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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.

-Tatiana Maslany

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When I Was A

Tatiana Maslany

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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.

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'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.

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.

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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."

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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.

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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.

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

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

Film Has Always Been Where My Heart Is.

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.

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

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

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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'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 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.

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.

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.

Sex Isn't Hard, But Intimacy Is Terrifying.

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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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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