Our Interview with Tatiana Maslany, Star of Butterfly Tale!

On September 30, Earth Rangers invited families all across Canada to a screening of the new film Butterfly Tale! The movie tells the story of the brave butterflies who make the epic migration from Canada to Latin America and back every year. After catching the movie, our president, Tovah Barocas, sat down with Tatiana Maslany, the star of the movie, who grew up in Saskatchewan! We talked about her favourite memories of growing up on the prairies, her experience of transforming into a butterfly, and her tips for conserving pollinators in your own backyard!

Tovah: First, I just want to say congratulations on the film. We’ve just participated in screenings of the film all across Canada with our Earth Rangers members, so we invited tons of them to come see it. They were in Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Winnipeg. I actually went with my daughter, who loved it. So I’ve actually seen it. Just wondering: how did you feel when you first saw the movie and heard your voice coming out of Jennifer the butterfly’s mouth?

Tatiana: I was a kid who adored animation. I loved cartoons. I loved going to see the latest cartoon that was playing. I would become obsessed. I would watch the VHS [tapes] over and over. So to get to be part of a cartoon was so exciting, and something that was so special and felt like it had a really great message in it and was so beautiful to watch, too. I didn’t get to see it on the big, big screen, but I imagine that seeing that and seeing the monarchs traveling and all of that is quite beautiful on a large screen.

Tovah: Yeah. It was amazing. So, you just talked about your love of animation and why that was so exciting. Was there anything else that led you to take this specific role, something that drew you to the project?

Tatiana: As an actor, I’m always trying to do something that scares me a little or that feels like it’s out of my comfort zone. And again, animation is a new thing for me. It’s a new medium. And so it felt like a challenge for me. And that also like synced up a little bit with Jennifer’s story, who’s a per—I was gonna say person—but she’s a butterfly who is incredibly brave in the face of a lot of fear. And that idea to me is very exciting and a cool character trait to explore. I thought it was really funny too, really cute, and it felt like the movie that kids would become obsessed with, and maybe start to learn about monarchs and get fixated on their life trajectory and all of that.

Tovah: Yeah, totally. It’s a little microcosm of what’s going on in the world more broadly. There’s a lot of challenges and some scary things out there when it comes to climate change and the environment in general. But there’s also so much resilience and communities that come together and actually find ways to overcome it. And that’s what that group of butterflies was doing. So I think that will also really resonate with kids.

Tatiana: Yeah. And to be part of community while not being exactly the same as everyone else. That everyone has their individual challenges or struggles and that you don’t erase those, you embrace them and you embrace our differences and collectively move forward, move together. And that’s the only way that we’re ever gonna tackle these big global problems.

Tovah: Yeah. So you grew up in Saskatchewan, right? Do you have any special memories of exploring nature? Like a favorite park or something that you used to do as a kid?

Tatiana: There’s a park in Regina called Candy Cane Park, and we would bike there every weekend. Before me and my brothers were even big enough to be on a bike, we’d be in the Burley and my dad would bike us around. We would bike all over the city. And that was the thing that we did as fun every weekend. Once we got older, we would be on bicycles. That has stayed a thing that I have loved to do. No matter what city I’m in, regardless of whether it’s a bike-friendly city, I’m on a bicycle. I like to explore a city on bike. It lets you go into parks. It lets you go onto streets. And it’s just so much better in so many ways.

But yeah, there was a hill by our house that felt enormous and it wasn’t, it was a small hill, but we would go sledding down it, and Wascana Lake was [a place where] we would go skating for a long time. Regina Beach—there’s so many places in Saskatchewan that we spent a lot of time exploring.

Tovah: Good that you were able to find a hill. I was gonna say, it’d be fun biking in Saskatchewan ’cause it’s so flat, probably.

Tatiana: [laughing] When I say hill, a tiny hill. To us, it was huge though.

Tovah: So actually, at Earth Rangers, one of the things that we do a lot of is encourage kids to support real life conservation work across Canada so that they can feel involved and really see what goes into being a wildlife biologist, how much opportunity there is to save species. And we’ve done a number of projects in Saskatchewan with the Nature Conservancy of Canada. We’ve actually done projects specifically for the Monarch Butterfly. So we always want to do big things, but also, it’s important for kids to be able to do smaller things in their own lives that really help to protect the environment. So, what do you think kids can do to protect butterflies or other wildlife in their own backyards?

Tatiana: Yeah, getting excited about your garden, helping your mom or dad or your parent build a garden regardless of what your space is. You can do it on a balcony, you can do it in a yard. You don’t need a lot of space to plant local plants, plants that help native species, that help pollinators, so that you can help foster the environment that you’re living in. And I think doing it with your friends, collecting a group of friends who are just as excited about helping protect the environment. ‘Cause again, like what we were saying before, you can do it as an individual, but it’s so much more powerful to do it as a group and it’s more fun.

Tovah: I actually love that scene in the movie where they can’t find any milkweed and it’s like all the food that they were used to being in that location is gone. And then they find one backyard where the people have obviously taken great care to plant pollinator-friendly species. And I’ve seen that. When you plant them, the pollinators come, including the monarchs. And it’s just amazing to be able to have that impact.

Tatiana: Oh, totally. To see the creatures coming to your yard is very exciting. My parents do a lot of planting for birds and for rabbits and for hummingbirds and things like that to like attract them to the yard. And you get the pleasure of seeing those animals and supporting their life, which is amazing.

Tovah: Yeah, totally. What is the coolest fact that you learned about Monarchs while making this film?

Tatiana: That they, with their tiny little bodies and tiny little wings, travel 4,000 to 5,000 kilometers from Southern Canada down to Mexico. Every year. Which is unbelievable, and the most beautiful thing. You can’t fathom the length of that journey for those tiny little creatures and it’s so magical and so incredible.

Tovah. Yeah. You’ve obviously played a lot of different types of characters in your career. How did playing a butterfly compare to some of your other roles? Was there a different way that you approached it?

Tatiana: It was really about collaborating with the director and finding that voice. Most of the roles I’ve played, I’ve gotten to use my body in some way, or I have fellow actors to bounce off of. But when you’re doing an animation like this, you’re all by yourself, so you really have to use your imagination in a different way. And that, to me, also tapped into what it’s like to be a kid. When I grew up in Saskatchewan, I would daydream about where I was and I would make up stories and all of that. And that was one of the funnest things to bring to this part.