Orphan Black star Tatiana Maslany played 14 different clones over the show's five seasons, all with the same face but radically different looks.
BBC sci-fi series Orphan Blackisn't just a gripping story of illegal experiments in human cloning- it also featured an acting tour de force by star Tatiana Maslany. The Canadian actress played five main characters throughout the series, and appeared in many "guest" roles as other clones that they encountered. In the Orphan Black series finale it was revealed that there were 276 Leda clones created in total, and Maslany played 14 of them on-screen.
Created by Graeme Manson and John Fawcett, Orphan Black's story begins with petty criminal Sarah Manning arriving on a train platform and encountering a woman who looks exactly like her. While Sarah is still in shock, the woman commits suicide by stepping in front of a train. Over the course of the next five seasons, Sarah follows the dead woman down a rabbit hole that reveals her own true origins, and puts both her and her daughter in grave danger.
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With Maslany now cast back into the spotlight with the announcement that she'll play the title role in Marvel's She-Hulk Disney+ series, here's a look back at the many differentLeda clones she played in Orphan Black.
Sarah is one of only two clones that escaped Neolution's watchful gaze. Her birth mother, Amelia, escaped before giving birth to her twins. She gave one to the church and one to the state, and Sarah was the twin who went to the state. She ended upin the care of Siobhan Sadler, who moved Sarah and her foster brother, Felix, to America in order to keep Sarah out of the clutches of people who were searching for her. Sarah got her love of punk rock from Siobhan,who sharply pointed out that Sarah "took all of the attitude, none of the politics." from the music. Sarah is the only Leda clone who was able to conceive a child naturally - a miracle, given that the clones were deliberately made sterile - and she loves her daughter Kira intensely.
Police detective Beth Childs was part of the original "Clone Club" alongside Alison Hendrix and Cosima Niehaus, and was using her skills to help piece together the mystery of the clones and the illness that was afflicting some of them. Beth's investigation led her to cross paths with the Proletheans, a group of religious extremists who consider the clones to be abominations. This culminated in Beth killing a Prolethean called Maggie Chen, resulting in her suspension and an internal investigation into the civilian shooting. Between the trauma of the shooting and her unrequited love for her boyfriend and monitor, Paul, Beth's mental health took a downward spiral that eventually took her to the train platform.
Commonly referred to as "The German," poor Katja Obinger's appearance in Orphan Black was short-lived. The newest addition to Clone Club, Katja flew all the way to Canada with documents and samples from clones in Europe. She was suffering from the respiratory illness that afflicted many of the Leda clones, and hoped that with her sisters' help she could find a cure. She soon saw through Sarah's pretense of being Beth, but before she couldfind out who she was really talking to, Helena ended Katja's life with a sniper bullet to the brain.
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Among the files that Katja brings with her are the IDs of several clones around Europewho had already been assassinated by Helena. Aryanna Giordano was a Leda clone raised in Italy, and little else is known about her.
Another of the IDs that Katja brings with her is that of Janika Angler, a clone who was born in Salzburg, Austria. Like Aryanna, Janika is dead before Orphan Black begins, having been assassinated by Helena.
The final European clone assassinated by Helena is Danielle Fournier, who lived in Paris, France. Like the previous two, Danielle only appears in an ID photo and not much is known about her - except that it must have taken some work to get that lovely head of curly hair, given that the clones have naturally straight hair.
Alison Hendrix is the third fellow clone that Sarah meets in the flesh, and she's quickly disillusioned ofany belief that soccer moms aren't scary. Alison is married to her monitor, Donnie, and they have two children that they adopted. Alison is part of the original Clone Club - and since she didn't have police access like Beth or science expertise like Cosima, she contributed to the sisterhood by giving Beth a $75,000 "self-defense fund." Alisonis desperate to just lead a normal life and hates being a clone so much that she tries to forbid use of the word in Clone Club. The name of the club gives a good indication of how successful Alison's efforts were.
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Hippie scientist Cosima leads the charge on trying to find a cure for the clones' mysterious illness, which becomes all the more urgent when she herself starts coughing up blood. Studying for herPh.D. in Experimental Evolutionary Developmental Biology (or "Evo-Devo," as she prefers to call it), Cosima acts as a mediating force between the hot-headed Sarah and the tightly-wound Alison. However, even Cosima lets her emotions get the better of her when she suspects that the attractive Frenchwoman trying to befriend her, Delphine, is a monitor sent by Neolution to keep an eye on her. Cosima's argument that she could learn something by getting close to Delphine and doing a bit of reverse-monitoring is motivated by something a little more primal than the scientific method.
In Orphan Black season 1, Sarah learns from her birth mother that the psycho clone stalking and assassinating the others is actually her twin, Helena. Amelia gave Helena to the church and she ended up in the hands of the Proletheans, who weaponized her against her own sestras. At the start of the series Helena has been brainwashed into thinking that she's the original and all the other clones are aberrations that must be eliminated. Despite her early villainous behavior, however, she ends upbecoming a core member of Clone Club and finding a real family.
