Tatiana Maslany Explains the Softer Side of Marvel's She-Hulk Series: 'It's Unapologetically Girly' (2024)

Although Tatiana Maslany is playing a 6'7" superhero in Marvel's new series She-Hulk: Attorney at Law — and a Hulk no less — the actress says the Disney+ show tackles a lot more about femininity and realistic workplace dynamics than one might expect.

"There is a joyful femininity that exists in this show," Maslany, 36, tells PEOPLE. "There's a real play with femininity, and a real love for it that doesn't always exist in this world, or in our world. It's unapologetically girly, and I really love that."

In the show, Maslany plays hardworking Los Angeles attorney Jennifer Walters whose life is forever changed when an accident gives her superpowers similar to those of her cousin Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo).

The actress says she loved being able to play "normal" human Jennifer along with superpowered 6'7" She-Hulk — most of which she performed in a motion-capture suit.

"There were certainly physical things that I came up with, with the stunt team, because they were also playing She-Hulk in certain moments," she explains of finding her character's mobility. "And so we came up with, 'What's her walk? How confident is she in this moment? How much is she owning her strength, and her power in the space she's taking up?' Or, 'How much is she apologizing for it? How much does she feel kind of a fraud?' All of these ways that you can manifest that in your body physically, is sort of more what we were curious about digging into."

She continues: "I hadn't really intellectualized it, but it had happened in my body. There's a grounded-ness to She-Hulk in her body. Even if she's like, 'I don't really know what I'm doing.' There's just a weight to her body that holds her differently, and that she holds differently."

"She is more landed inside of her body than Jen is. I think Jen desperately wants to be in her body," she adds. "She's very sensual, and wants to go on dates, and make out. But she's a little bit up in her head, and She-Hulk kind of grounds her a bit more."

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The Orphan Black alum loved the experience working on the show with her female-led cast and crew. The series was created by Jessica Gao (Rick and Morty, Silicon Valley) and also stars Ginger Gonzaga, Jameela Jamil, along with some familiar Marvel movie faces, like Ruffalo, 54.

"Mark has a deep want to always be playing, always," says Maslany of working with Ruffalo. "It truly felt like we were two kids who got to be superheroes, and he was trying to tell me what to do, and I'm fighting him on it. This is on camera."

"Off camera, we're exchanging stories about what it's like to be in that mo-cap suit, and even enter the MCU, what that feels like," she continues. "And he's super open, he's got so much integrity, he's just a really wonderful, kind person. And he's absolutely in the moment at all times. So it was the greatest joy to get to work with him."

With production on season 1 of She-Hulk wrapped, Maslany will next star in the AMC drama Invitation to a Bonfire, based on the book of the same name. She says she is feeling especially lucky with her career trajectory at the moment.

"After Orphan Black I did Broadway for a year, and did off-Broadway before that for four months. So I did almost two years of straight theater, and that's the best, to get to mix it up that much," she explains. "It's an incredibly difficult industry, and I have so many friends who after COVID, as we're coming out of it and things have changed, have really lost their connection to it because they're not able to do it. Because the jobs aren't there, because offers go out to famous people before they go out to people who are working actors."

Adds Maslany: "So I feel an incredible amount of gratitude for my career and what I get to do, and it is not lost on me at all that I am incredibly lucky to be in this position."

She-Hulk: Attorney at Law is now streaming on Disney+.