In Night of the Animated Dead, siblings Barbara and Johnny visit their father’s grave in a remote cemetery in Pennsylvania when they are suddenly set upon by the undead. Barbara flees and takes refuge in an abandoned farmhouse along with stranded motorist Ben and four local survivors found hiding in the cellar. Together, the group must fight to stay alive against the oncoming horde of zombies.
Revisiting George A. Romero’s 1968 horror classic Night of the Living Dead in an altogether unprecedented presentation, this star-studded animated recreation of the movie was released on September 21 on Digital and arrives on October 5 to Blu-ray Combo Pack and DVD.
Last month, we were fortunate enough to catch up for a brief chat with Katee Sackhoff to discuss her role as Judy in this fresh take on the classic movie. However, we kick things off by getting her thoughts on recently playing Poison Ivy in Batman: The Long Halloween and what it was like to take on the role of Sarah Essen in Batman: Year One (which is set to be re-released later this year).
Katee also teases her possible return as Bo-Katan Kryze in The Mandalorian season 3, but there's lots of zombie talk here too. As well as revealing what it meant to board a project like this one, she weighs in on getting to work with John Russo's original screenplay, her approach to this character, and whether Judith Ridley's original performance factored into her approach to the project.
Before we get to Night of the Animated Dead, we recently got to hear your amazing work as Poison Ivy in Batman: The Long Halloween and Batman: Year One is getting re-released later this year too; I have to ask: what does it mean to you to get to play those badass female characters in the DC Universe?
For me, voiceover work has always been such a beautiful way to experience characters that I wouldn’t necessarily get the opportunity to play in live-action for whatever reason. I think that because an actor’s physical appearance doesn’t come into the casting, I think that you have the opportunity to play more with your voice. That’s a huge thing for me and I loved playing Sarah Essen and then Poison Ivy. They’re amazing characters who I love very much, both for very different reasons. I love playing villains. I love playing complicated women. It’s something I’ve enjoyed since the beginning of my career and the more complicated they are, the more fun they are for me. It’s huge. I grew up in a time where if you wanted to find strong women, you’d turn to animation and comic books because it wasn’t commonplace in live-action. Continuing to play these characters is really fun and very important to me.
You’ve been part of so many iconic franchises over the course of your career, but what did it mean to you to be presented with the chance to be part of retelling a classic like Night of the Living Dead?
I think that sometimes repackaging something for a new audience to enjoy or the same audience to enjoy in a different way is a beautiful thing. It changed the landscape of this genre. Night of the Living Dead was so iconic for so many reasons and it really did influence so much. It’s hard to just say that it influenced because it created it. It is important and I love the fact that it’s changed just enough to find a different audience, but also the same one.
There are so many relevant themes here, with racism and sexism among the subjects covered; were you surprised to find those in a screenplay from decades ago?
It’s always interesting to see the things that were said and done in entertainment years ago. Even 10 years ago. It’s always interesting to see how things have changed and I think that’s important to our history, but also important to our understanding of how far, while at times not enough, it’s good to acknowledge how much things have changed. Also, it’s important to see how things haven’t, you know? I think I was reading something completely unrelated the other day and that was a book, I don’t remember when from, basically saying [Laughs] that women were deemed not intelligent enough to raise their children and wouldn’t know how to look after their kids with men deciding what they should do. I was like, ‘Oh shit, that’s crazy!’ [Laughs] There were actually medical journals saying how women were not equipped to raise children. So, listen, things change, right?
Thankfully, yes! When we find Judy here, she's taken refuge in that basement, but finally makes the decision to come out of there and fight to survive - what do you think drives her in that moment?
I think it’s the same thing that drives everyone and that’s survival and not wanting to leave your life in the hands of someone else. As women, a lot of times, something that pops up is that we feel very helpless and then we are overcome with this surge of, ‘No, let me do it. I can do this.’ I think that’s part of it, for sure.
As you mentioned, you’ve done a lot of voiceover roles in your career, but for this project, was it helpful to go back and revisit Judith Ridley’s performance in that original 1968 movie or more important you get to put your own spin on Judy?
I actually didn’t. I learned this years ago when I took over the role of Starbuck. For me, it was always important to…I think the best way to respect what was done before you at times is to make it different and not copy. That just makes you a mimic and I think that you take what was done, the sense of that character, and then you give it your own spin. I think that’s really important. I had seen this years and years and years ago, so it’s not like I’d never seen the movie. If I hadn’t, I would have done that. I knew this story enough to go, ‘I remember this movie. I remember being absolutely effin’ terrified. Let’s do that again!’ [Laughs]
I know better than to try and get any Star Wars spoilers from you, but as a fan, I’d love to know what you’re most excited about when it comes to exploring that dynamic between Bo Katan and Din Djarin now he’s wielding that Darksaber?
[Laughs] You know, whether or not we actually get to see that is above my paygrade. What I love about Bo-Katan, talking about animation and voiceover, is that for fans of The Clone Wars and Rebels, they know how capable she is. They know that she made a choice at the end of season 2 to not take that Darksaber and to not forcibly take it...even though she could have. I think that is the really important thing, and it would be fun to explore. However, what they have done so well over there is continue to keep people on their toes, and the way that they do that is they cloak and dagger and keep things very tight to the chest. So, like I said, that is way above my pay grade. I have no idea!
And for you, as a performer, it must be pretty special to know you were part of a scene with Luke Skywalker even if you weren’t aware at the time you were shooting?
Yeah, absolutely. Even just being part of this world when it was animated was a dream come true for me. I grew up watching not only Star Wars, but so many iconic sci-fi films with my dad. And Westerns. To be able to sit here talking to you 25 years after I started doing this and still be working, that’s insane to me. I’m just overwhelmed, but also very prepared. That’s something, 15 years ago, I wouldn’t have been had you told me I was going to be in a Star Wars TV show. I’d have been like, ‘Sure thing!’ [Laughs]
Going back to this film, there’s a lot of gore here and each of the characters do get dispatched in very gruesome ways. Having seen the finished product, what did you think of how it all played out?
I wasn’t surprised because it was absolutely something Michael Luisi and I spoke about ahead of time when we were talking about doing this and my participation in it. This was always going to be gory and they weren’t going to water it down for a younger audience. That’s something I think is really great about animation. I think it’s great to acknowledge that animation is not just for children. A lot of people think it is and when they think about animation, they think about cartoons, but there’s a very big difference between animated films, animated television shows, and cartoons. I think that is something that’s becoming, over the last few decades, much more prevalent in our industry and I love it.
We’re so used to seeing remakes, but this isn’t one; it’s adapting that original screenplay in a modern way. Was it exciting for you to be able to approach that original material this way?
Yeah, that’s really fun. I think if it were live-action, you can’t do a live-action remake of this movie. That is almost [Laughs] sacrilegious. You can’t do that. This is such a beautiful way to do it again, do it differently, but still pay respect to the way it was done the first time.
With these animated projects, I know it’s rare you get to work with your fellow actors, so when you’re in the recording booth, which of the relationships surprised you? The dynamic between the characters really jumped out at me and I think that’s a testament to that original screenplay.
Yeah, it absolutely is. It’s so funny to me that I have been in two projects with Josh Duhamel in the last year and I’ve never met the man! I made a joke that I think it’s time we move this into live-action [Laughs] because at this point, I think we’re in every single animated project together. What sticks out to me is just how well everyone did. That is a testament to not only the actors, but the director and the people who are influencing those performances.