We haven’t talked about Tatiana Maslany in a minute, but she’s still around and she’s still booking work. Which is good news, because she’s one of the most talented and hard-working actresses around. Tatiana has seven projects coming up (according to her IMDB), and she recently chatted with the Hollywood Reporter to promote one of those projects, a crime thriller called Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed. Because of her background working for Marvel/Disney, THR asked her about the 2023 strikes and the “rise of AI,” especially on many of the bigger studio productions. She had some great stuff to say – as it turns out, she wasn’t part of that dumb “ladies need to get involved with AI” meeting.
She didn’t have a real audition for Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed: “It’s wackadoo that we’re not doing real auditions anymore. I think self-tapes make people so self-conscious. They need to be able to be fearless and unencumbered and not worried about what their face looks like — that’s the whole f–king job.”
Advocating for herself & the crew: After She-Hulk came the writers and actors strikes, which she credits for waking her up to the power of collective labor. Now, she’s better at advocating for herself on set and also makes a concerted effort to understand the experiences of every single worker in a production. “You get paid good money on big studio productions, but actors’ contracts are a totally different thing than everybody else’s and I have trouble talking about that because I feel like the double standard is so intense,” she says. “A lot of Marvel stuff is non-union for the crew, so any luxuries go only to the actors.”
On AI: She has conversations about this with many of her fellow actors, about how to work in this field that’s getting swallowed up by conglomerates without feeling like you’re part of a larger system that you can’t abide by. “So much is changing so quickly, and that’s why things like ‘the inevitability of AI’ — I’m putting that in quotes — are bullsh-t,” she says. “It’s not inevitable. It’s a thing we’re being as sold as, it’s inevitable and it’s coming for our jobs, and it doesn’t have to. We don’t have to succumb to that. We can advocate for real people, for labor law, for the rights of all workers.” Now, Maslany gives extra attention to the way that any production operates, like whether they offer points on the backend to the entire crew.
It sounds like the bare minimum, but it’s NOT. Tatiana is one of the very few above-the-line Hollywood types saying AI is bullsh-t, they’re feeding you a line about AI’s “inevitability,” people need to fight for human workers and workers’ rights. Call ‘em out, Tatiana!! She’s absolutely right. I have a conspiracy that for a lot of actors above a certain age, they feel like AI is not their battle to fight – like, they came up pre-AI and reaped the rewards, and now it’s up to younger actors and younger filmmakers to fight AI (or not, in many cases).
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.
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- HOLLYWOOD, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, USA – MARCH 31: Tatiana Maslany arrives at the Los Angeles Premiere Of AMC+’s ‘The Audacity’ Season 1 held at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences – Linwood Dunn Theater on March 31, 2026 in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, United States.,Image: 1087998519, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no , Pictured: Tatiana Maslany , Credit line: Xavier Collin/Image Press Agency/Avalon
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- Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other actors join SAG AFTRA picket line at Netflix headquarters. Featuring: Tatiana Maslany Where: New York, New York, United States When: 24 Jul 2023 Credit: Janet Mayer/startraksphoto.com
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- Los Angeles Apple TV press day at Barker Hangar Featuring: Tatiana Maslany Where: California, United States When: 03 Feb 2026 Credit: Dave Starbuck/Future Image/Cover Images **NOT FOR PUBLICATION IN GERMANY**
If AI movies sell tickets, it’s inevitable.
In other words, capitalism makes it inevitable.
It’s inevitable because the billionaires (including the tech oligarchs) rule the world. Tatiana is right when she says labor unions are the only way workers have a chance to fight the AI takeover. This is why we need to elect pro-union, pro-labor politicians into office–people who aren’t taking money from the tech industry–because that’s how we get AI regulation and worker protection.
Love Tatiana. Love. Love love. My favorite Canadians are saying it out loud. As Hudson once said, “F-ck AI. F-ck it so hard. Just f-ck it to death. It’s AI. It sucks.” That’s the kind of energy I prefer to hear. And btw I really liked She-hulk.
Marvel is mostly non-union for crew?? That is really surprising, and I wonder why this isn’t more public knowledge and why Marvel doesn’t get more shiite for working with non-union.
Also, everything Tatiana Maslany is saying makes me respect her so so much! She seems smart and not stuck in some privileged actor/actress bubble.
A lot of Marvel has been filmed in Atlanta and the uk which can change whether the crew is union or not. TBH, not many films are even being made in LA anymore. Tyrant with Charlize Theron and Julia Garner is one of the few studios ones being filmed in LA right now.
“I have a conspiracy that for a lot of actors above a certain age, they feel like AI is not their battle to fight – like, they came up pre-AI and reaped the rewards, and now it’s up to younger actors and younger filmmakers to fight AI (or not, in many cases).”
That does seem to at least be a possibility.
Though I really wish that anyone who thinks it’s not their battle to fight would kindly take a seat and not use their platform to proclaim “it’s inevitable, stop resisting you plebes” when someone sticks a microphone in their faces. (That recent spate of famous actresses spouting very similar words was … odd at the very least)
TM is a brilliant actress and I love that she’s calling this ish out.
And here we have a working actress who is not at the level of fame like Reese, Sandra or Demi saying this. It is all very sus, those extremely successful, rich, influential actresses touting AI’s inevitability vs. someone who is working and doing well but is not a household name.
Hell yes, Tatiana! She is a real one. She also posted about ABC/Disney during the Jimmy Kimmel cancellation, despite her being a part of the MCU.
I agree with Kaiser that there is a whiff of older actors (especially those who are now involved more in the production side of things) accepting the inevitability of AI more readily than those who are currently working to establish name recognition. Like, now that they are at the top of the ladder they’re fine with closing the trap door behind them and letting whoever remains fight for their livelihoods.
I sort of wonder if it’s a fear / envy thing. Because of the way that producers and executives attack the appearance of older actors, or don’t hire them, or the actors’ own insecurity about appearing onscreen … there can be this sense that AI can fix what surgery can’t re: your being able to obtain work. For some people, it could even be revenge.
As you say, it’s a lot of “I got mine; glad I don’t have to deal with that; good luck!” while secretly having an excuse now when they can’t get new jobs. It’s no longer fear of time passing: it’s ‘ah, well, AI came for our jobs.’ Shrug emoji.