The passion of Orphan Black
The cast and crew wrap up the show they came to love with a mixture of sadness and anticipation for the ending
It’s the little Canadian show that could.
For four seasons now, critically acclaimed sci-fi thriller Orphan Black has launched viewers into the world of Sarah Manning, a small-time con artist forced to fight and run for her life (and her daughter’s) after stealing the identity of a dead woman who bears a striking resemblance to her, only to discover the two of them are part of a transcontinental network of clones — and not everyone’s glad they exist.
But like all good things, Orphan Black, too, is coming to an end after its fifth and final season, which begins Saturday at 10 p.m. on Space, a milestone both cast and crew say is bittersweet but will give fans exactly what they’re looking for.
“It’s sad, it’s really sad, but also I’m totally in denial that it’s happening,” lead actress and producer Tatiana Maslany told reporters during a set visit in February. The Regina native has won 15 awards, including an Emmy, for her work on the show, where she has portrayed almost as many clones.
“(There’s) lots of crying, lots of group texts about how much we love each other,” she said. “You start being like, ‘Oh, is this the last time we see this character? . . . Is this the last time we’re going to be on this set?’ It’s pretty bizarre, surreal.”
Co-star Kristian Bruun, who plays Donnie, the husband (and monitor) of clone Alison Hendrix, also admitted to getting a little dewy-eyed between takes but said it was nice to finally be able to tie up all of the show’s remaining loose ends.
“It’s a heavy show and it’s a heavier season than most, because we’ve got to get to a lot of answers and the answers aren’t necessarily always happy . . . (but) it’s time to get those answers,” he said. “Like, how long can you string an audience?”
For director John Fawcett and writerproducer Graeme Manson, wrapping up Orphan Black has been on their minds since Season 3, but having the end in sight hasn’t meant slacking off — if anything, it’s motivated everyone to work even harder to ensure a proper send-off.
“The passion we have for this project carried us through10 years of trying to get it made,” Fawcett said. “And you know, (usually) after two or three years you start to lose a little interest in projects that don’t go anywhere, but this one just didn’t ever fail us. We were always excited about trying to (get it made).”
Manson agreed, recalling screening a promo clip for Season 1 right after shooting had wrapped to what was a lukewarm reception at best.
“I think the first journalists were like, ‘So, clones are over. How are you going to make this clone thing interesting?’ ” Manson said with a laugh.
Both had high praise for Maslany and how she helped shape the show into what it is today.
“She certainly sets our bar,” Fawcett said. “She sets the bar for our whole crew, for the writers, the depth of the story.”
Besides the onscreen talent, Orphan Black also has a host of people working behind the scenes to bring the story to life, including a visual effects team whose responsibilities include stitching together separate takes of Maslany as different characters into one smooth shot — say, Alison pouring wine into Cosima’s glass in Season 1, or the clone dance party from Season 2 — or creating a CGI helicopter so realistic other shows call up to ask where they rented it from.
“I’ve never said, ‘No, it can’t be done,’ ” Orphan Black VFX supervisor Geoff Scott said, but added that “possible” doesn’t mean “easy”: the dance party involved days of planning and mapping before shooting even started, and the fight scene between Rachel and Sarah in the Season 4 finale took weeks to edit together.
The studio where the majority of the series has been filmed is tucked away just east of Toronto’s downtown core and, from the outside, appears to be little more than a cluster of warehouses. It looks about as inconspicuous on the inside too — freezing, dark and slightly smoky — until you peek inside the massive wooden boxes packed onto the floor and find, perhaps, an industrial loft apartment covered in art, a well-stocked craft room with plenty of glue gun sticks or a suburban home’s garage with a piece of plywood conveniently covering a hole in the floor.
Space and budget constraints also means sets get repurposed over and over again — one wooden box in particular has served as Det. Art Bell’s apartment, Alison’s rehab room, Rachel’s hotel room, fellow clone Krystal’s apartment and a seedy-looking hotel room whose purpose, for now, remains a secret.
But on one particular day in February, just one box had about two dozen crew members buzzing in and around it as Maslany, in Cosima Niehaus mode, and co-star Évelyne Brochu as Dr. Delphine Cormier sat on a bed in a cosy, “sunlit” bedroom, a laptop in front of them and two massive cameras trained on their faces.
The atmosphere felt casual as the crew chatted among themselves, but Maslany and Brochu were focused on the laptop, as if something serious was playing out on it instead of a blank, black screen.
And then, someone yelled, “Rehearsing!” and everyone instantly fell into place; a fan, or perhaps a generator, that was buzzing loudly overhead was cut, leaving the entire warehouse eerily silent.
The cameras were rolling. Maslany spoke first.