Tatiana Maslany (‘She-Hulk: Attorney at Law’): Becoming Marvel superhero was ‘so scary’ [Complete Interview Transcript]
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
During a recent Gold Derby video interview, senior editor Rob Licuria spoke in-depth with Tatiana Maslany (“She-Hulk: Attorney at Law”) about Season 1 of her Disney Plus comedy series, which is eligible at the 2023 Emmys. Watch the full video above and read the complete interview transcript below.
The show was developed by Jessica Gao and adapted from the Marvel comics. Gao’s version of the “lawyer by day, green giant by night” narrative gives viewers a more fleshed-out version of Jennifer Walters, aka She-Hulk, a vulnerable thirtysomething who endures the hit-or-miss L.A. dating scene and the turmoil of a long day in court representing others with superpowers.
More from GoldDerby
As for what it meant to become a Marvel superhero, Maslany declared in our webchat, “I had zero sense of what was going to happen, and I think that’s what was so scary about it.” She added, “When I read the first script, Jessica’s writing was so funny and so human and so irreverent of any expectations of what a superhero is.”
SEE Watch more than 400 interviews with 2023 Emmy contenders
Rob Licuria: I’m Rob Licuria, senior editor at Gold Derby here with Emmy winner, Tatiana Maslany, the star of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law. First of all, Tatiana, I just really always want to know this, what is the coolest and most unexpected thing about being an MCU superhero?
Tatiana Maslany: The coolest is things that just happened, where your son had a Funko Pop of my character. That stuff is so… and seeing the choices we made in terms of her hair have made it onto an action figure. That’s super cool. Is this the most unexpected?
RL: Yeah. What were you not expecting to happen?
TM: I had zero sense of what was going to happen, and I think that’s what was so scary about it. I didn’t know what it meant for my life or whatever. And I think the most unexpected thing is that it’s just kind of like, it’s just another job.
RL: Yeah.
TM: Yeah.
RL: And you move on. And you-
TM: Totally.
RL: … do bigger and better things. But I’ll tell you what, there’s plenty of stuff that we can talk about with this show, but one of the highlights of this show for me was the way that you and creator Jessica Gao and lead director Kat Cora really fleshed out Jennifer Walters as a really compelling character in her own right. She’s a bit awkward, she’s super vulnerable and really relatable. I’m just wondering, was that a big selling point for you to take on this role and kind of shape who Jennifer Walters was? Not necessarily just about all about She-Hulk.
TM: Yeah, it had everything to do with when I read the first script and Jessica’s writing was so funny and so human and so irreverent of any expectations of what a superhero is. Yeah, I found Jennifer, just her conflict, so infinitely relatable. Yeah, the way Jess wrote her, there’s all these beautiful, subtle kind of themes of what it is to inhabit a different body and to walk into a room and have people have certain expectations of you, treat you differently, look at you a certain way, objectify you a certain way. I feel like that was such delicious territory to dig into. Jessica obviously did it with so much humor and she, and I just love her brain. I love the way she thinks. Yeah, it was just a joy. It was just a joy to read this character.
RL: Yeah. As you mentioned, it is so funny. I mean, I’ve watched every Marvel show and most of them, all them really, are brilliant. There’s something about the MCU on Disney Plus, for example, that I just find so enjoyable and entertaining. This one is such a breath of fresh air, and yet there’s still a lot in it that I didn’t coming. And you mentioned how, for example, objectifying women in the spotlight, celebrities, influencers, that kind of thing, I did not see that coming. I found that really compelling. I just wonder, did you relate to that personally as you were trying to flesh out the character and that particular aspect of the show?
TM: Yeah, I mean, I think as an actor, it’s definitely something I connected to just in terms of, our job has this weird byproduct of being like, people want to know you or people think they know you or people know you.
RL: Yeah.
TM: Or whatever. It’s a strange part of the job because so much for me, the joy in the job is transforming and in finding other people inside of me or relating to other people’s experiences or expressing something that maybe isn’t something I do in my everyday life. So finding those open possibilities that have nothing to do with who I am. At the same time, I feel like on a more day-to-day scale, I think that women, if I’m using binary terms, when a woman walks into a space, she is aware of she of the space she’s walking into. There’s no way that we don’t… There’s so many eyes on women’s bodies and there are so many senses of ownership that people have over women’s image or bodies. So that to me felt day-to-day, micro level interesting. Outside of the celebrity thing, just like who owns your body and how do you own your own body and who you are?
