My sexuality isn’t me as an object to be looked at. It’s the way I say “hello” to somebody, the way I sit with somebody. A body is just a body. But we’re really afraid of bodies. They hold a lot of power—I think that’s why people can try to shame them so easily, because they are so powerful.
Do you see the show as a feminist piece?
I think so, though I don’t think that was the motive from the start. It was intended to be this exploration of nature/nurture, and a lead role like that may not normally go to a woman. Women aren’t often the default in movies, TV, media—there’s often very limited space for them. But it’s exciting to mine these stories and see a show that puts women at the center of it.Tatiana Maslany for The New York Times
Wavy-haired and theatrically dirty, Maslany spoke in Sarah’s lower-class British accent between takes. (She kept it up until they broke for lunch.) She was warm and self-assured and modest and frank. She exuded a contagious ease. In our very first conversation, we bonded over the unsung virtues of the adult onesie. “I had one that had the butt-flap until after high school,” she told me.
- “I like the tough girls because they are not tough. It’s a veil; it’s a disguise. It’s defenses. At the core, everybody is human, everybody is fragile, everybody is terrified, and the fear is what propels you to be tough.”

She (Alison Clone) is so much fun to play. She was like the one in the audition that I was most terrified of pulling out because for some reason she highlights everything about myself that I’m embarrassed about. Like be controlling or a perfectionist or uptight. Or holier-than-thou. All that stuff that I am embarrassed to admit that I am, like small-town. It’s like she’s kind of a clown version of a large part of me. So she was super-fun to play for that reason.
IM FIEN
“I try to get roles that challenge me in what I can do and who I think I can portray. For me, it’s about creating characters with really fascinating stories, because that’s what I like to watch on TV.”
“Sci-fi sheds light on what’s going on in society, albeit in a kind of fantastical world. It is resonant with what’s actually happening, but I think people overlook it because it’s not very on-the-nose.”

I’m attracted to stories that excite my imagination, stories that, as I’m reading the script, I feel it, I can see it, I can hear the characters. I’m attracted to characters that are real, that tap into something inside me that I haven’t explored yet.
“There’s so many different people that I’m fascinated by. Different kinds of characters that I meet in, like, everyday life, that I’m like, ‘I don’t know how you exist. Like, you’re so fascinating.”
- miranda
- 17
- she/her
- usa/pa
- relatable teen
- plays violin
- runs sometimes
- takes naps to avoid responsibility
- former whovian trash, currently aesthetic trash