UPDATE: In the same interview, Maslany came out against the Paramount Warner Bros. merger, joining Mark Ruffalo.
Tatiana Maslany is going viral again.
The She-Hulk: Attorney at Law star appeared on Zeteo‘s We’re Not Kidding podcast with Mehdi Hasan, where she admitted a lot of Marvel fans don’t like her, revealed she was never a Marvel fan in the first place, and called out Tom Selleck and Michael Jordan in a clip that has topped 2 million views on X.
‘A Lot of People Really Don’t Like Me on That Marvel Show’
Hasan told Maslany he first became familiar with her through She-Hulk and asked if it bothers her when people bring up the Marvel show over her Emmy-winning work on Orphan Black.
“No, ’cause a lot of people really don’t like me on that Marvel show,” Maslany said. “So to hear that people enjoyed it…”
When Hasan said his daughters loved the series, Maslany joked, “That’s my target demo.”
Asked if she was a Marvel fangirl before landing the role, Maslany answered flat out: “No.”
“I knew what She-Hulk was, but I wasn’t reading those comics,” she said. “I was reading, like, Archie comics.”
She also admitted she has only “a vague idea” of what Infinity War and Endgame even are.
“The problem with me is that when I watch stuff with a lot of CG, I fall asleep,” Maslany said.
Maslany continued, “I pass out in movies with, like, a lot of action, with a lot of plot, and with a lot of, like, this universe connects to this one. I’m just like, oh man, give me a kitchen sink drama.”
She even told Marvel as much at her audition: “I was like, ‘You guys, I’m not right for this.’ They’re like, ‘You’re hired.'”
‘Literally Don’t Know What You’re Talking About’
Hasan closed the episode with a rapid-fire Marvel quiz, and Maslany owned up to knowing next to nothing.
She said She-Hulk beats the Hulk in a fight, answered “neither” when asked whether she sees the world through Captain America or Iron Man (“I always pick a little Groot”), and said she would play Baby Groot or Wolverine if she could play any other Marvel hero.
Asked whether she would rather be blipped away or survive the snap, Maslany admitted, “Literally don’t know what you’re talking about.”
She guessed The Phantom Thread when asked to name a DC movie, though she does love Batman thanks to the 1966 Adam West series.
“I would watch it so close to the TV that I could feel the static on my face,” she said.
‘Everything Is Political’
The viral moment came when Hasan brought up Tom Selleck’s recent CNN interview, where the Magnum, P.I. star said he doesn’t “dabble in politics” because he doesn’t understand why you’d want to “piss off half the country” when your job is entertaining the country.
Hasan also pointed to Michael Jordan’s old line about Republicans buying sneakers.
Maslany wasn’t buying either excuse.
“But all of it is political. Like everything is political,” she said. “All entertainment is political because it has a viewpoint.”
Maslany continued, “To me, those are two very rich men who stand to lose a lot if they stand up for something. That’s the real reason.”
She added that “art should destabilize people,” joking that she’s not expecting Magnum, P.I. to “really disturb people on a core level,” before summing it up: “It’s such a bizarre mentality. It’s so cowardly.”
The Marvel talk comes as Maslany’s She-Hulk future remains an open question.
Back in May, she said she would still return as Jennifer Walters if Marvel found the right spot for the character, months after mocking rumors she was cut from Avengers: Doomsday.
Up next, Maslany is on stage in Boston in Rhinoceros alongside John Turturro and Paul Giamatti, which she called “the creative experience of my little life.”