RL: Then of course she becomes a six-foot whatever She-Hulk who inhabits the space even more so.
TM: Yes.
RL: That’s brilliant. I just think that is also brilliant. We’re not getting bashed over the head with the message, but it’s there and it’s interesting. And that’s cool. I think it’s a good thing. What also interests me with big productions like this, you were on a production I think two years ago now and we’re still talking about it, but as you mentioned earlier, you move on, you do other things. You did Perry Mason, you’re about to go into Broadway again. How exciting. When you think back during production, I think you were in Georgia, was there anything about being in production that has still stuck with you as a performer now, that you kind of learned about yourself?
TM: I mean, for me, I’d never done comedy before. I grew up doing improv. From a young age, I was doing improv in French and I was doing improv in high school then. I did it after in long-form companies. It was my favorite place to be and my favorite thing to watch, my favorite thing to be part of. But at the same time, I never felt totally like I belonged there. It was was my people. But at the same time I was like, “I’m definitely not the funniest, I’m definitely not the natural comedian.” But it’s my favorite world and I revere comedians. So to get to step into something that for me is like… I’m more starstruck by a comedian or a cartoon voice actor than I am by anybody else, other than musicians.
RL: Yeah.
TM: So to get to be part of it and to work with Ginger Gonzaga and to work with Josh Segarra and Jon Bass, it’s like these incredible comedic actors and I’m getting to play with them every day. It’s just such a fun challenge for me as an actor to stretch my muscles in that way.
RL: It’s so funny that you say that because if I think back to thousands of people I’ve interviewed, every once in a while, I’ll get a comedian that I get so starstruck by because they’ve made me ugly laugh. That’s a very vulnerable place for me. I just to say, yeah.
TM: Well, humor is very specific.
RL: Yes.
TM: Humor touches you somewhere that it’s so core to who you are, your sense of humor. If somebody else gets it where you fall in love, that’s fall in love territory. Yeah.
RL: It totally is. And that’s like when you have kids and stuff and you can all laugh at the same thing. I can’t even put it into words how transcendent that is for me as a human being.
TM: I love that.
RL: Anyway, I’m not talking about me, talking about you. So look, I was also thinking about this, because I don’t know what goes into the whole technical aspects of creating the She-Hulk character. I know that Malia Arrayah was the kind of onset body double that did a lot of the physicality of it. I’m curious about what went into the collaboration with her and Kat and everyone on set to make that work. How does it actually work for you? Because it’s still you, but she was on the set a lot as well.
TM: Yeah. So Malia and I had a really interesting dynamic because for her, she was helping me understand what it is to walk into a space and occupy six foot, seven. I’m five, three. It’s a very different experience. You sit in a chair differently. Spaces don’t accommodate you the same way. Doorways, chairs, things like that. So for us, she and I, she would come in, sit in the scene as I had blocked it and sort of give me a sense of what the space was that I was taking up. The other collaboration that was huge for me was with the stunt team, with Sarah and Matt, who also played She-Hulk. They would be in the mo-cap and they would do the fighting sequences or action sequences with me. For us, it was about finding a physical vocabulary for how she moves. So we did a lot of character work. We obviously learned how to fight or they taught me how to fight, but it was more about how does she fight. She’s not trained, she’s not good at this, she doesn’t want to do it. Physical fighting is not her thing. So how does she come into owning it and how does she walk into a room? Yeah, it was really fun to find because then there’s a lot of comedy in those moments. There’s a lot of like, she’s able to flick a guy like this and he goes flying through a wall. So it was fun to build those together.
RL: Oh yeah, I can imagine. And you are not exactly a towering figure physically, right?
TM: Not exactly.
RL: It made it even more pronounced.
TM: Yeah.
RL: I really also enjoyed, by the way, all the guests on the show, obviously Mark Ruffalo and twerking with Megan Thee Stallion, and we, of course, in this family are obsessed with Patty Guggenheim as Madisynn.
