While superhero fiction can be a wonderful form of escapist art, at the end of the day, it is the grounded stories and characters we can relate to that appeal to fans like me the most. This is something Katee Sackhoff understands and tries to implement in all of her roles, and the latest proof of that can be seen in her performance as Silk Spectre in Watchmen: Chapter I.
The new DC movie — now available on Digital — is the latest adaptation of the groundbreaking 1986 graphic novel written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Dave Gibbons which follows the lives of (mostly) retired superheroes years after their services have been banned. Unlike Zack Snyder’s live-action adaptation — which took some liberties with the Watchmen ending, having condensed the full story into roughly three hours — director Brandon Vietti’s animated feature only traces the first half of the comic in 83 minutes.
The arc of the second Silk Spectre, whose real name is Laurie Juspeczyk, is a pivotal plotline focused on in the film. It sees her begin to feel a disconnect in her relationship with her atomic boyfriend, Jon “Doctor Manhattan” Osterman (Michael Cerveris).
Laurie’s one-sided love story was one of the most essential reasons why Sackhoff — best known as Starbuck in Syfy's Battlestar Galactica cast and The Mandalorian’s Bo-Katan Kryze, more recently — was excited to be a part of this new animated Watchmen adaptation. She told me about her process for getting into character and why she felt a certain kinship and modern relevance in this particular role:
One of the things that I love to try to do with my characters is that I try to humanize them as much as possible. Playing someone like Laurie, I really wanted to find the pain in her, because I think that comes across. I think that she’s so relatable to women and the struggles that we have and I really wanted to tap into that. I feel like we can all identify, or at least I can, with loving someone with all your heart and not feeling enough and... I wanted that to come across. I wanted to feel that in her voice.
Silk Spectre is only the latest DC character the Geek Goddess has portrayed, such as voicing Poison Ivy in Batman: The Long Halloween and Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths - Part Three, or when she put on an English accent to play Amuent Black on The CW’s The Flash. In fact, many of Sackhoff’s best performances see her adopt a new voice to keep the character distinct.
However, when you hear Sackhoff as Laurie in Watchmen: Chapter I, you are hearing the actor in her most genuine form. She further discussed this was unusual choice for her career with me in the following quote:
She, I think, feels the closest to me in voice. I chose not to change and alter my voice at all for her and that’s a first for me. I really try to change the way that I sound for characters and lean into whatever I think and the director thinks the character is. For this, I felt very confident that the way I sounded would work well for her.
It is refreshing to see a voice actor feel so close to her role that she can, essentially, be herself when portraying her. This is especially so when you consider how Malin Akerman struggled with playing Silk Spectre in the 2009 feature.
Sackhoff is actually one of the few Watchmen: Chapter I cast members keeping things natural, as the Welsh Matthew Rhys dons an American accent to play Dan “Nite Owl” Dreiberg and Titus Welliver (who previously played Lex Luthor in Titans) puts on some gravel to portray Walter “Rorschach” Kovacs. To play Adrian "Ozymandias" Veidt, the talented Troy Baker — also one of the best Batman voice actors of his time — makes only a few subtle, but distinct changes to his own voice.
From Warner Bros. Animation, Watchmen: Chapter I is rated R and is available to own on digital, but is coming to Blu-ray and 4K on August 27. Also be sure to keep an eye on our upcoming superhero movies schedule to find out when the story’s conclusion in Watchmen: Chapter II will be released later in 2024.
