19 "She-Hulk: Attorney At Law" Behind-The-Scenes Facts You Might Not Know, But Probably Should
?? There are BIG spoilers ahead for She-Hulk: Attorney At Law Episodes 1–4! ??
1.She-Hulk: Attorney at Law is Marvel's first comedy series and the show is largely inspired by Jon Byrne's She-Hulk comic book run, which creator Jessica Gao describes as "fun and light."
"There was never a question of whether or not the show should be a comedy. To me, comedy is quintessential She-Hulk," Jessica explained to BuzzFeed. "The Jon Byrne comic run was the one that made me fall in love with this character in the first place. What was so great about that run was that it was so fun and light. There was this great levity to it that you weren't used to if you read a lot of superhero comics, because, you know most superhero comics are very action-oriented, very dramatic, a lot of them tend to get heavy. It's a lot of serious men dealing with serious issues. This run of She-Hulk comics was such a breath of fresh air to have this fun, irreverent, female-forward comic about this woman who, even if she was dealing with saving the city or saving the universe, she was doing it with this lightness to her."
2.In fact, the biggest thing when it came to making She-Hulk a comedy was demonstrating the idea that in wild situations, most people deal with them using humor.
"This idea really rang true to me because I feel like realistically, most people deal with bonkers situations and trauma with humor," Jessica continued. "That's how most of us process it and that's why people become comedy writers. We don't want to deal with our lifelong trauma any other way."
3.Jessica called adapting the She-Hulk comics into a TV series "a dream." She always wanted to write a Marvel movie, but once the MCU started doing shows, she knew this was her time. Prior to this, Jessica is best known for writing the iconic "Pickle Rick" episode of Rick & Morty, which earned her an Emmy Award in 2018.
Speaking about working on a Marvel series, Jessica told BuzzFeed, "It's the kind of thing where as a TV writer, you think that would be so fun to do, and never thinking that you actually would be able to do it. Especially since making TV shows is so relatively new to Marvel." She continued, saying, "I'd wanted to write a Marvel movie forever because I was such a fan of the movies and because they only made movies. I thought that was the one dream that I could have. So when they started making TV shows I was like, Now is my time!"
4.Speaking about working with Tatiana Maslany, Jessica said she "can't imagine anybody else playing She-Hulk," and right from the start, Tatiana worked tirelessly to bring Jennifer/She-Hulk to life onscreen.
"Tatiana is perfect. She's an angel sent from above, and she can do no wrong. She really is just magic," Jessica said. "I truly can't imagine anybody else playing She-Hulk at this point. It's such a difficult process shooting the show and she's so professional. She's so good at what she does, like all of her skills are so fine-tuned. It's really, really incredible to watch."
5.In fact, Tatiana was able to bring her skills from Orphan Black to She-Hulk when it came to playing Jennifer Walters and She-Hulk. Jessica said she made playing these two characters "look so easy" even though she makes them feel like two different people.
Speaking about Tatiana's performance, Jessica said, "From the first moment she stepped on set, she really infused this character into a real person. You really believe Jennifer and you think that it could be somebody that I know in my real life. I think Tatiana makes the character so relatable and that's exactly what you want. What's wonderful about her is just the nuances that she brings to this character, like you can see the very subtle shifts and changes in her and when she has these emotional ups and downs. It's just so wonderful. And then, she's so funny on top of that too."
6.One of Jessica's favorite scenes that really shows the subtle differences Tatiana worked on between Jen and She-Hulk is when Jen suddenly feels rejected after her one night stand is only interested in She-Hulk in Episode 4.
"I love that moment because it's so heartbreaking, but Tatiana doesn't overdo it," she explained. "Like, you can tell it's hurting her, but she's trying to cover it up and kind of put on a brave face. She's trying to brush it off with humor. But that means it really, really got to her. It's a beautifully done moment."
7.The Episode 1 post-credit scene, which features Jen hilariously finding out that Steve Rogers/Captain America did have sex, was born out of the writers being huge Marvel fans and having discussions about the MCU amongst each other.