TM: Yes, oh my God.
RL: With two Ns at the end, of course, or however she…..
TM: And a Yeah
RL: Oh my God, I love it.
TM: Yeah.
RL: But Jameela Jamil as Titania is because… and it actually gave you an opportunity as Jennifer to have a really great wedding fight with her in episode three before you transitioned to She-Hulk. Was that as fun as it looked because it looked like you guys are having a ball?
TM: Yeah, I mean, that scene, that was one of the last sequences we shot. We had such an amazing director, Anu Valia, who I’m absolutely head over heels for. Go see anything she does. She is so brilliant. Yeah, the thing about Titania for Jen is that she in so many ways is embracing the superhero thing in a way that I think Jen secretly is jealous of, that she’s able to own it.
RL: Yeah.
TM: She’s one of those girls that Jen looks at on Instagram and is like, “Ugh, I wish I could do that, but at the same time I resent it and I’m not that.” She’s her shadow, if we’re talking in Jungian terms or whatever. So it’s a really fun dynamic. To have her fighting, Titania is throwing her on onto concrete. And Jen is so drunk, she doesn’t even feel it. You know what I mean?
RL: It’s so good.
TM: Then I have to say, Jessica Gao made so many of my dreams come true. Number one, twerking with Megan Thee Stallion, which I basically left my body. I was on a different planet.
RL: I know.
TM: But also setting the wedding fight song to Everybody Dance Now, which was my favorite song for about 15 years.
RL: Me too, yeah.
TM: Oh my God, it was my first tape. C&C Music Factory is my first-
RL: Cassette. I’ve got it somewhere in the garage. I will never …. out.
TM: Really?
RL: It’s so good.
TM: Gonna make you sweat. Yeah, but you know, get to work on a show where so much of the weird things that are part of you get to be expressed. It was a joy.
RL: It’s very cool. So offline, we were talking about how I interviewed you 10 years ago, and that’s when I was way younger. You were just kind of starting out in the spotlight. Obviously, you’d had a great career back in Saskatchewan and Ontario, but you started becoming more popular in the States with Orphan Black. I was like, “Listen, you are going to get nominated at the Emmys. I’m telling you, you got to pick an episode.” And you’re like, “What?” And you were being so polite. But I mean, you were looking at me like, “I don’t think so.” But two years later, it happened. So I wasn’t wrong. I was just ahead of the game, right?
TM: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
RL: So, I’m putting that out there. So I’m just going to put it out there that I was the first, but I really wasn’t, but I was one of them.
TM: Yeah.
RL: So you got nominated and then you won. I will never forget it because for all of us nerds that watch this stuff, and this is our bread and butter, it was just a moment where, not the underdog, but someone won because the role was just undeniable. You walked up on stage with your phone, you were shocked, and you said you felt lucky to be on a show that puts women at the center. And you’ve been doing that ever since. But I want to know, can you remember how you felt that moment with your phone up on the stage where you were just bamboozled and you won?
TM: Yeah, it brought up the worst parts of my Canadian sort of self. I was just like, “I’m a fraud. And also, I’m sorry for taking up your time.” It’s such a weird place to be in. The thing about awards for me is, how can you ever place a value judgment on a performance? There are so many elements that go into making a performance what it is. There are so many unseen parts of it. We see that massively in She-Hulk with all the CG, the VFX artists who work ridiculous hours in unbearable conditions to turn out these beautiful renditions of a nuanced character that when I see it, I’m like, “I can see her thinking, I can see her.” That’s a collaboration between me and an artist I’ve never met.
RL: Yeah.
TM: There’s so many parts, that artist is never named in these situations. There’s such a collaborative energy that goes into building any one performance. So to be up there by myself is a strange… I think that was the biggest thing is this is a strange feeling to be up here alone.
RL: Yeah, yeah.
TM: I couldn’t have created this character, or these characters, without Kristian Bruun or without Jordan Gavaris or without Maria Doyle Kennedy, these chemistries. You know what I mean? Yeah.
