Here’s how Tatiana Maslany does those scenes where one of her clones battles another on the acclaimed drama “Orphan Black:”
“We do it one character at a time,” she said at a rapt session of the TV Critics Association winter press tour that served as a victory round for the Canadian drama that has already taken a TCA Award and has Maslany nominated for a Golden Globe Sunday.
“I’ll block it as one character, figure out and make sure that it’s all good,” she said. At the same time, she’ll keep in mind “what the response might be on the other side in order to block that character as well.”
So after her work as, say, Alison, she’ll go off and change an come back as Sarah “and respond to everything that happened.”
Such difficult and convincing work has earned cult status for the series and made Maslany a star earning more acclaim each day.
For that, she thanked critics. “We’re a niche, odd little show that could have kind of fallen under the radar, and, I think, because TV critics and because bloggers and the Clone Club and all these people were talking about it, it got it out to a wider audience because, I think, in second repeats it sort of had an even bigger following.
“It’s wild to be seen differently,” she says. “Or have more visibility, but it’s rewarding.”
“I’m an actor, and I like having attention, I guess,” Maslany says. “It’s rewarding to hear [that] people enjoy the show. And the Golden Globes thing is wild. I mean, I’m completely blown away by it and just trying to breathe in it and take it in and take it one day at a time because it’s totally out of my league.”
Maslany says she had to take a deep breath before coming back for the second season of the series, which returns to BBC America April 19.
“It was daunting to come back to it because I knew kind of what to expect, and I knew how much work it was going to be and just kind of the physical and the emotional challenge of it,” she says. “But at the same time there was a sense of: OK, so we’ve done this, so there’s not that pressure of will this work or whatever, will people buy the kind of gimmick of it.
“So it was time to go deeper with it, and I think that’s to me what was exciting about coming back season two,” she says. “I love all these characters so much, and Graeme [Manson] and all the writers have continued to deepen it and flesh out the worlds of each of the clones and that, to me, was what was so exciting.
“I know these women now so it’s just about going deeper with it and challenging them and stretching them and not getting stuck in … just going to do the Alison thing. It’s like what about Alison going in that direction? What happens when she’s thrown into this situation?
“And we left them all at very tense places, kind of high stakes places, so there was so much to work with and the challenge of it continues every day. It’s what keeps me absolutely obsessed with the show and with the job and so grateful for it, too.”