Most of the Leda clones were kept oblivious to their true nature (unlike their Castor brothers, who were raised in the military and are self-aware). Rachel Duncan is the exception: a child raised by Neolution. She takes her last name from the scientists Ethan and Susan Duncan, who developed the LEDA and CASTOR cloning projects and brought her up as their own daughter in an apparently loving home. Rachel serves as an example of what the Leda clones strengths - Cosima's intelligence, Sarah's defiance, Alison's fierceness when threatened, and Helena's killer instinct - look like when they take a truly villainous form.
Introduced in Orphan Black season 4 and expanded upon in the comic book series Orphan Black: Helsinki,Veera "M.K." Suominen (referred to affectionately as "Mika" by the Clone Club) is revealed to have been working with Beth to uncover the conspiracy behind the clones. M.K. was hit harder by Beth's suicide than perhaps any of the other clones, as Beth was one of the few people in her life she could trust. Later, M.K. reaches out to the remaining clones to warn them that Neolution is catching up to them.An adept computer hacker, she prefers to communicate via webcam while wearing a sheep mask. Like Cosima, M.K. contracts the respiratory illness that affects so many of the Leda clones. Sadly, she's murdered before Cosima is able to find the cure.
A teacher and swim coach, Jennifer Fitzsimmons was the first of the Leda clones to show signs of the respiratory illness that also affected Cosima and Katja. Cosima is introduced to Jennifer in Orphan Black season 2 via a series of video diaries thatshekept from the start of her illness all the way up until her death. For Cosima, Jennifer is a vision of her own future - one that she gets uncomfortably close to when she performs an autopsy on the deceased clone.
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Though she might seem like a dumb blonde stereotype, manicurist Krsytal Goderitch proves that she has the same drive, boldness, and (admittedly misguided) intelligence as her sisters. After being attacked by Castor clones Rudy and Seth, Krystal comes to realize that there's a conspiracy afoot and starts independently investigating it. Admittedly she gets the details of the conspiracy wrong and decides that it's all part of corruption in the beauty industry, but she got the general picture of powerful people working in the shadows correct. Like the other cloneswho make a living appearance in Orphan Black, Krystal Goderitch is eventually introduced to one of her doubles and told she is a clone. Unlike the other clones, she flat-out dismisses the clone story as nonsense on the basis that Sarah looks nothing like her ("she's like a seven on a good day, and I've been told I'm a ten").
Tony Sawickiis a transgender clone who appears in just one episode of Orphan Black, after his monitor is gunned down and asks him to pass on a message to Beth Childs. This leads Tony to Art, who takes him to Felix's place. A long day of verbal sparring and flirtation ensues, in which it becomes clear thatTony is cut from the same cloth as Sarah in terms of personality as well as genes. Tony is remarkably calm when he finally learns that he's a clone, only commenting on how hot all of the clones are. With the Dyad Institute on his trail, Tony is instructed to get on a bus and get as far away as possible. He's also given a Clone Club phone and told tocall if he ever gets in trouble. Since he never calls, we can optimistically assume that he made a clean escape and started a new life elsewhere.
Miriam is another clone who is only introduced after she's already died. Raised by an alcoholic mother, Miriam ended up living on the streets. She was a musician with a powerful creative streak, but she was unfortunate enough to attract the attention of Rachel when Miriam developed uterine growths. Unwilling to wait for Miriam to die of natural causes, Rachel killed her so that she could examine her body - a callous act that shocked even Aldous Leekie.
In a flashback in Orphan Black season 5, we see the first clone that Helena ever killed. Unfortunately, Helena doesn't stop to ask her name. The sestra is praying in a church when Helena comes up from behind and stabs her in the back. Afterwards, she is visibly shaken to see her own face staring back up at her from the dying woman.
The very last clone to be introduced in Orphan Black, Camilla Torres appearstowards the end of the series finale. She also has the respiratory illness, but is able to receive the cure from Delphine. Cosima is present and eavesdrops while Camilla receives the cure, but chooses to turn her head away when her new sister leaves, leaving her unaware of her clone status.
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Hannah has been with Screen Rant since the heady days of 2013, starting out as a humble news writer and eventually clawing her way up the ladder through a series of Machiavellian schemes and betrayals. She's now a features writer and editor, covering the hottest topics in the world of nerddom from her home base in Oxford, UK.Hannah enjoys weird horror movies, weirder sci-fi movies, and also the movie adaptation of Need for Speed - the greatest video game movie of all time. She has lived and studied in New York and Toronto, but ultimately returned home so that she could get a decent cup of tea. Her hobbies include drawing, video games, long walks in the countryside, and wasting far too much time on Twitter.Speaking of which, you can follow Hannah online at @HSW3K
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Orphan Black: All 17 Clones Tatiana Maslany Played In The Show - Screen Rant
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