Katee Sackhoff Says Riddick Earned An R-Rating For Violence, Swearing, And Side Boob

By Brent McKnight | Updated

This article is more than 2 years old

We know that the next chapter in the Riddick saga has been given an R rating by the MPAA. Most of us agree that is the proper tag for a movie where the protagonist is a murderous space outlaw. It just wouldn’t feel right with a toned down, PG-13 approach—the last installment, Chronicles of Riddick, definitely lacked a mean streak that Pitch Black, the first film, celebrates. Co-star, and Battlestar Galactica alum, Katee Sackhoff, explains that the rating is a result of violence, cursing, and nudity. That’s the holy trifecta.

In an interview with Collider, Sackhoff talks specifics on the gore, swear words, and boobs, including — brace yourself, nerds — her own:

There’s a shitload of blood and there’s little pieces of nudity, here and there. There’s my nudity too, but it’s side boob, for three to five seconds. It’s not that big of a deal. It’s mostly for the language. My character and Matt Nable’s character say fuck, like every other word. It’s kind of fantastic, actually. He must have said fuck 15 times, in every single scene. It’s pretty awesome. So, it’s mostly for language.

Sackhoff almost didn’t take the role because of the nudity involved (though, if you’ve seen the Acting Outlaws calendar with Tricia Helfer, she doesn’t seem shy about showing skin). A daddy’s girl at heart, the way she measures if she’s gone too far in a part is if she’s uncomfortable sitting down and watching it with dear old dad. She had to talk the opportunity over with him, and after he convinced her that she couldn’t say no to Vin Diesel, she called director David Twohy and said, “My dad said I can take my clothes off.”

The plot of Riddick finds the titular outlaw stranded on the surface of a desolate planet, fighting for survival against a vicious alien race. His only avenue of escape is to alert the swarm of bounty hunters who constantly hound him as to his whereabouts.

Sackhoff plays one of these mercenaries, a Germanic woman named Dahl. About her character she has this to say:

She’s really very short-tempered and she’s got a short fuse. She’s funny. She’s very, very, very good at her job. She’s a sniper, and she’s the number two commanding officer, behind Matt Nable’s character, in our group of mercenaries.

This part sounds like a good fit for Sackhoff, who has the brash badass persona down pat. You can bet there will be a healthy dose of smart-ass sarcasm as well. From everything we’ve seen and heard, Riddick should fall more in line with the stripped-down grittiness of Pitch Black, rather than the overblown mess of Chronicles.