Background Image

...

John Cassavetes' Films Have Really Altered The Way I See Film And Acting And Storytelling And Emotion And Love, So I See Acting As This Incredible Revealing Of Human Nature And This Means Of Telling Our Story, Sharing Our Voice With The World. That's What Acting Is For Me. It Allows For People To Experience Things Through The Character, Through The Story.

-Tatiana Maslany

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

John Cassavetes' Films Have

Tatiana Maslany

...

John Cassavetes' Films Have Really Altered The Way I See Film And Acting And Storytelling And Emotion And Love, So I See Acting As This Incredible Revealing Of Human Nature And This Means Of Telling Our Story, Sharing Our Voice With The World. That's What Acting Is For Me. It Allows For People To Experience Things Through The Character, Through The Story.

Views: 8

Topic

More From Tatiana Maslany

Going To Set, Every Day, And Working With The Incredible Actors I Get To Work With Is Fulfilling. I've Been Doing This Since I Was Nine Years Old, So It's Always Been Something That I've Been Passionate About. It's Always Fed Me.

I Think The Fact That My Parents Are Still, "hey, Great, That's Great!" And Not, "we Need You To Do This And Be A Star!" - It Was Never Like That. My Mom's A Translator, My Dad's A Woodworker; That's The World I Grew Up In, That's The World I'm Most Comfortable In. The Whole Idea Of Hollywood Or Any Of That Other Stuff That Unfortunately Goes Along With Film, That Wasn't Part Of My Upbringing, Thankfully.

It's Wild To Be Seen Differently And Have More Visibility, But It's Rewarding.

I Wanted To Get Everything Right. I Was Super Nerdy And Academic. I Got So Much Satisfaction Out Of Getting Good Grades.

I Love Performing. I Love Doing Improv. It's A Totally Terrifying Experience, But It's Something That I've Always Felt So Strongly About And That I'm Kind Of Obsessed With. And Just As An Actor, It's A Great Exercise. It's A Great Playground, You Know, To Try Things Out And To Work On Your Skills. Because The Mandate Of Improv Is Kind Of The Same As Acting: It's All About Your Scene Partner, It's All About Being Present And In The Moment And Exploring Together As A Team, A Collaboration.

It's Always Been My Dream To Just Continually Do Really Cool Indie Movies - Character-driven Stuff.

Comedy Scares Me A Lot. I Feel Like It's Way Harder Than Drama. I Think My Safety Net Is Definitely Drama And I Would Love To Kind Of Be Able To Be Able To Push Into The Comedy World And Do Something Kind Of Like A Christopher Guest Kind Of Style Show. That, To Me, Is My Kind Of Comedy. Like, Ricky Gervais Comedy. That's My Kind Of Thing.

Dance Has Always Been A Really Important Thing For Me, So Being Able To Physically Express The Characters Through Music And Dance Is Like Another Layer To Things.

I Grew Up In Canada, Man - We All Had Rinks In Our Backyards Because We'd Ice Down The Grass With A Hose And Build A Skating Rink.

As A Kid, I Wanted To Be A Boy Because I Equated That With Strength. There's A Problem With That. It's Only Growing Into My Own Womanhood That I Realize How Warped That Is That I Was Attributing Strength To Male Qualities.

I'm Attracted To Stories That Excite My Imagination, Stories That, As I'm Reading The Script, I Feel It, I Can See It, I Can Hear The Characters. I'm Attracted To Characters That Are Real, That Tap Into Something Inside Me That I Haven't Explored Yet.

I Think Being Idle Is Quite Hard For Me To Do.

I Started Out As A Dancer As A Kid; I've Been Dancing Since I Was 4. So Performing Was Always Part Of What I Was.

I'm Running On Adrenalin When We're Shooting. It's Non-stop. As Soon As I Have Time To Sit Down, Then I Fall Asleep.

My Brothers And I Always Did Improv Stuff In Our Basement With Our Friends; We're Super Nerds, And That Was Our Way Of Spending A Friday Night.

'orphan Black' Allows For People To Have Debates And Theories And Allegiances To Different Characters; To Trust Characters And Hate Other Characters, But It Doesn't Tell You Who Is Good Or Bad Or Right Or Wrong. That's The Most Exciting Storytelling In My Book.

I'm Fascinated With Psychology, And With Why A Person Walks The Way They Walk Or Why They Walk Into A Room The Way They Do Or Why We Are The Way We Are, And It's Not Exclusive To The Psychology Of A Character.

When I Was A Kid, It Was The Attention I Got From It, The Immediate Response From The Audience, The Thrill Of Being Onstage. That's Carried Over Into My Adult Life, I Can't Pretend I Don't Like The Attention Or Whatever, But For Me Now, I've Witnessed Incredible Performances That Have Changed The Way I See The Art Form.

