Longmire interview: Katee Sackhoff talks final season, Vic’s journey, what she’ll miss the most
In our interview below, Sackhoff reflects on going through the process of ending the show, her feelings about the Walt / Vic relationship, and what she’s going to miss about it the most now that it’s over.
CarterMatt – It’s a crazy day. The entirety of the final season is out there and everyone’s getting to check them out — and here we are talking about the end of the show! Is it almost like a vortex of emotions today?
Katee Sackhoff – It’s funny — I stayed awake until midnight last night to watch the first episode. I was awake until one in the morning so I’m slightly tired today. I just had to do it. I had to do it with the fans — I totally should have live tweeted it!
It’s weird for me because there’s a part of me that wants to just fast-forward to certain episodes and see how I did (laughs) and critique my work. I’m trying to not do that.
Knowing that this was going to be your final season, did you approach anything differently during filming?
This is the second time that I’ve been through this whole thing, and it’s a different emotion than what it’s like when a show gets canceled. I’ve been through that, too. It feels like your senior year where you know it’s the end and every moment you experience and every moment you have with a person has this surreal feeling to it because you know it might be the last time. You hold onto things a bit more.
Adam Bartley was coming up to everyone in episode 2 hugging them. Everyday he would come up to people and be like ‘I love you, I just want you to know that’. We were just like ‘Adam, you still have eight episodes left! You gotta pace yourself or we’re all going to die!’ (laughs).
Adam’s so nice. I actually just got off the phone with him. (Note: You can read that interview here.)
He really is one of my closest friends. There are not a lot of people in this world who have a heart like that — so pure and honest and loving.
Were you happy with the way Vic’s story was told in the final season?
The writers of this show do something that’s really interesting and, for me it’s really valuable. If you want it, they will sit you down at the beginning of the season and tell you everything that’s going to happen. Rob [Taylor], I believe, doesn’t want to know. Lou [Diamond Phillips] doesn’t want to know. I like to know everything because I like to know what a character is going to do because I can drop little hints. My biggest fear is that something is going to happen and the audience is going to think ‘well, that came out of nowhere.’ I like to know where something is going to go. I knew everything that was going to happen and it was just a matter of when.
It was a hard season for me because there was so much of this season that was art imitating life. [Executive producer] Greer Shephard called me at the start of this season (Note: you can read our interview with her here) — not to get into detail about my private life, but she asked how I was doing and wanted to explain what they were going to do and said ‘what are your thoughts?’ I told her what I was thinking and she said ‘do you think you can handle that, emotionally?’. I responded by saying ‘yeah, I do. I think it might be slightly cathartic.’ She was like ‘awesome.’
I was prepared for everything and building myself up to it this season.
I’ve equated Vic as almost the voice of the viewer on the show in some ways — she’s the outsider who finds her way into the world. What have you enjoyed the most about her growth and have you seen her in that way?
I think her growth from the first season is obvious. She was a fish out of water almost the entire time, so I think her reactions to things were at first like you said — the audience’s perspective. I definitely enjoyed that for sure. I love where she goes.
I had such a huge problem with her the first few seasons — there were aspects of her I respected and there were aspects of her I didn’t understand. I’m not the type of woman to follow a man anywhere. That’s not who I am — at least when it comes to moving my whole life. So for this woman to give up her family and her life and everything that she’s known to move to the middle of nowhere, I always struggled with that. How does a strong woman do that? I think it was just where I was in my life, because looking back at it now I’m like ‘oh my god, I would totally do that!’. I don’t know if I’ve changed, or if she’s helped me changed.
I like where she is now. Vic has always been a strong woman, but she’s struggled with trying to be who everyone else expects for her to be. This season for Vic is all about hitting rock bottom, finding her core strength, and feeling comfortable standing in that pain. It’s a really hard thing for anyone to do, but she handles it really beautifully this season.
What have you felt about the Walt – Vic relationship over the years? I know there are people who root hard for them as a couple and then some who root for them as friends. Did you have expectations going into this season for the two of them?
I did to a certain extent just because it’s based on a series of books. If you take the books literally you sort of knew or expected what was going to happen. I think that fans of the books who are really fans of that relationship have been wanting that to happen for so long. Then, I think fans of the series are coming in with a very different sort of backstory and not wanting to see that just because to them it seems weird.
I think it’s one of those situations where you’re never going to make everyone happy. You’re going to either let people down or they’re going to be very excited about it. The thing that bothers me the most is when people are against it because, in their minds, it’s some weird age difference or because ‘you’re not allowed to sleep with you’re boss’ (laughs). They have these weird reasons for not wanting it to happen that don’t have anything to do with these people’s emotional relationship. That’s what I would tell people to focus on. You can’t choose who you fall in love with — that’s not what life is. Sometimes it’s not an ideal situation, but if you focus on the partnership between these two people they match very well. That’s not giving spoilers away; that’s been obvious from the beginning of the series.
I just want people to keep an open mind — I hate when people are like ‘he’s too old for her!’ No, he’s not! In the books there’s actually more of an age difference.
As someone who has an pretty big age difference in their marriage, I don’t have any problem with it.
Yeah, I mean my ex who I was with for over 10 years was more than 15 years older than me and we had a fantastic relationship. I think it’s people who have these traditional values who are like ‘she’s too young for him, she works for him.’ We’re trying to play the reality of the situation.
I know this is a question that a lot of people ask, but did you get to keep anything from the set?
I did. I kept my entire wardrobe. I just got in my car at the end of the night and drove home. The only thing they took back was my gun (laughs).
What are you going to miss the most?
I miss the crew now and I miss the cast. I see them quite a bit, but I miss them. It’s funny — you never know how good you have it until it’s over, but that crew was a well-oiled machine. We did 13 pages a day and no more than 12-hour days. We drove an hour to work every day and we had three company moves a day. We did all of this stuff, and there’s no way other shows could do what we did. I think I’m probably going to miss that pace.
Looking to the future, what else are you interested in doing and taking on? I know you’ve got at least one more episode on The Flash.
I’ve got more than a couple episodes left of The Flash — I’ll probably end up doing six, I think. For me it was just that I really love to work. I don’t sit still very well and when this opportunity came up, [it was great] to have this creative freedom and do what I was compelled to do with this character on The Flash.
I’m attached to a couple of indies, and I’m also producing. I’ve got a couple of TV series that are in different states of readiness. So it’s just a matter of sitting in one spot, being comfortably unemployed for a while and really finding the next home for myself.
(Come back later this weekend for more on The Flash, including how Katee went about creating the accent for her character of Amunet Black.)
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A very special thank to Katee for her time! It was a complete thrill to talk to her and we can’t wait to see how Longmire wraps her character up after such a wonderful journey.
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