"It's one of my favorite things ever because in the writers room, we naturally talked amongst ourselves and with our friends about some of these Marvel things," Jessica recalled. "Most of us were MCU fans and over the years as you watch movie after movie, of course you start talking to your other nerd friends about gossip and picking things apart and bringing up questions. Then, as comedy writers, you naturally start poking fun at a lot of the details and things. So all of that stuff we spent years just in our own lives talking about and within the writers room. We just brought all of that in and minded it for content, basically."
8.Originally, the first She-Hulk episode was going to be the eighth episode, aka the penultimate episode, of the season. The second episode is so short because it had to be edited and tweaked once it was no longer the pilot.
"The first episode that aired was't originally meant to be the pilot. It was actually going to be the eighth episode of the season. And the second episode was actually the original pilot," Jessica explained. "I mean, it's missing some scenes now, but I cut it up to make it the second episode, that's why it's short. But that used to be the original pilot where we were really just going to start the show in a situation where this thing of her becoming a Hulk has already happened to her. She's been trying to process it and she hasn't completely accepted it. Then, over the course of the season, as she's starting to accept it, toward the end of the season was when you were going to get the full story."
9.In fact, there was a lot of discussion about whether or not the first She-Hulk episode needed to be an origin story. However, once Jessica realized some fans wouldn't know a lot about Jennifer Walters before the show, they decided to pivot and put Jen becoming She-Hulk for the first time in Episode 1.
She elaborated, saying, "There were a lot of discussions back and forth about whether or not we needed to really start with an origin story. So pretty late in the game, the decision was made to then move that episode and kind of change things around so we could start with an origin story so people weren't waiting so long. I do think that I underestimated, or took for granted, that everybody would know She-Hulk as well as I did. A lot of people are coming into the show having never heard of her, knowing nothing about her, and having never read the comics. So they needed to get a little bit of grounding initially at the beginning."
10.Jen's hilarious fourth wall breaks in She-Hulk were Jessica's favorite thing to include, and it's something that was taken directly from the She-Hulk comics.
"Fourth wall breaks are my favorite thing ever," Jessica began. "If I had my druthers, I mean I did but, I would put fourth wall breaks into every single scene. I'd do it all the time if I could. I think we overdid it because of my own desires. We were told to pull it back, like the whole show couldn't just be Jennifer talking to the audience."
11.And Jessica says the fourth wall breaks work so well in She-Hulk because Tatiana is so good at them. She loves that when Tatiana looks at the camera, "you really feel like she's talking to you and that you're her friend."
She said, "There's this really wonderful friendliness and intimacy to it. You really felt like she brought you into her inner circle for a minute and she's sharing stuff with you that she's not sharing with everybody else in her world."
12.She-Hulk gives several MCU actors, like Mark Ruffalo and Benedict Wong, a chance to explore their characters in a comedy setting. This is one of the few times Hulk and Wong get to be funny and not "worry about the fate of the universe."
![<div><p>"It was just so fun to be able to do that, like what could be more fun than taking these characters that you only know a lot of times from these very dramatic and also intense situations, and letting them just be chill in normal everyday kind of scenarios," Jessica said. "What was great was they were all super game to do it. They all got that this was a fun comedy vacation. They got to come in, take a break, and explore the silly side of these characters. Benny [Wong] is so funny. He immediately knew exactly the right tone to play as Wong. I mean, his pairing with Madisynn is so good."</p></div><span> Marvel / Disney+</span>](https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/qgl39sDhh07F7vttcW8Nxg--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTEyMTA-/https://media.zenfs.com/en/buzzfeed_articles_778/c80b0f02720e1a4153479ec9746af774)
"It was just so fun to be able to do that, like what could be more fun than taking these characters that you only know a lot of times from these very dramatic and also intense situations, and letting them just be chill in normal everyday kind of scenarios," Jessica said. "What was great was they were all super game to do it. They all got that this was a fun comedy vacation. They got to come in, take a break, and explore the silly side of these characters. Benny [Wong] is so funny. He immediately knew exactly the right tone to play as Wong. I mean, his pairing with Madisynn is so good."