My Favorite Actor On The Planet Is Gena Rowlands And She Plays Women Who, To Me, Somehow Defy Gender. They Are Women, They Are Feminine, They Are Masculine, They Are Everything. There's Something Exciting About That. I Don't Know How To Articulate It Exactly. I Guess It's Busting Out Of The Archetypes A Little Bit And Not Feeling Restricted.

I Haven't Really Done A Lot Of Comedy. It's Something That Terrifies Me.

Clothing And Makeup And Hair And All Of That So Much Indicates The Kind Of Person You Are Inside And The Person You Are Presenting On The Outside. Sometimes They Are In Conflict, And Sometimes They Are The Same. That Psychology Of The Exterior Informing The Interior Is Just So Interesting.

I'm Incredibly Close To My Family. I Have Two Younger Brothers, They're Both Artists And Actors; And Their Work And The Way They See The World Inspires Me. We've Been Making Films Together Since We Were Kids, In Our Backyard.

I Would Love To Work With Gena Rowlands. I Just Don't Know In What Capacity. I'd Play Her Daughter Or Granddaughter, Or Whatever. I Would Just Love To Work With Her, In Whatever Capacity.

You Learn From The Actors That You're Working With. I've Taken A Lot From All Of Them.

I'm An Actor, So I'm Interested In The Pursuit Of Storytelling And Character And Challenging Myself And Expanding My Craft. That's Not Something That Ever Ends, Because As You Grow As A Person, So Does Your Capacity To Play Different Characters. New Things Come Up, New Things You Want To Explore And New Stories You Want Tell About Life And Your Knowledge Of Things. I Don't Think There's Ever Going To Be That Satisfaction Of "and Now, Comfort."

I Like 'futurama.' That's Kind Of The Only Thing That's My Sci-fi Thing, Although I Was Big Into Zombies For A Time.

For Me, Comedians Are Like The Epitome For Everything Great, And They Terrify Me. I Just Want To Be Them. I Want To Be Like Them.

Trust Your Gut. You Know Yourself, So Don't Let Somebody Else Tell You Who You Are.

It's The Reason We Go To Films And Watch Television: To Escape The Mundane Nature Of Life And See Another World And See Ourselves In That Other World. I Think That's What Sci-fi Does So Well.

Sometimes I'll Go Into A Shop And Speak In A Different Accent To See If I Can Pull It Off. But Then Somebody Will Be Like, 'where Did You Say You Were From Again?' And Then I Panic, And My Accent Dissolves, And I Pretend Like I Wasn't Doing It In The First Place.

My Mom's A Translator, My Dad's A Woodworker; That's The World I Grew Up In, That's The World I'm Most Comfortable In. The Whole Idea Of Hollywood Or Any Of That Other Stuff That Unfortunately Goes Along With Film, That Wasn't Part Of My Upbringing, Thankfully.

It's A Daunting Thing To Be Playing A Real Person And To Have Contact With Her And Meet Her And Be In Her Circle A Little Bit. It's An Odd Thing. There's So Much Responsibility To Tell The Story Honestly And Truthfully, And At The Same Time, You Start To Develop A Friendship With This Person - Or I Did.

I'm Always Interested In Are Stories That Challenge People.

The Whole Press Thing And Who You Are In The Media, Or What You Have To Project Yourself To Be, It Feels Very Much Like Another Person. People Say To Me, "oh, Your Life Must Be Changing," And I'm Like, "uh, I Guess?" For Me, It's Such A Gradual Change, And I Don't See It From The Outside Like Everybody Else Does. It's Weird, I See My Face On A Bus Or Online Or Somebody Has My Picture As Their Picture On Twitter And It's All A Bit Weird And I Feel Very Disconnected From It And Very Much, "i Guess That's Me." It's Very Surreal.

Just To Be On Set With Amy Poehler, Who's One Of My Heroes, Was A Total Dream Come True.

How You Go About Moving Within The World You Live In Says So Much About Who You Are.

Those Darker Sides, The Things That We Don't Want To Admit About Ourselves - That's What Excites Me.

The Way People Love Sci-fi Is How I Love Cartoons.

I Think The Improv Also Helps With The Imagination Of Dealing This Person Across From Me Who's Not Physically There. When You Do An Improv Scene, You're Usually Working On A Blank Stage And Creating The Props And Creating The Environment.

My Mom Taught Me German Before I Knew English. And I Went To French Immersion School.

I'm Excited To Work On Something Where I Have A Bit More Time With It, To Explore One Personality. That's Definitely Exciting To Me.

I'm So Inspired And Stimulated By The Work That It Doesn't Ever Feel Like Work.

