Interview: Katee Sackhoff on Voicing Silk Spectre in DC’s Watchmen: Chapter 1

ComingSoon Senior Movie News Editor Brandon Schreur spoke to Katee Sackhoff about voicing Laurie Juspeczyk/Silk Spectre II in Watchmen: Chapter 1. Sackoff discussed her affection for the Zack Snyder Watchmen movie and why she wanted to join the animated DC project.

Based on the iconic graphic novel created by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, the Warner Bros. Animation and Paramount movie is now available to purchase digitally on Amazon Prime Video, AppleTV, Google Play, Fandango at Home, and more. Watchmen: Chapter 1 will also be available to purchase on 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray on August 27, 2024.

“In an alternate world history set in 1985, the murder of a government-sponsored superhero draws his outlawed colleagues out of retirement and into a mystery that threatens to upend their personal lives and the world itself,” the synopsis for Watchmen: Chapter 1 reads.

Brandon Schreur: I just wanted to say congratulations on Watchmen. I got a chance to watch it this past weekend and I loved it. It was so right up my alley and I had so much fun with it. Congratulations.

Katee Sackhoff: Thank you so much! I’m glad you enjoyed it.

Definitely. To start, I’m wondering if you can tell me just a little bit about your history with this story. Were you a fan of the graphic novel and the Zack Snyder movie before you signed on to do this project?

Sackoff: Yeah, for sure. I had seen the graphic novel, I’ve read it and loved it. The Snyder version, for me, was something that I thoroughly enjoyed. It’s right up my alley. I love science-fiction, I love action, and it had everything. I felt that it was a wonderful interpretation of the book.

What I love about this is how true to the book it feels. I think that the animation style serves it beautifully. I’m just excited for people to see it because I just saw it and I think it’s wonderful.

Sure, definitely, and I totally agree, I loved the animation, I loved how faithful of a take it was. It feels like you’re just watching the comic come to life. I thought that was awesome, totally agree. You’re playing obviously Laurie, Silk Spectre, in the movie. What drew you to the character? I know she’s complicated, she has a lot going on — I mean, always, but especially at this point in her life. What was that like?

It’s hard for me to sort of talk about Laurie without seeing Malin Akerman. She did such a wonderful job with the role. I was really excited to put my own spin on this, for sure. One of the things that I identified with Laurie from the very beginning was her vulnerability, her self-doubt, and her pain. That was something that I really wanted people to feel.

I wanted her to feel — she has this tremendous thing that’s happened multiple times in her life where she doesn’t feel like she’s enough. She’s not enough for Manhattan, she’s not enough for her mom. All of these people in her life. That is sort of a self-fulfilling prophecy from the very beginning of her life.

Yeah, definitely. I was going to bring up the stuff with her mom, too. I mean, it’s heartbreaking when you read it in the book, but then you see it come to life, it’s all the more heartbreaking, I think. Was that challenging and hard to get into character like that, to go to those places?

You know what’s funny is that mother and daughter relationships are incredibly complicated. I think that is something, for me, that is really easy to identify with. There is this thing with mothers and daughters. Take the Silk Spectre out of it, just in reality, you have this massive comparison to your mother. I cannot imagine how Laurie felt on a daily basis with that constant, constant comparison and not feeling comfortable in her own skin. That was just something that, for me, is so easy to tap into because I feel like every daughter has felt it.

Sure. I’m really excited to see how Chapter 2 builds on all of this. I know, from the book, you’ve got some big moments coming up with Doctor Manhattan on Mars. I’m really excited to see it. Have you finished recording for it yet or are you still working on it?

No, we definitely finished recording. My only wish was that we could have actually gotten to do it together. There are so many of the guys in this movie that I’ve worked with multiple times but I’ve never been in a recording booth with, but it just would’ve been so fun.

Brandon Schreur

Brandon Schreur has been writing about comics, movies, television shows, and all things pop culture for roughly five years. He's a lifelong cinephile who spends way, way too much money buying Blu-rays and trade paperbacks. You can find him on twitter at @brandonschreur.