Orphan Black Article 1

Tatiana Maslany Actress (All clones)

On Your Process

Q: You play so many clone characters so successfully. With a year under your belt, how has your process changed?

Tatiana: 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 sort of challenge of it. But at the same time there was a sense of, okay, 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 in Season 2. You know, I love all these characters so much, and Graeme 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.

On Getting Into Character

Q: Are some of the characters quicker to love or a little harder for you to get into?

Tatiana: Yeah, the one who scared me the most was Alison when I was doing the auditions and sort of approaching the characters for the first time, because for some reason I wasn't willing to admit that she is so much a part of me. She was a hard one to kind of dig into or find the sympathy or the empathy for initially, and now I love her. And I found Rachel to be really daunting as well because of her entitlement and her wealth and her power, her kind of quiet power. Yeah, it terrified me, but what's so awesome about this show is I get to try these things out that probably nobody would cast me in normally.

On Your Biggest Challenges

Q: Given all of the technical and acting challenges you have, was there a point in the first season where you thought, all right, I've got this?

Tatiana: Honestly, no, I don't think so. I still think we're discovering it because it is such a unique premise and such a unique challenge for all of us. And I think [for the] writers, too, it poses certain challenges, and I think getting comfortable with it would be dangerous. You know, I think as artists you always want to push yourself. There's got to be something else. There's new territory. And maybe technically I've become more comfortable in the clone scenes but, you know, you just have to keep digging deeper and pushing further, and I think that's what keeps us inspired.

Dylan Bruce Actor (Paul)

On Being an Outsider

Q: Do you consider the clones and Felix and Paul to be like one big extended kind of family?

Dylan: I don't think Paul is in the inner circle yet. I don't think any of them trust Paul and what his true intentions are and what Paul is about. I think I would love to be in the inner circle with Felix and the clone family. The clone circle.

On Jealousy

Q: Do you think Felix is jealous that Paul came into the picture?

Dylan: In the first season, Paul and Sarah started having a little bit of a relationship, which was a pretty fun scene that we cut, and Felix was very sassy and jealous of Paul and that burgeoning relationship. Well, actually, wouldn't you be a little upset if you found someone had just shagged in your bed?

Jordan Gavaris Actor (Felix)

On the Show Being a Phenomenon

Q: Did you anticipate that the show would blossom into this amazing phenomenon?

Jordan: I think it was a bit of a dark horse in terms of whether or not people were going to respond because high-concept shows are few and far between now. You have a lot of procedurals on television, and cable is really the home of high concept, but they don't always work. You hope that it works, and you enjoy the experience, which was remarkable, and life-changing for me and for Dylan and for everybody else. But you are very guarded because you know that one of two things will happen: It's either going to be incredible and you'll find your audience and people who will connect with the characters, or it will be disastrously bad, as is true of any high-concept show.

On Family

Q: Do you consider the clones and Felix and Paul to be like one big extended kind of family?

Jordan: I think for Felix, he has been so close to Sarah and one of his biggest fears is being left alone. That was something inherent to outsiders, which is weird and ironic because they are outsiders, but they fear isolation. I think when Sarah discovers all these, we'll call them familiar connections, because they are, it's quirky and weird, but they are sort of like sisters. Felix has a twinge of jealously at the fact that she has roots. She doesn't know where they go.

John Fawcett Cocreator/Director

On the Clones

Q: Were any of the clones inspired by what you saw Tatiana do, or know that she can do?

John: We've sat with Tatiana a bunch of times just to talk about characters and what we should do in upcoming seasons. It's just part of the creative process. We consider her a collaborator. It's fun to hear her ideas because she's got great ideas. She's really good at coming up with stuff.

On the Show's Popularity

Q: So did you really foresee that it would become a world phenomenon within six months?

John: No. I think both had a lot of love and passion for the concept and for the project and we were hopeful. It lived with us for 10 years and that says a lot right there. I lose interest in things really quickly. If it's something that gets me to stick around for 10 years and keeps me going back and back to try and develop it, it means that it's something special. I was very addicted to this idea. It took a long time to get it made. We hoped it would strike a nerve with people, hit a note and make an impression.

Graeme Manson Cocreator/Writer

On Clonal Inspiration

Q: Going into Season 2, are you inspired by Tatiana's new ability to create new clones?

Graeme: We just finished the season introducing a new clone, so we're very interested in unpacking Rachel and letting Tatiana run with her. It's going to be super fun and villainous and sexy. It's a clone show, so we want to introduce new clones. We just don't want to overdo it.

Q: Were any of them inspired by what you saw Tatiana do, or know that she can do?

Graeme: Definitely. When we saw how she was inhabiting and delineating the characters, we knew we could do the things that we were dying to do with storylines.

On the Show Being a Phenomenon

Q: So did you really foresee that it would become a world phenomenon within six months?

Graeme: We knew we were happy with what we were doing and had really landed a lead performer that could make the show work. The show would fall apart without a magnetic performance. We knew we were on to something. We didn't really know, we didn't really get a sense until the season had finished airing and nothing died down. It just kept amplifying and getting louder, and seeing the online stuff coming at us. All the Tumblr stuff. The Clone Club. All the support that way. That started happening. When we saw that going on, we said, hey we've got something here. There's something here, something's starting to simmer. The Critics' Choice Award for Tat threw it into a different orbit.

On the Narrative

Graeme: We don't give our actors tons of story about what's coming because we want that natural surprise and that discovery that the audience is having. We want that coming out of the characters. But there are some things that we give to Tat, and one of them was, fairly early we told her about the twin sister thing. And she, without telegraphing it, absorbed that into her performance and gave us some really cool stuff …

The story has got to be satisfying, but every time we open a door, we want to close another. So that's the kind of storytelling that we like. Overarching mystery is super important to us, but the forward pace of the show and the revelations have to come on a forward momentum. Not navel gazing and looking too hard at that mythology.