I'll Never, Never Understand Why People Think It's Their Business To Comment On Other People's Bodies. I Go To A Spa In La Sometimes, A Korean Day Spa, And All The Women There Are Nude. And I've Never Felt So In Love With The Human Form As When I'm Walking Around And Seeing All Those Bodies, Thinking, Oh My God, We're All Just Built So Differently. And Every Single Body Is Beautiful. I Will Never Understand That Shame, And The Reinforcement Of That Shame. It's Crazy.

I've Learned A Lot About The Limits Of What I Can Do, As An Artist, Or What I'm Willing To Do. It's A Lot Of Responsibility To Carry A Show And To Speak To People On Different Levels.

I Find Comedy To Be Really Scary, Because It Can Go So Wrong So Easily, And The Margin For Error Is So Huge - And I Guess That's What Makes It Funny, That Tension.

I Love Nerdy Work. I Love Writing Notes. I Try To Go Back, As Much As I Can, To Feed What Happens And Why They Do What They Do.

I Have Trouble Sleeping, At The End Of The Night. There's A Lot Of Stimulus And My Brain Is Processing A Lot Of Different Arcs And Personalities. I'm Always Processing Things, So I Don't Sleep.

Young Women Are Now Looking At Me For Cues. That's Definitely Been A Responsibility. But I Feel Like I Was Ready To Take On Something Like This Because I Wanted To Be Challenged And I Wanted To Be Afraid, And That's Definitely What It's Done For Me.

So Much Of How You Look At Yourself In The Mirror Reflects How You Feel About Yourself, And How You Comport Yourself.

I Think In The Inception And Creation Of The Characters, Improv Was The Most Important Part For Me, Because I Wanted To Feel At Home In Those Characters. I Wanted To Feel Like I Could Commit To Them. And So Much Of Improv Is Saying Yes And Committing, So I Think That's Where The Improv Came In. Even If I'm Saying Yes To The X Across The Room From Me, Or The Tennis Ball On A Stick, I Have To Stay Alive.

I've Worked On Shows Where The Lead Actor Doesn't Know Their Lines, Doesn't Care, And It Affects Everybody - The Crew, The Director, The Other Actors. It's Definitely A Responsibility.

I Think The Idea Of Family And Protecting The Family Is Something That Ties A Lot Of These Women Together.

Going Back Is A Nice Way To Give Definition To Each Of The Characters Because They Are So Vastly Different. I Would Never Want Them To Get Blended Together.

I Try To Get Roles That Challenge Me In What I Can Do And Who I Think I Can Portray. For Me, It's About Creating Characters With Really Fascinating Stories, Because That's What I Like To Watch On Tv.

I Love Hip-hop; I Love Sleigh Bells. I Also Love Classical Music And Musical Theater.

I See A Lot Of Things I'm So Excited And Hopeful About Film And Tv In Canada. There's Just A Huge Movement, I Think, In Seeking An Identity As Canadians, And Really Forging It And Really Embracing All The Parts Of Us As Canadians That Come From Such Varied Experiences And Such Varied Cultures. And I Think There Are Strong Voices That Come Out.

I Think That's Why It's Difficult For Women When They Watch Tv And We See One Version Of A Woman Who Is Attached At The Hip To A Guy, And That's Kind Of Her Whole Thing. You Kind Of Go, 'i Don't Relate To This, I Don't Feel This.' You Know? Maybe Somebody Does, But Not Everyone. That's The Other Thing About Storytelling, Is You Can't Represent Everybody. You Know, You Can't Seek To Do That. You Have To Tell Stories That You're Interested In Talking About And Characters That Intrigue You.

We're Living In A World Where The Response Is Really Instantaneous, Even Though It's Delayed By A Few Months. It Comes At You Pretty Fast.

John Cassavetes' Films Have Really Altered The Way I See Film And Acting And Storytelling And Emotion And Love, So I See Acting As This Incredible Revealing Of Human Nature And This Means Of Telling Our Story, Sharing Our Voice With The World. That's What Acting Is For Me. It Allows For People To Experience Things Through The Character, Through The Story.

Have Fun, Be Yourself, Enjoy Life And Stay Positive.

Sex Isn't Hard, But Intimacy Is Terrifying.

My Brothers Are So Much A Part Of Who I Am, And Such A Large Part Of My Heart And My Drive. I've Never Had A Kid, But I Understand That Whole, "i Would Kill For My Family" Kind Of Thing. I Understood It, It Resonated With Me. It's A Very Primal, Animal Thing That You Feel For Your Family.

I Was In A Nativity Play As A Kid. Back Then, I Played The Donkey.

