Tatiana Maslany Talks 'Keeper', 'The Young People' and Her Incredible Year of Work: “I can’t wait to lay down”

Renowned for her multiple roles in Orphan Black, Tatiana Maslany continues to work at a remarkable speed and versatility. In the same year that Osgood Perkins’ horror films ‘The Monkey’ and ‘Keeper’ were released, The Emmy winner also shot Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed, The Only Living Pickpocket in New York, and two short films. It’s a schedule she says left her feeling “creatively lit-up”.

We spoke with Maslany about embracing her ‘Scream Queen’ era, her admiration for Shelley Duvall, her public support for Palestine, and more.

Let me start off by asking about this creative partnership between you and Osgood Perkins. What keeps you coming back for more projects with him?

I didn’t know Os before [Keeper]. I knew his acting work, and I knew some of his filmmaking, but I had never met him before talking about the script. It was like an instinct I had about him that was like “oh, I think that this would be a very fun collaboration”. There are some things that we share that I think we’re both very curious about and performances that we really love, like Shelley Duval or Gena Rowlands, these kinds of strange women that didn’t play within the lines. So, I was very excited by the prospect of working with him and the things he told me about the story were intriguing. It was just like a gut instinct. And I like the idea of it being a small project.

Can you tell me how ‘The Shining’ and ‘Shelley Duval’ inspired ‘Keeper’?

I think just because she [Shelley Duval] goes through such a huge emotional journey in that film. But also, he told me to watch ‘3 Women’, which is a totally different performance of hers, and yet she still has this quality about her that is hard to place. You don’t always get totally into what she’s feeling or thinking. She has secrets and quirks that made me go “Oh, I wonder what that person is thinking”. There’s a lot of mystery there. And in terms of ‘Keeper’, it wasn’t so much like that performance, but it was just the space within a scene, that it doesn’t have to be one thing; it could be a completely opposite thing. She’s not afraid to use her face and I think nowadays people are very afraid to use their faces. Women, specially, I think are constrained to a certain way of looking, so I really love her freedom with all of her expressions.

With ‘The Monkey’ and ‘Keeper’ both releasing in the same year, you’re being dubbed a Scream Queen. How do you feel about that label?

I started in horror films when I was a kid. My first real character role was in a really small sequel called ‘Ginger Snaps: Unleashed’, which I did when I was 17 and like four people saw it. It was this cool sequel to a feminist werewolf film that was shot in Canada. It has a real cult following and people love it. And going back and rewatching the original ‘Ginger Snaps’ film, I was like, Oh, this is like, so my kind of movie. I didn't even know that then, because I was just a kid, but now it, like it talks about all the things I want to talk about like it's just very, very ahead of its time.

I don't know about the scream queen thing, but I definitely feel like I've become like a big horror nerd in the last six years, and so I’m very, very honored.

What’s your favorite horror movie?

There’s a lot of them. I haven't been able to rewatch The Exorcist. I read it for the first time and thought it was like a beautiful book. The shining is definitely up there. But I don’t know what my favorite horror movie is.

The Exorcist traumatized me.

Oh yeah, me too. Like, I had to watch it in two sittings. I think I watched the second half of it at 10am with like, a bowl of ice cream. I remember seeing ‘The Eye’, which is a really freaky cool movie back in the day. Psycho, obviously, is amazing. That’s a great question, my god! The gateway drug for me was ‘Society’, did you see that movie? It’s so messed up. I’m curious to see what you think of it, because it's like, it's gruesome, it's like full body horror, like 80s, like gnarly.

I saw a really cool, funny and sweet story from Brendan Hines about Keeper. He posted the trailer, and it basically includes multiple quotes from other directors who’s seen the movie like, Guillermo Del Toro and Bong Joon Ho. So he posted his own quote, which is, “I'm full-on wife guy for this movie”.

Laughs I wrote him. I was like, Brandon, what does that mean? Like, I know that it's some internet term, but I was like, I don't even know what that means, but I'm here for it. He's been great. He's promoting the film in a really great way. I paid my husband to promote it.

How do you feel about his support?

I mean, I love it, it's the best. We actually got to do, like a little, it was, like a horror comedy short. We were already married but, like, we never worked together before, and our friend Michael Schwartz wrote this little horror short that was called ‘Snatched’. And yeah, it was super fun to play together. And he's, like, a big, big, big part of the reason why I can watch horror now, because he was like, This is great, and you're gonna love it. And let's like, let's go into this world. And he was right.

Are you excited to reunite with him in ‘The Young People’?

