Considering the unique premise of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, Marvel Studios knew they would need an incredibly talented and charismatic star to step into Jennifer Walters' high heels. Luckily, they found their leading lady in Primetime Emmy-winner Tatiana Maslany, who is best known for her show-stopping role as multiple clones on the acclaimed sci-fi drama Orphan Black.
During our interview with director Kat Coiro, she told us that, "casting Tatiana was the most important part of making this series work, and before we had her, I had a lot of fears about if the show was going to work. Once we had her, I knew that it was going to work because she is an actor of such skill and nuance, and she's also really funny. Working with her is amazing. It's everything you'd hope it would be. She really sees things on a macro level, but also listens and reacts in a very emotional, vulnerable way."
Maslany is arguably one of the most versatile actresses working today, and head writer Jessica Gao was incredibly impressed with the former Orphan Black star's talent after getting to see her work firsthand.
"After working with her, I fully believe that she can do literally anything. I think she can play any role, probably on the same show - I mean, obviously, on the same show she can play multiple roles, she's so, so talented, and this was also a physically demanding role. The amount of work she had to do, and the amount of extra things she had to do in order to play a CG character, and she did everything just perfectly and added so much to what was already on the page. I mean, truly, I genuinely believe she can do anything."
Coiro also tells us more about how those fourth-wall breaks aren't just there for a quick joke, and it sounds like there may be a little more going on with those scenes than initially meets the eye.
She explains, "She-Hulk is the original fourth wall breaker, back in 1980, she was breaking the fourth wall, and so that concept was always baked into the series. In terms of Tatiana's performance, it was very much about figuring out who is she talking to and giving her relationship with that camera, which I can't reveal now, but the specificity of her connection is part of what makes her performance so compelling."
Check out our full interviews with Kat Coiro and Jessica Gao below:
In Marvel Studios’ “She-Hulk: Attorney at Law,” Jennifer Walters (Tatiana Maslany)—an attorney specializing in superhuman-oriented legal cases—must navigate the complicated life of a single, 30-something who also happens to be a green 6-foot-7-inch superpowered hulk. The nine-episode comedy series welcomes a host of MCU vets, including Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner/Hulk, Tim Roth as Emil Blonsky/Abomination, and Benedict Wong as Wong, as well as Jameela Jamil, Josh Segarra, Ginger Gonzaga, Jon Bass and Renée Elise Goldsberry. The series is directed by Kat Coiro (Episodes 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 9) and Anu Valia (Episodes 5, 6, 7) with Jessica Gao as head writer. Executive producers are Kevin Feige, Louis D’Esposito, Victoria Alonso, Brad Winderbaum, Coiro and Gao, “She-Hulk: Attorney at Law” streams exclusively on Disney+ beginning August 18, 2022.