I Think There's Something Really Freeing About Improv, That It's A Collective, Creative, In-the-moment Piece. That's Really Exciting And Really Frustrating, Because It's There And Gone. There's An Amazing Interaction With The Audience That Happens Because They Are Very Much Another Scene Partner. How They Respond Determines The Kinds Of Stories We Tell.

I Started Out As A Dancer As A Kid; I've Been Dancing Since I Was 4. So Performing Was Always Part Of What I Was. I Don't Know If It I Enjoyed The Response I Got From People Or If I Liked Having An Audience, But There's Something In Me That Wanted To Perform.

The Most Bizarre Demographics Come Up To Me. Men In Their 50s Come Up To Me And Are Like, "alison Is My Favorite. I Hated Her At First, And Now I Love Her." I Don't Know What That Says About People's Psychology.

There's Something About Music That Makes Me Feel Like A Different Person, That Feels Like An Escape.

I Love People, Watching People Interact. It's A Lot Of Psychology. We Learn About Ourselves By Watching Other People's Lives On The Screen.

I'm An Actor And I Like Having Attention. There's A Reason I Like Being On Stage And In Front Of The Camera, And It's That Interaction.

You're Hot For Two Seconds, And You're Struggling To Get Work Again. If It Were Easy, I Don't Think That's A Good Place For An Artist To Work From.

I'm At The Transition Place Myself, Still Playing High School Girls But Moving To A Stage When I'm Playing Older Roles And Going To The Places Of Stillness And Wisdom And Knowledge And Weight. It's Exciting And Scary.

I Fell In Love With 'star Trek' After J. J. Abrams's Movie. I'm So Into That.

All The Foundation Work You Plant In The Early Seasons Pay Off In Stronger Storylines Deep Into Our Seasons. I Think That Only Aids In Performance.

For Me, Comedy Literally Is Way More Terrifying Than Doing Drama, So It's Always About Stretching What I Think I Can Do And Putting Myself Out There In Different Context.

We Do Long-form-style Improv. Our Focus Was Characters And Telling A Long Arc Story Over About An Hour And A Half. It Was Closer To A One-act Play Than One-off Sketches.

Go With Your Gut Every Single Time. It’s Never, Ever Wrong. Even If Feels Like Everybody Else Is Telling You That You Need To Do This Or Do That. Your Gut Is Your Artist And Who You Are As A Person And What Makes You Special, And What Makes You An Interesting Performer. Never Try To Be Something You’re Not.

I Worked With Dance A Lot, For Each Character - Different Ways I Could Move My Body, Different Music. It's The Most Fun Thing In The World, Because I Love Each And Every One Of The Characters And I'd Be Happy Just To Play One Of Them, But The Fact That I Get To Play Upwards Of Six, Seven, Eight Or Whatever, It's A Total Dream.

I'm Super Sad To Have It Finish Because It's Been Such A Dream Job, But It's Nice To Know There's A Conclusion.

As Artists, You Always Want To Push Yourself. There's Always New Territory.

As An Actor, You're Listening To The Other Person And Always Trying To Be Present And Take Everything They're Giving You, But When They're Not There You Have To Produce That Yourself.

I'm Incredibly Close To My Family. I Have Two Younger Brothers; They're Both Artists And Actors, And Their Work And The Way They See The World Inspires Me.

Auditions Are Not A Natural Environment, And You Feel Judged, Even Though Everyone Is Just Excited To Find The Right Person.

You're Revealing Something About Yourself In A More Exaggerated, More Fleshed-out Way, And It Awakens Something In You That Maybe You Didn't Know You Had.

Revealing Something

Sexuality Is So Much More Complex Than Our Boobs. My Sexuality Isn't Me As An Object To Be Looked At. It's The Way I Say "hello" To Somebody, The Way I Sit With Somebody. A Body Is Just A Body. But We're Really Afraid Of Bodies. They Hold A Lot Of Power - I Think That's Why People Can Try To Shame Them So Easily, Because They Are So Powerful.

I'm A Huge 'futurama' Fan, So That's My Closest Sci-fi Tendency.

I Think The Sci-fi World Allows For Exploration Of That That Isn't On The Nose And That Isn't Preachy, But It's Kind Of Artful And Explores It Differently. I Think There's More Imagination In Sci-fi. There's More Chance To Kind Of Explore Perspective And Not Have It So Grounded In This World That We Live In, Which Is So Stuck In A Patriarchal Kind Of System.

There's Something Really Unique About Orphan Black Is That It Has A Lot Of Female Leads, So It's About A Lot Of Women's Stories, But It's Not Women’s Stories In Terms Of Trying To Find A Guy Or Keep A Guy; It's About Entirely Other Things.

Film Has Always Been Where My Heart Is.

Trending Author

Langston Hughes

Whittaker Chambers

Category