By Philip Berk & Erin Free
She spent five years in relative obscurity toiling ceaselessly in Canadian movies. But then out of the blue, Tatiana Maslany shot forth like a thunderbolt, delivering a performance – or rather, seven performances – in Orphan Black that knocked everyone’s socks off. In the acclaimed TV series, she plays seven different characters, or more accurately, one character and her six clones. Not surprisingly, Tatiana Maslany has always wanted to act. “I started when I was about nine,” she tells FilmInk. “I enjoyed being on stage. I liked being the centre of attention. I liked the response from an audience. I did a lot of theatre, and fell into film and television. It wasn’t a concerted choice. I was too young to make that choice. There was always something in me that really loved performing and transforming into characters and putting on costumes. I loved all that stuff, and so about seven years ago, I moved from the small town that I grew up in to Toronto to study the craft. I’ve been doing it for almost eighteen years, but it’s only in the last seven years that I feel like it’s my career.”
Despite the complexity of her roles in Orphan Black, Maslany came to the part through the typical means. “It was just the normal audition process,” the actress says. “I did three auditions for the director and the casting director. I played Sarah, and then Sarah as Beth, and Sarah as Alison; that was the first. Two auditions later, we got to the screen test phase, where I had to do five characters in front of them, which was intense. Then I did chemistry reads with different actors going for the part of Felix, and eventually with Jordan [Gavaris, who got the part of Sarah’s brother.] It took three months, during which time my hunger for it just grew. They were looking all over Canada, so it was insane to think that I eventually got the part.”
When FilmInk asks Maslany to pick her favourite clone, the actress baulks. “I see each and every one of them as a part of me,” she says. “I try to find something to identify with in each of them, which allows me to elaborate and expand. Each character has me in them. There was one that came up in the last episode that was a real challenge to me because she’s cold and emotionless…she’s very contained and wealthy, and kind of entitled. That stuff is scary to play. But all of them are a challenge. It’s the biggest challenge that I’ve ever had. But it’s also a total dream for an actor.”
How difficult is it doing more than one character on the same day? “I try to see where the person came from,” Maslany replies. “How they grew up, if they had parents, if they had loving parents, if they had a supportive household, if they were on their own. Then I use that to create the world view of the character, and how they see the world. If you’re afraid of the world, you’ll be defensive; if you find it fascinating, you’re full bodied in it. And because each of the clones comes from a different country – there’s one from Germany, there’s one from the Ukraine, there are a couple from America – the dialect work is something that I can work with too.”
With the success of the show, how has Maslany’s life changed? “Getting the job was the biggest change,” the actress replies. “I’d never had a series before, and I’d definitely never had the challenge of playing multiple characters, so just getting the part was the big reward. And then getting through Season One – because we didn’t know how it was going to come across, and if it would work – was great. People have responded nicely to it, and with so much passion.” With Orphan Black now into its fourth season, and with a fifth on the way, Maslany’s recognition factor is just getting more and more profound. “Sometimes people will stop me in the street and say that they like Orphan Black, or that this character is their favourite, or whatever,” the actress smiles. “It’s so nice to have that…it’s awesome. It doesn’t feel invasive or anything, it’s just like, ‘Oh, whoa, you’ve seen the show?’” Maslany laughs. “When we first started the series, we didn’t have any clue that people were going to watch it! We had no idea that it was going to have this groundswell of appreciation. Then you go to ComicCon, and you experience that, and you go, ‘Oh, Jesus, people have seen it, and they love the characters!’ They’re dressed as the characters, which is pretty cool! I’m a huge fan of things too, so it’s nice to experience the other side of it.”
Orphan Black: Series Four is available now on DVD, Digital and Blu-ray.
