When BBC America hosted a tea reception for the Television Critics Association, it was impossible to get “Orphan Black” star Tatiana Maslany alone. Rightfully so, she’s captivated the interest of all the media, as well as the viewers. We jumped in to ask questions of the multiple star of “Orphan Black” to find out what’s up for Sarah, Cosima, Alison and Rachel in season two of the clone thriller.
Obviously, spoilers for season one follow.
CraveOnline: Has playing these roles on “Orphan Black” changed the way you’re going to approach future roles?
Tatiana Maslany: Yeah, I think I’ve learned a lot about process and about commitment and I’ve learned a lot from the actors who are on the show with me. Jordan [Gavaris]’s incredible and getting to work with him every day, you learn from the actors you’re working with and I’ve taken a lot from all of them so I don’t think I’ll ever kind of approach a character the same way that I used to.
Have people split up into Team Cosima, Team Alison, etc?
Yeah, Twitter’s a good place for that to come at me.
Who’s winning?
Cosima I think. There was a big Helena drive for a while there. Now they’re moving onto somebody else.
Not Alison?
Alison’s pretty big too, yeah, but Cosima was the one, was the winner.
When you pour a glass of wine for another clone, how on earth do you do that?
So we have a little plank of wood that has the wine glass on it. So I pour into that and then Kathryn [Alexandre], who’s my clone double, who does all the accent work and all the dialect work with me and all the character work, she comes in and sneaks it off. It’s the wildest thing. Then somehow they composite it together.
Does someone have to pour it again when you’re playing the other one?
Yes, so then on the other side, Kathryn will pour into my glass. It’s the weirdest thing.
What’s going on with Sarah’s relationship with Paul?
Paul is amazing. I think all of the relationships become tested. I don’t think any of them are stable. I think Cosima and Delphine are in a very precarious place. Donnie and Alison are in a precarious place. Sarah and Kira, Sarah and Mrs. S, Sarah and Felix and Sarah and Paul, I think every single relationship by the time we got to the end of the season, we had no clue what our footing was. So this year is definitely a continuation of that distrust and we start to see alliances form with different people that maybe we didn’t expect. It’s pretty interesting nonetheless.
Is Donnie and Alison’s relationship real?
I don’t know. I mean, I think she thinks it’s real for show.
Does Donnie?
I don’t know what Donnie thinks.
When you shot the interrogation scene with Alison and Donnie, did you know Donnie would end up being her monitor?
I did not know. I had no idea. I had no idea. So it was so much fun.
When did you know about the garbage disposal scene?
That came at the read through, once we read the 10th episode. I didn’t know that was happening. It was a total shock to me and I had to wrap my head around it but then I thought it was such a bold choice, really risky and daring and I was really excited about it.
Can you tease us about any of Alison’s outfits coming up?
Lots of turtlenecks. Lots of vests, yoga pants. Alison has one great outfit coming up but yeah, it’s more of that kind of stuff and then we get to see a few more outfits also.
Which clone’s wardrobe is the most and the least comfortable?
The least comfortable would be Rachel’s because it’s all heels. The most comfortable would be Alison’s because it’s like runners and sweatpants. It’s awesome.
Are you looking forward to putting all this concentration on a single role in the future?
Oh yeah, totally. I’m excited to work on something where I have a bit more time with it and time to explore one personality for a bit. There’s a lot of stimulus and my brain is processing a lot of different arcs and a lot of different personalities and just processing things. So I don’t sleep.
How do you calm down?
I don’t. Eventually I’ll pass out. I do sleep, but for the six months we’re shooting, it’s kind of running on adrenaline.
Did you do a lot of work on mastering all those accents?
Yeah, I’ve got an amazing dialect coach, John Nelles, who works with me every single day on every dialect. He’s there to watch that while I get to do the scene work, because eventually, you work on the dialect as much as you can beforehand, and then you just trust that you have it there and then whatever is coming out is the voice of the character. The dialect stuff is awesome.
What has it been like to be in the middle of this U.S. publicity machine?
It’s a cultural shift almost. It’s a different way of doing things and I love it. It’s huge. It feels like a big thing, a big kind of behemoth. I’ve been fortunate enough that I’ve been in the industry a while and have slowly worked my way to a place where I’m being interviewed or whatever. I can’t imagine what it’d be like to have not been doing this for a while and suddenly have this happen. It feels like a pretty gradual fit for me.
Is it odd that people treat you as if you’re new, and you’ve been working at this for quite a long time?
Sure, but for me it’s less so about whatever the new thing or whatever. It’s more just like awesome, I get to maybe do some more work now.
What keeps you grounded?
This doesn’t seem like the ultimate goal for me, so I don’t know. I love talking to people about the show. I love doing interviews and all that but ultimately I just want to work. I want to do another job. I want to do more interesting work, I keep pushing myself. So for me, I’ve worked with incredible acting coaches who’ve never let me get complacent or anything like that, so I think I’ve been grounded a lot by the acting teachers I’ve worked with.
And also my family is just from Regina. This doesn’t make sense to us. I think after the Critics Choice Awards I called my parents and my mom was like, “That’s great. So we found a baby bird in the backyard and we nursed it back to health.” They were so excited about that and I was like that’s awesome. My family is amazing.
Did you enjoy doing “Parks and Rec?”
I loved it. I loved it so much. It was a dream come true. For me, comedians are the epitome of everything. They terrify me and I just want to be them. I want to be like them so yes, just to be on set with Amy Poehler who is one of my heroes, it a total dream come true.
Do you have a dream role?
I would love to work with Gena Rowlands. I don’t know in what capacity. I’d play her daughter, I’d play her granddaughter, whatever. I would love to work with her in whatever.
What is your favorite Gena Rowlands film?
A Woman Under the Influence for sure, or Opening Night.