RL: It’s so true. But ever since we, in the industry, we always talk about when will So-and-So pulled off a Maslany and actually win the award because it’s just so undeniable, even though you’re not in a big show on HBO. But it’s just too good to pass up. So you’ve become part of lexicon. I don’t know if you’re aware of this, but you’re very big now on the awards prognosticating game.
TM: Oh wow.
RL: Just in case you were wondering. I’m sure you’re horrified. But anyway, that’s the way it is.
TM: I like the way you said just the term, the awards prognosticating game. I did not know I was part of this.
RL: There was a whole industry, but here we are.
TM: No.
RL: So yeah, that was a big moment, and Orphan Black will always be one of the classics that people go back to. But now you’re about to head off to Broadway again, and you’re starring with Laurie Metcalf and Paul Sparks, and I think Melissa Simmons on Grey House. Wow. I mean, how exciting is that?
TM: It’s beyond exciting. It’s nourishing. I’m emotional thinking about it. I’m like, still, we’re inside of the rehearsal process, which it’s been a long time since I’ve been in a rehearsal hall. It’s like you’re making soup together. You’re throwing in different ingredients, seeing what tastes good. Sometimes you need a little more of this. Sometimes you do too much of that. It’s such a patient, creative space to be in and as an actor, I mean, I’m learning. I’m just learning. I’m just learning, learning, learning.
RL: …..
TM: Watching Laurie-
RL: I mean.
TM: … who’s just an absolute creature. She’s such a comedic, dramatic force. She’s unbelievable.
RL: Yeah, she’s one of the greats. I saw a taping of the Connors recently and-
TM: Oh yeah?
RL: I’m just in awe of her. Yeah, I mean you… yeah.
TM: Yeah, no, what were you going to say? Because I just thought that’s-
RL: I just think to be in a room with people like that. I mean, people would say that about you even, obviously, you have a lot of experience too. But I’m just saying you’re with someone like Laurie Metcalf and you’re just learning stuff and you’re able to really kind of exercise that instrument, I suppose. I don’t even know. That sounds really geeky, but you know what I’m saying?
TM: I’m so geeky for this kind of stuff. This is what I geek out about is what is this alchemy, what is this chemistry that’s working on all of us and we’re making something together that we can’t even define yet. It’s really thrilling.
RL: That’s very cool. I’m very excited for you. All right, final question. So we’re to now for She-Hulk. Obviously, we don’t know if there’s going to be [inaudible 00:18:46] another season, but you may end up in a movie one day. Is that the story? Is that what’s going to happen?
TM: I truly have no idea. I feel like the internet knows more than I do. Any of these. But I would love to, as, we had so many other actors come to our show and tonally shift their character, put him or her in a totally different scenario, a different universe, which is so fun about the Marvel Universe is that there’s a multiverse. I didn’t know if you’re aware, but there is a multiverse.
RL: Yeah.
TM: But it’s like, yeah, putting her in a situation that is very unlikely, I think that would be super fun. Just because the thing about She-Hulk to me is that she is so out of place and that out-of-placeness, I think has a lot of ….. It’s got legs.
RL: Yeah, I know, man. I think there’s so much potential. I look forward to that. But in the meantime, thank you for your time today and good luck with Gray House. I wish I could see it in person, but I’m sure you’re going to.
TM: Yeah. Thank you so much. It was so good to talk to you again.
PREDICT the 2023 Emmy nominees through July 12
Make your predictions at Gold Derby now. Download our free and easy app for Apple/iPhone devices or Android (Google Play) to compete against legions of other fans plus our experts and editors for best prediction accuracy scores. See our latest prediction champs. Can you top our esteemed leaderboards next? Always remember to keep your predictions updated because they impact our latest racetrack odds, which terrify Hollywood chiefs and stars. Don’t miss the fun. Speak up and share your huffy opinions in our famous forums where 5,000 showbiz leaders lurk every day to track latest awards buzz. Everybody wants to know: What do you think? Who do you predict and why?
SIGN UP for Gold Derby’s free newsletter with latest predictions
Best of GoldDerby
'Justified: City Primeval': Everything to know before you watch the FX revival
Everything to know about 'American Horror Story' Season 12, titled 'Delicate'
Sign up for Gold Derby's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
