Woman Crush Wednesday: Tatiana Maslany

I don’t, as a rule, practice Man Crush Mondays or Woman Crush Wednesdays.  Perhaps I spend too much time every other day of the week proclaiming my undying devotion to John Krasinski and Dolly Parton. I don’t need a dedicated day to crush on Tobias Menzies or Melina Marchetta. That’s every day.

However, I also don’t normally write posts on Wednesdays or posts about amazing actresses whom I really admire, and whom I hope get the accolades this season that they deserve.*

*Lights drop, spotlight shines on single mic downstage center. Beth steps up to mic tentatively, and looks up into the light. Emmy’s. I’m talking to you. Golden Globes, you too, you buncha jerks. Did you see the Critics Choice Awards? How dare you let them get one up on you. TWO YEARS IN A ROW. You should be ashamed. You too, SAG. Lights out.

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Hence. My first (and probably only) Woman Crush Wednesday: Tatiana Maslany. If you haven’t heard of her, you haven’t been spending much time being aware of great television over the last year or two, and you definitely haven’t been scrolling through tumblr as often as any sane adult should. She’s all over that place.

And for good reason. Tatiana stars in the BBC America breakout hit, Orphan Black as Sara Manning.

And Cosima Niehaus.

And Alison Hendrix.

And Rachel Duncan.

And Helena.

And a bunch more. Tatiana plays nearly a dozen (could be more than that, I’m not an Orphan Black scholar) different clones on the show, all of whom have distinct looks and personalities. Sometimes, she’s been known to play one character pretending to be another.

And while I’m consistently amazed while watching the show that they are all played by the same actress, I’m never made AWARE that they are. She’s seemless and flawless, even when acting against herself in triplicate.

As much as I love Tobias Menzies, the question that’s put to him often about his roles in Outlander about what it’s like to play two characters seems awful trite. I mean … he’s an actor. He plays different characters all the time. He goes to work, gets costumed, and does his thing as that character.

Tatiana however, often plays multiple characters in day, filming the same scene against no one, multiple times. Her mannerisms, her dialects, accents, ticks, speech patterns, walks … they are all distinct without being unbelievable. It’s fascinating.

Orphan Black’s 3rd season is back on April the 18th. And we have a whole new batch of clones to be mesmerized by. If you aren’t watching, you should be.

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Have you binge watched Orphan Black yet? Who is your favorite Tatiana?