Yeah, I mean, I won’t spoil anything about whether we work together or not, but I'm so excited, and I'm also stoked for him to get to be in that world, because Oz, like, the way he works, is so fun and he collects interesting people, and he's very loyal, and he really gives you a lot of space to play, so I'm excited for him.

You’re also reuniting with Nicole Kidman on that movie.

Yeah! I mean, Nicole is, like one of the greatest. I've been such a fan of her for years, and even, you know, we when we did ‘Destroyer’, it only solidified to me that she's like a genius and like a real working actor. Like, she really cares a lot about the process and cares a lot about staying in it and building a character and is very kind and welcoming. So just like, kind of the ideal, you know, leading lady. She's incredible.

After shooting ‘Keeper’ and ‘The Monkey’ did you feel like you needed a break from horror?

Yeah, I mean the last thing I just did was like a thriller-dark-comedy, so I did 5 months of that so now I’m ready to go back to horror with ‘The Young People’.

When I learned you shot ‘Any Other Night’, I assumed you wanted a rom-com break.

Yes, totally! And that was such a blast for me. I've never gotten to do a rom-com, really. And it's sort of calls itself like an anti-romcom. These characters definitely don't fit into that mold, even though they're sort of slotted into it. Yeah, and working with Marwan was, like, unbelievable. He's so amazing, he's so funny. He was dexterous and we just like, played for two months in Berlin. It was a dream.

You were shooting multiple projects this year, and two films of yours released in the same year, how did you manage to balance between them? Did you ever feel overwhelmed?

I'm tired now. It was, like a big year. I did Star Trek, I did a little indie movie, you know, I had a scene opposite John Turturro.

The Only Living Pickpocket in New York.

Yeah, exactly, yeah, yeah. I did these two short films, one with my best friend Tess, who is also in Keeper and in The Monkey. And then another short film with my friend Danny Dolan. So, it's been like a really incredible year of work, and creatively, I feel very like, so lucky and just like, lit up. And also, I can't wait to lay down.

What can you tell us about Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed?

I don't know, I don't know that we're allowed to talk about it yet, but it's very exciting. It's a really propulsive piece. It really flies. And the actors in it are fantastic. The writing's fantastic. It was like an incredible crew. I feel very I'm, you know, I'm coming down off that show, so I'm missing everybody a lot. and we worked really hard, and we got through, like, a very fast schedule.

If your life was a single shot in a movie, what would it look like? You can make something up or you can describe an existent shot.

I love that question. The film that's popping to my head is Daisies. It’s by a Czech filmmaker called Věra Chytilová. She was banned at the time because her films were, like, anarchist. And this film is specifically about two women who are so bored that they just go on this hedonistic rampage, eating their way through the world and eating their way through their life. And there's this great sequence in it where Vera somehow uses in camera techniques to cut. This is in the 60s. So it was before you could do anything. So she's cutting up their images. They're cutting themselves up with actual scissors, but it's like a collage. It's really cool. And so that, I think that when I saw that moment, I was, like, absolutely gobsmacked. And something about it is so feminine and so chaotic and so ”Fuck you!” at the same time. And sort of like irreverent and playful and angry but joyful.

I gotta say that I genuinely love your support for Palestine. Are there challenges that come with that? Some people face consequences for that, so how do you find the bravery?

You see that happening all the time. You know, people losing jobs, losing their representation, not getting jobs because of their speaking out. You see people disappeared for this, you see people silenced in so many ways, fired, it's it's horrendous, what's happening, and it's so beyond just Hollywood. At the same time, I would say that that sort of silencing is very effective when it threatens your job, when it threatens your livelihood. Of course, it makes so much sense. And yet, I have continued to work, and I think that's a lot to do with my privilege as a white woman. I think that I've worked for many years and I haven't had the consequences that other people have had, and I'm very aware of that. And also I know that I just have a platform, and if I'm not going to speak about the things that A) means something to me and B) are, like, real and happening, I don't know what else I would like. It just feels stupid to not talk about, you know.

Do you ever feel like having played various characters in ‘Orphan Black’ has made it easier to prepare for any other role that you got afterwards?

Absolutely, yeah. I mean, it was like a training ground, you know, it was like, it was like boot camp in so many ways. I learned how to quickly jump into parts and quickly discover maybe a character based on this much information, and sort of build their life out like this. I think improv for me, when I did that,from the age of nine till I was like, in university, which I didn't go to university. But like, I was doing improv for years and years, and I think that's where the real kind of work started for me. You're in the moment you get a suggestion from the audience, and you have to build a whole world from that, right? And so to me, that that was like the biggest training ground. And then with Orphan Black, you get wigs, you get costumes, you get scene partners that are feeding you something different. But, yeah, doing one part is easy.

‘Keeper’ is now playing in theaters.