Tatiana Maslany

Tatiana Maslany
Tatiana Gabriele Maslanyis a Canadian actress. She has starred in television series such as The Nativity, Being Erica, Heartland, and Orphan Black. In 2013, she won an ACTRA for her role as Claire in the film Picture Day, and a Phillip Borsos Award for her performance in the film Cas & Dylan. Other notable films starring Maslany are Diary of the Dead and Eastern Promises, the latter of which she narrated...
NationalityCanadian
ProfessionTV Actress
Date of Birth22 September 1985
CityRegina, Canada
CountryCanada
I think there's something really freeing about improv, that it's a collective, creative, in-the-moment piece. That's really exciting and really frustrating, because it's there and gone. There's an amazing interaction with the audience that happens because they are very much another scene partner.
I was on the improv team in high school, and after I graduated, I joined an improv company that had been established 10 years prior to me getting there. They did longform improv, and I fell in love with it. It's acting, character creation, collaborative, artistic expression and comedy - and it's scary. It was a big rush.
I loved filming in Morocco; it was amazing. I'd never been anywhere like that. The culture was phenomenal. I was so blown away by the spirit of that country.
I am drawn to those parts; I like the tough girls because they are not tough. It's a veil; it's a disguise. It's defenses. At the core, everybody is human, everybody is fragile, everybody is terrified, and the fear is what propels you to be tough.
I like challenging parts, something I haven't done yet, something that scares me. There's just a feeling I get when I read a script that I love, I feel an attachment to it, a yearning to play that character.
It's always been my dream to just continually do really cool indie movies, character-driven stuff. I would love to do more theater on a larger scale. I'm just excited for the next thing that comes along that I'm salivating over. I think a little more guerrilla would be really exciting to me.
There's so many different people that I'm fascinated by. Different kinds of characters that I meet in, like, everyday life, that I'm like, 'I don't know how you exist. Like, you're so fascinating.'
You're working with adults and you're being paid to do a job. And you're a kid. Then you go back to high school, and everybody's partying, and they're doing math. I always felt a little bit outside of it. Outside of both experiences, really.
There's something about music that makes me feel like a different person, that feels like an escape.
Go with your gut every single time. It's never, ever wrong. Even if feels like everybody else is telling you that you need to do this or do that. Your gut is your artist and who you are as a person and what makes you special, and what makes you an interesting performer. Never try to be something you're not.
Sometimes I'll go into a shop and speak in a different accent to see if I can pull it off. But then somebody will be like, 'Where did you say you were from again?' And then I panic, and my accent dissolves, and I pretend like I wasn't doing it in the first place.
I've learned a lot about the limits of what I can do, as an artist, or what I'm willing to do. It's a lot of responsibility to carry a show and to speak to people on different levels.
Have fun, be yourself, enjoy life and stay positive.
There's something really unique about 'Orphan Black' is that it has a lot of female leads, so it's about a lot of women's stories, but it's not women's stories in terms of trying to find a guy or keep a guy; it's about entirely other things.