When it came to casting the star of Orphan Black, Tatiana Maslany was a no-brainer. Having auditioned countless young actresses, many of whom were good in different ways, they went with the one who managed to nail every single of the clone characters she was asked to read for: she had the dialects, accents, differences in performances down from day one. However, whilst it's now impossible to imagine anyone by Maslany headlining this show, she nearly didn't get the job. That's because there was originally somebody else in line for the lead role. That somebody was Ellen Page, star of Juno, X-Men: Days Of Future Past and Inception. Apparently it had come down to two choices: Maslany, who had actually auditioned; and Page, a more pie-in-the-sky dream choice, considering bonfaide Hollywood stars don't often star in BBC America original series. The two do have a lot in common. They come from similar backgrounds, were both born in Canada, and are both very genre-friendly. Eventually director and co-creator John Fawcett came back to Maslany, who briefly appeared in his Ginger Snaps 2: It was really hard, finding someone who you'd say, 'Oh wow, this person did it all, all of it.' Just across the board, all the different characters."
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
