OZY TV Spotlight: The Singular Tatiana Maslany

Emmy Award-winning actress Tatiana Maslany always dreamed big. Growing up in tiny Regina, in rural Saskatchewan, Canada, Maslany imagined a vibrant future for herself. Her parents encouraged these dreams and even as a child, she envisioned herself as a performer. She was drawn to acting, improv and dance at a young age. She learned how to use her hands and body movement to express herself through improv performance and from that moment, physicality became part of her acting strength. Motion and fluidity are how she makes her characters more believable. In the popular, eclectic series Orphan Black, Maslany transforms effortlessly into a con woman on the run who discovers that she is just one clone amongst many. The clones band together to figure out the truth behind their creation and also question why they are all being targeted for murder. The result is a group of wildly different characters, ingeniously crafted and all played by the whip smart Maslany.

It took Tatiana almost two decades from when she started solidly working as an actress to when she finally landed the lead role in Orphan Black. She felt the burning sting of rejection many times in the leadup to Orphan Black, she recalls. Ironically, the rejection played a part in Maslany becoming who she is today. According to Maslany, she wouldn’t have done it any other way. Luck plays just as much in getting a role as talent. In fact, Maslany is grateful for the journey on her way to fame. It allowed her, as she puts it, to discover herself and be true to who she really is. Because of this exploration, she is much more comfortable these days being herself.

Maslany greatly appreciates the two well-known characters she has played on two different, but equally popular series. The now-iconic and oddly complex characters she has played on Orphan Black and Perry Mason have solidified Maslany as an irreplaceable artist. To get into the energy of her many intricate characters, Maslany had a routine that involved starting with specific music for each distinct clone role. She was even known for creating a playlist for each character to keep the band of duplicates straight.

Maslany, like the rest of us, holed up at home (for her, in Los Angeles) during the COVID-19 pandemic. She used the time for self-introspection and mindfulness and as she puts it, rethinking the things she had taken for granted in the past. According to Maslany, she even relinquished her own assumptions about herself and essentially became more cognizant of how she manifests being satisfied in her life.

In the beginning of Orphan Black, the burning question was undoubtedly: How are the makeup artists on set going to succeed in transforming Maslany into over a dozen extremely different looking clones? Maslany’s metamorphosis into a slew of vastly shifting appearances and personalities is uncanny and astonishing. On set, the transformations were often quick and harrowing and Maslany was left with raw skin and tired eyes. Still, she persevered. Not only did Maslany slay the unique look of each of the clones, she also knocked it out of the park when it came to the specific accents, temperaments, and oddities of each of her clones. Maslany even subtly plays clones impersonating other clones on the show, sometimes even in one shot!

Maslany received a breakout role award at the Sundance Film Festival in 2010 for the coming-of-age film, Grown Up Movie Star.  She thought that after her success at Sundance, transitioning to Hollywood would be easy. Many failed auditions later, Maslany realized it wasn’t. At one point, she was even dropped by her agency. She was also fired from a feature film adaptation of a Shakespeare classic. All part of life lessons, as Maslany puts it. Since completing Orphan Black, the good offers come much more frequently, much to her relief. However, Maslany remains grounded and profoundly grateful for her successes and where they have led her.

Inspired by Gena Rowlands in the 1970s classic A Woman Under the Influence, Maslany “realized what potential this art form has” for interpretation, creativity and spontaneity, as well as the freedom to be so many things simultaneously. The film explores how suburban predictability can morph into lunacy and Maslany was exceptionally mesmerized by the protagonist role. In fact, she used this insight to develop the many layers of the different clones in Orphan Black.

“Carving your own path is the hardest thing but I think that it is the only thing that will make you happy,” says Maslany. She goes on to explain that she believes we in fact need to embrace change and not knowing what is ahead. At the same time, Maslany stresses that her success is a journey of coming to understand herself and what she truly wants. And despite all her accolades and awards for Orphan Black, Maslany remains deeply humble and gives credit to those who have supported her, like her body double who was an integral part of scenes where the clones would interact.

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When Orphan Black ended in the summer of 2017, Maslany had given it her all. She talks openly about working with her team for five years and how everyone inevitably became family. “It was massively connected to my identity,” she says. Maslany struggled to find her self-worth after the show wrapped and talks openly about the struggle to find work as enlightening and meaningful to her as the series that made her famous. Luckily for us, Maslany is clearly just getting started.

All of Maslany’s roles have a certain enigma and mystery that Maslany has the rare knack to conquer with ease and subtlety. Her next role post-Orphan Black came on Season 1 of HBO’s Perry Mason, based on the fictional story of a famed defense lawyer in the 1930s. Maslany boldly played the role of Sister Alice McKeegan, the fierce and fiery evangelical preacher of a Los Angeles megachurch. Despite playing Sister Alice for just one season, Maslany once again stole the show on the series playing the peculiarly fascinating character.

Loyal fans of Maslany will be thrilled to hear that the talented actor will be joining the Marvel franchise in the upcoming months as She-Hulk, cousin to Bruce Banner (a.k.a. the Hulk), played by the fantastic Mark Ruffalo. She-Hulk will be streaming on Disney+ in August 2022 and Maslany is clearly psyched to start smashing things up. This is the first time the character of the pure-hearted, witty lawyer and alter-ego to She-Hulk, Jennifer Walters, has transformed from comic book pages into live action. Maslany’s portrayal of Walters as a fierce advocate for justice who transforms into the green beast is pure fun on the small screen.

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