With Riddick out now on DVD/Blu-ray, we caught up with one its stars, the irrepressible Katee Sackhoff, to talk about the movie and more…

Starburst: Can you tell us a bit about Riddick and your character?

Katee Sackhoff: I play a bounty hunter. She’s kind of tough as nail and kickass. A stronger than the boys type of character.

You’re best known for kickass characters…

I find them more fun. I think they’re the closest you can get to playing make believe like when we were kids. You run around, you play cops and robbers. To me it’s the most imaginative and I just have the most fun doing it.

Battlestar and Riddick can both be easily described as space opera. What’s the appeal of that genre?

I grew up watching them. It’s where my imagination was first inspired to dream and I identify with these characters so much.

Where do you draw inspiration for these roles from? What drives you?

I don’t really, maybe I did when I was 21 or so and I didn’t really understand the roles as well as I do now. I think at this point the things that happen in life and as a woman and living in this world, the older you get the stronger you get. I can draw on my own life experiences at this point. What drives me when I’m going in to try to get a role is my desire to play the character and use my imagination, that’s always been a big draw for me. If it’s a role that I’ve already got, it’s music. I listen to a lot of music. I listen to the Tim Burton A Nightmare Before Christmas a lot. I like a lot of orchestral music.

Riddick’s star, Vin Diesel is known for being a bit of a gamer, especially on set. Did you get a chance to join in on that sort of fun?

I actually don’t play video games. I grew up playing video games with my brother and I just sort of grew out of it. I do still have an Atari because I like the old games. I play that every once in a while. I wouldn’t know how to play something like Dungeons and Dragons. I did Halo because my nephews and my brother are huge fans. Up to that point I really hadn’t done anything that they could watch, so I kind of jumped at the opportunity because I wanted to do something that they would think was cool.

Rumours are always floating around that you’ll be involved in the next big geek movie. What sort of role do you want to do next?

Oh god; to be in the Marvel world or to be in the Star Wars movies, I could only be so lucky. At the end of the day I love these characters and I’ve always wanted to do Star Wars because I love the movies so much and I want to do Marvel because I love comic books. I’m a fan of both of those franchises and I would be happy to be involved in either of those.

And if you could play any comic book character…?

I’ve wanted to play Harley Quinn since I was a kid. I love Typhoid Mary, there are just so many characters to draw on that I want to be a part of.

You’ve voice-acted the roles of She-Hulk and Black Cat before, would you do those again?

I would do those again for a cartoon, but not in real life. I don’t really identify with the characters, it would be a hard thing for me to sell.

Is there one sci-fi movie that you wish you could have been involved with?

Alien. Sigourney Weaver is fantastic in that role and no one could have done it better than she did, but I would have loved to have been in that movie somehow. It opened a lot of doors for women in science fiction.

If you were stranded on a desert island with only one book for company, what would it be?

Only one book? God help me. It would probably be The Hobbit. I loved it as a kid, and it’s long enough to take up the time.

What sort of movies and TV are you enjoying right now?

I’ve just finished watching House of Cards, I’m watching Homeland. People are telling me to watch Rush. I need to watch Doctor Who, every time I talk to someone who’s British they seem surprised that I haven’t seen it!

RIDDICK is out now on DVD/Blu-ray.