United States, I managed to go to art school and find a sculpting teacher who spent a lot of hours with me, teaching me how to use my hands and how to sculpt, what I would do and what I wouldn’t do, and what certain words were, just to make myself comfortable with clay. And I looked at a lot of art books and sculpture.

With the witch character, were there a lot of practical effects used? Were you able to interact with the witch even in its creature form?

Katee Sackhoff: Everything is practical and everything is an actor. And he [Javier Botet] was freakin’ hysterical and was absolutely talented in the way he moved his body and the things that he could do with his fingers and his arms. It was absolutely amazing working with him.

The filming location adds a gothic atmosphere to Don’t Knock Twice. Where did filming take place and what was that like, because it really adds a haunted house vibe to the movie.

Katee Sackhoff: We shot in the countryside of Wales, which was absolutely beautiful and idyllic. During the day, we’d wander around because it was the summer, and we found a bunch of baby hedgehogs, which, FYI, they’re not supposed to be out during the day, so then we called the hedgehog society, and we ended up saving baby hedgehogs.

It was really funny, actually. My boyfriend and I just found one in New Zealand, and I knew exactly what to feed it, because I’m like a hedgehog pro at this point. Every day during lunch I would go back and look for the baby hedgehogs, because it started out that there were three of them, but we’d get them one at a time, so the DP [Adam Frisch], the hair and makeup girls, and I were always out looking for the hedgehogs, because we knew we had to rescue them.

You’ve been in films like Mike Flanagan’s Oculus and White Noise 2, so it was nice to see you come back to the horror genre with Don’t Knock Twice. Was that something you had been looking to do, or did this just happen at the right time?

Katee Sackhoff: I never want to do too many of the same things in a row. Working with Mike Flanagan was amazing. He’s a phenomenal director and he truly believes in a collaborative process between his actors, which is so beautiful to experience. So it’s not that I was looking for a horror film per se, it’s just when something comes up and it fits in your schedule and you enjoy the script and you think you can do something with that, then that’s your next project.

I’m leaving to do a sci-fi movie in a couple of weeks. I’m always on the lookout for good sci-fi because I haven’t done sci-fi since Battlestar [Galactica]. I did Riddick, but I sort of consider that to be fantasy. So I’m always looking for something that will make that audience happy and not alienate them. You can only do so many bad sci-fi projects before you lose your cred. So I was always on the lookout for a good sci-fi project and I feel blessed that I found Origin Unknown, which is the next project.

One of my favorite roles from you is Dahl from Riddick. If you ever did get the chance to reprise that role, would you be willing to come back to the Riddick franchise if they ever did a sequel?

Katee Sackhoff: Oh, yeah. I’ve pretty much done everything but beg Vin Diesel and David Twohy. From what I understand, they’re doing like a prequel, so my character wouldn’t be in it. But I loved her so much, because she was by far the strongest character I’ve ever played and so unapologetic about it. She’s just a complete bitch, and I loved every second of playing her. I’m like a shuffle ball change away from calling Vin and just bribing him, which I don’t even know what I would have to do to bribe him. We’d probably have to have a dance-off, and I’d have to win, which would be really difficult.

Well, that could be a Riddick sequel in itself. 

Katee Sackhoff: [Laughs] Exactly. Riddick and Dahl having a dance-off in the Necromonger world, that would be amazing.

Is there anything else that you have on deck that you can tease?

Katee Sackhoff: Origin Unknown is the next thing, and I did a movie called Girl Flu that should be available at some point. I’m so proud of that movie. It’s a dark comedy that I did a couple of years ago, and it’s still trying to find a home. The last season of Longmire and then just trying to see if the series I created is going to land anywhere—that’s what I’m working on right now. And also I have a couple films that I’m producing that are different stages of being ready to go, so we’ll see.