Tatiana Maslany ‘She-Hulk’ Interview

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is home to hundreds of superheroes, with more introduced every year. And with so many heroes assembled in one franchise, a hero has really got to stand out in order to make audiences take notice. Tatiana Maslany shouldn’t have any problem standing out when she inevitably teams up with the Avengers (it hasn’t been officially announced yet but, come on): as the lead of Disney+’s She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, Maslany gets to play a character who is chartreuse, 6’7″, and is probably the only superhero whose power suits are made of fabric and not a vibranium alloy.

This marvelous career move is an unlikely one for the Emmy-winning Maslany, who’s most known for playing multiple, drastically different roles on the clone series Orphan Black. That cult hit gave Maslany a devoted fanbase and the unwavering respect of anyone who ever watched her act against herself as two dramatically different clones. As Jennifer Walters, a lawyer who takes on a striking family resemblance to her cousin Bruce Banner after an accident, Maslany’s taking on a completely new set of challenges: not only is she spending half of her time on set in a motion capture suit with a camera mounted to her head, she’s also playing a Marvel superhero unlike any we’ve ever seen before.

Ahead of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law’s big premiere, Decider got the chance to chat with Maslany about those challenges, as well as the changes made to She-Hulk for her Disney+ debut, and the iconic ’90s sitcom characters that most inspired her take on Jennifer Walters.

Decider: The first episode includes an explanation for why Jennifer Walters retains her consciousness when she becomes a Hulk because women have been conditioned to regulate their emotions, lest they face extremely negative consequences. What was it like playing that scene, wherein Jen explains this to Bruce?

Tatiana Maslany: I mean, to me that scene is one of the easiest scenes I’ve ever gotten to play because the truth of what she’s saying is so resonant to me. [Head writer] Jessica [Gao] wrote that scene obviously from a very experienced place, a deep place. And she did it with so much humor and such a light touch. It really is just speaking the truth that I think so many of us have experienced. It is one of the the moments in the show that I’m like, this is so special to see this in this larger superhero story. So much of the allegory of superheroes is always rooted in these smaller human moments, and so to get to really speak to that was very cool.

What I really love about your performance is that even when you’re She Hulk, you do so much subtle acting just with your face — even though your face is green and CG. Were you ever afraid to go subtle with your reactions when you know that you’re a giant Hulk?

I mean, that’s a great question. The thought of, “Oh, they’re gonna take [this part of my performance] away and build it into the character” was like, “I wonder how it’ll turn out.” But so early we got to see these amazing renderings that the VFX people had done, and the subtlety was — I felt so empowered by the the subtlety of it. It was a simple moment where I could see that [She-Hulk] was breathing and that she was thinking, and I was like, “Oh, great. They’re capturing everything. There’s no moment that they’re not seeing and that they’re not expressing.” So it really allowed for me to just to just be [subtle].

The way you play Jennifer, even though she’s a Type-A lawyer, she’s worked so hard and nothing undercuts that, but she’s also cool. Usually a character is either serious or funny, and Jen feels like both. How did you bring those traits together and make it seem so natural?

That’s a testament to the script. Jen felt so real and complicated to me and so unexpected in that great way. The way I feel about it, she has this buoyant femininity, but also [she has] this, I wanna say Bart Simpson vibe to her, a little bit of a sideways baseball cap. She’s a little mischievous and bringing that into, like you’re saying, this trope of the career woman who’s kind of impossible to talk to. There’s something sort of Elaine Benes [from Seinfeld] about Jen, you know? She was a touchstone for me because [Elaine] is a career woman but she’s also kind of a mess, and sort of a boy and a girl — she’s everything.

We know that Daredevil is coming back. What was it like seeing Charlie Cox in that suit again?

Yeah, It was wild. I think what’s so cool about Charlie is that he takes this character that he’s developed over this very different [Netflix] series and brings him into our series, which is ostensibly a goofy sitcom. But he does it with so much openness and playfulness and the integrity of the character stays so true. I’m so excited for people to see this duo because it’s so not what we’d expect. It’s just really special.

Jameela Jamil plays Titania, who’s long been She-Hulk’s archenemy in the comics. What makes Jameela’s version of Titania the perfect foil for your version of She-Hulk?

I’ve come to realize [Titania’s] the shadow. She is Jen’s shadow, in the Jungian sense. She embodies everything that Jen doesn’t want to be, which is a person who capitalizes on their superhero-ness, who capitalizes on their fame, the attention she gets, and courts it. I think that there’s a part of Jen, that as much as she resists, that is also like, “I kind of want to be that,” you know? [Titania] embodies that great, perfect villain counter, which is facing the deepest, darkest parts of yourself.

Lastly, I have to ask: when She-Hulk comes home at night, what is she putting on? What is she streaming?

I feel like we’ve been talking about Love Island a lot recently. I think she’s watching Love Island UK. I think she’s got a pot of ice cream on her stomach and she’s just chowing down while watching everybody and their sexual tension.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

She-Hulk: Attorney at Law premieres on Disney+ on Thursday, August 18

Stream She-Hulk: Attorney at Law on Disney+