How Tatiana Maslany ‘nerds out’ over ‘She-Hulk’

Tatiana Maslany loves that her “She-Hulk” series busts viewers’ expectations.

(Jane Kim / For The Times)

Since adding small-screen stories to its corporate mandate, Marvel Studios has gone in a number of unexpected creative directions. And while the Disney division is no stranger to comedic endeavors, “She-Hulk: Attorney at Law,” is arguably the first real single-camera episodic comedy series it’s produced to date. And the show’s sly wink to the 2001 comedy hit “Legally Blonde” was right up star Tatiana Maslany’s alley.

“I love how much it’s in this structure of a procedural [but] done in such a different way,” Maslany says. “It’s absurd because obviously, the people who are in the courtroom are not your average citizens.”

Maslany loved the script right off the bat and was won over by head writer and creator Jessica Gao and co-stars Ginger Gonzaga and Josh Segarra who, in her words, “don’t necessarily fit into the Marvel thing.”

“We’re not the cool kids,” Maslany insists. “We’re all nerdy artists who care a lot and who loved our characters and loved the story. And that group to me is something that I hold very dear because it doesn’t always happen. You don’t always get to work with people who similarly nerd out over the things that we get to do.”

Set in contemporary Los Angeles, “She-Hulk” centers on Jennifer Walters, a lawyer who gains transformative superhero powers similar to those of her cousin Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) after an alien attack. Walters doesn’t particularly want her new gifts, but reconsiders after she’s hired by an upscale private law firm to run its fledgling superhero division. Her prospective clients? Super-powered individuals battling one lawsuit or another. The catch? She needs to report to work in her She-Hulk form full-time. And with that, the now 6-foot-7-inch green-skinned attorney faces misogyny and objectification like never before.

Mark Ruffalo as Smart Hulk / Bruce Banner and Tatiana Maslany as Jennifer Walters / She-Hulk in Marvel Studios’ “She-Hulk: Attorney at Law.”

(Marvel Studios)

“We talked a lot about what it is to inhabit that body,” Maslany says. “And I think that that stuff is all really delicious and very surface, so you’re not hitting anybody over the head with it. But I think at one point, Jen is like … ‘I’m a target just because I exist.’ And I think that’s, unfortunately, an incredibly relatable feeling to a lot of women, queer people and trans people.”

Best known for her Emmy-winning performance in “Orphan Black,” many will be surprised to learn Maslany has been taking comedy improv classes since she was 7. Despite those skills, she continually finds herself cast in dramatic roles. Perhaps that’s one reason, despite her experience, Maslany says she never had a lot of confidence in doing comedy. She notes, “Anytime I felt like an outsider, or I felt like I didn’t belong, or I felt like whatever, I was like, that’s She-Hulk. That’s totally who she is.”

One element of the show that helped inform her performance was, oddly enough, a motion capture suit.

“The thing about this is that it’s like you literally feel like a baby in pajamas,” Maslany says. “You have a helmet on your head and a camera in front of your face here. It feels so uncool, and I’m supposed to be this superhero. And so that to me is informing everything. That makes me feel like Jen, who is being lumped into this category of superhero when really, she’s like, ‘I’m just a dork and I have no interest in this and I don’t feel comfortable in that world, and why is everyone looking at me.’ It all feeds into it.”

Beyond the visual effects and superhero cameos, one unique aspect of “She-Hulk” is how often Walters breaks the fourth wall and talks to the audience. Many viewers may have assumed it was a motif inspired by Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s beloved “Fleabag,” but the gamma-powered heroine actually did it first. In fact, it’s been an aspect of the character in comic books since the 1980s. Still, Maslany was very cognizant of how natural it all needed to seem for the audience to go along with it.

“There is something irreverent about it. It’s not precious,” Maslany says. “And the lack of preciousness is immediately a relief and a freeing thing. However, talking to the audience is a very important dynamic. And if it’s not done right, they’re like, ‘We don’t care. We don’t want to talk to you.’ And you’re forging a relationship with a bunch of people you don’t know. It’s a really difficult skill, I think.”

Like many comedies, “She-Hulk” has its share of guest stars. The most surprising one, however, was Megan Thee Stallion. And it turns out Maslany was such a fan that Gao held off on giving her a heads-up until two days before filming.

“She didn’t tell me right away because she knew I would basically go into a coma for three weeks,” Maslany says with a laugh. “It was my dream come true. I’ve seen her in concert many times.”

The hip-hop artist’s appearance became something of a polarizing topic for hardcore Marvel fans, but Maslany loved that the show continued to bust viewers’ expectations.

“I think that’s what She-Hulk does,” Maslany says. “And what she’s done since the ‘80s when she popped up in the comics, is kind of take the conventions and sort of pull them apart and sort of poke them and prod them and make them, shake them up.”