Why Victoria From Longmire Looks So Familiar

"Contemporary rural Western law enforcement drama" is a mouthful, but also one of the few ways to accurately describe "Longmire" in a single sentence. The six-season tale of Wyoming's vast Abrasoka County and its tiny Sheriff's Department successfully combines the leisurely pace of old-school Westerns with the thrilling police procedural storytelling of modern TV — and because it's based on The New York Times bestselling book series by Craig Johnson, the show has no shortage of strong plot lines to back up its unique vibe. 

A show like "Longmire" needs special actors to bring its world to vibrant life. On this front, too, the show is an absolute winner, thanks to Robert Taylor's turn as the charismatic Sheriff Walt Longmire — as well as numerous other performances, like Lou Diamond Phillips' and A Martinez's excellent performances as Longmire's best friend, Henry Standing Bear, and the Sheriff's frequent opponent, Jacob Nighthorse. 

Of course, there's also Victoria Moretti, a Deputy whose backstory as a former Philadelphia homicide detective would automatically qualify her as the show's "fish out of water" in any other setting. In "Longmire," she simply falls in with the rest of the cast, and elevates the whole instead of dominating it. The character's combination of tough cop grit and nuanced, flawed humanity takes serious skill, and as luck would have it, the actress playing the role has ample experience with precisely this kind of thing. Here's where you might have seen Victoria from "Longmire" before.

Katee Sackhoff has been acting steadily since 1998, and her excellent performance in "Longmire" stems from experience in playing strong, complex characters. In 2003, the world found out that she's very, very good at this, when Sackhoff tackled the role of Kara "Starbuck" Thrace in the rebooted "Battlestar Galactica." Her performance as the ace pilot with a dark past and unorthodox mindset is nothing short of amazing, and in an exclusive interview with Looper, the actress revealed that as a devoted science fiction fan, she was fully aware that the role was a perfect fit for her. 

"I fought for that role because I knew that if I could book it, it would be a game-changer and that people would start seeing me differently," Sackhoff said. "I was trying to think, 'how do you create longevity in a business that throws you out after five years, ten years?' And the best way to do that is to play characters that don't have an age, and exist for something other than what they look like."

As Sackhoff's career trajectory has proved, she's certainly succeeded in making her mark. As a bonus, her prep work for the role turned her into a pretty devoted fitness enthusiast, which has helped her land plenty of action roles.

After leaving Starbuck and "Battlestar Galactica" behind in 2009, Katee Sackhoff played against type by joining Day 8 of "24" as the meek CTU data analyst, Dana Walsh. Per Syfy Wire, Sackhoff knew full well that the role can seem pretty dissonant for fans who were used to seeing her as a far more active character — which, she noted, was kind of the point. "It's hard to sit back and play a computer analyst," she said. "It's as hard for me to play that as it is for people to watch it. I hope one of these days that I do the latter just as well, and that people buy me in both scenarios."

Sackhoff is indeed very convincing as the easily scared Dana, whom she once described as "business Barbie" (via Entertainment Weekly). Of course, as anyone who has seen Day 8 can attest, that's kind of the point. "Tick-tock, Mr. Bauer. You're running out of time."

Katee Sackhoff's Starbuck was such a career-defining role that for a long time, it was impossible to imagine her adding an even more beloved sci-fi character in her resume. However, fans of animated "Star Wars" series have been well aware of Sackhoff's stellar voice role as precisely such a character: Bo-Katan Kryze, the Mandalorian leader and freedom fighter, who is a significant character in both "The Clone Wars," and "Star Wars Rebels." 

In 2020, Sackhoff made her welcome debut in the live-action "Star Wars" universe when Bo-Katan finally appeared in the flesh in "The Mandalorian" Season 2. In another exclusive interview with Looper, Sackhoff revealed that despite her ample experience as the character's voice actress, playing the iconic character in front of the camera was a whole different ball game. "I thought I was more prepared than I was," Sackhoff said. "I've never walked as her. I've never moved as her. How does Bo-Katan sit? I don't know anything ... I was panicked." 

Fortunately, director Bryce Dallas Howard and showrunner Jon Favreau worked with her to find Bo-Katan's essence, which she soon distilled to the way the character moves and acts. "This is a woman who is noble-born," the actress said of Bo-Katan. "She is very purposeful. I mean, she's a princess, for a lack of a better word. So, I wanted to make sure that she was calculated and that she wasn't a person who slouched, and she wasn't a person who moved as much as I do." 

The end result of this process, of course, is a live-action Bo-Katan who is every bit as charismatic and composed as any fan could hope. We think we may see more of her in the future.