13.Everyone on the She-Hulk set was in awe of how kind and amazing Mark Ruffalo is. Jessica said he's the "nicest dude" and when he snaps into actor mode, it's an incredible thing to watch.
Jessica explained, "Mark is such a delight. Like, he is the nicest, nicest dude. Just so easy to get along with. And it's so funny because you meet him and he's just so chill and nice. Then, when he snaps into it and goes full Ruffalo, you're like, Oh, that's why he's one of the greatest actors of his generation. He just instantly does it and you're just amazed at how good he is."
14.One of the most important relationships in She-Hulk is between Jennifer and Nikki, and the writers wanted to make sure that their friendship felt "real" and "lived in," which is why there are several moments where Nikki and Jen are simply sitting on a couch, each on their phones, but talking to each other. That depiction of female friendship felt the most authentic.
"I really love Jen and Nikki's friendship on the show because to really paint this portrait of a real woman and her life, like her closest female friendship is going to be front and center and very important. We wanted to show a very real and lived in feeling friendship where you really felt like, 'Oh, these two women have known each other for years. They're each other's ride-or-dies, they're comfortable with each other,'" Jessica explained. "It was important to show that they're comfortable in silence with each other and I love that. We have scenes where they're just on the couch and they're not even looking at each other. That's real friendship, honestly. You're both on your phone or a computer, you're not really talking to each other, but you're just enjoying being next to that person. That's when you know a friendship is real. We didn't want it to feel like a staged TV friendship where they're sitting, staring at each other, and holding Chardonnay."
15.Ginger Gonzaga improvised the line in Episode 3 when she tells Jennifer that she sent Wong a thirst trap and it was just a picture of her holding a bunch of books.
Speaking about Ginger's exceptional comedic timing, Jessica said, "Ginger Gonzaga is just so great. I love her so much. She's so funny. She's the best kind of actor for comedy because it makes my job as a writer so much easier. Like, if I was ever writing a scene for Ginger, I could've just phone it in, because I would be so confident that in Ginger's hands, it would have elevated like a garbage scene. She would elevate it to the funniest thing ever. Her brain goes 1,000 miles a minute and every take she'll give you a different joke. It's really incredible."
16.Jameela Jamil is the one who helped She-Hulk land Megan Thee Stallion for her hilarious cameo in Episode 3. Jameela and Megan worked together on Legendary, and she reached out to see if Megan would be up for playing herself in She-Hulk.
17.Tatiana and Megan Thee Stallion filmed the twerking post-credit scene for "a very long time" and Jessica hopes that someday Marvel releases all the extra footage they got.
"It was the happiest moment of probably all our lives, especially for Tatiana, who is the biggest Megan fan in the universe," she explained. "It went on for a very long time. Like, I hope they release the behind the scenes because they danced for so long. It was wonderful. And I'm sure that Tatiana would've gone for hours if she could've."
And here are some behind-the-scenes pics of the moment because it's truly my favorite thing ever:
18.The reason Titania is the central villain for She-Hulk: Attorney at Law is because in the comics she's the only villain that was created specifically for She-Hulk. Jessica loved the idea of modernizing the character who felt perfect for a social media age.
"In the comics, She-Hulk shared a lot of villains with a lot of other Marvel superheroes, but Titania was very uniquely hers. She also had this weird fixation on her and this weird rivalry with her that was very one-sided, and it's so fun to play with that. I just felt like that character was very ripe for modernization because in our real world, Titania would, of course, be heavily a social media-type influencer, and Jamila totally got it," Jessica said. "Like, she knew exactly how to play this character and the weird, dynamic undertones because Titania and She-Hulk. Jameela is so good opposite Tatiana in this role."
19.And finally, if Jessica could give any She-Hulk character a spinoff series, it would be Madisynn, who arrives in Episode 4 and instantly becomes infatuated with Wong.
![<div><p>"I could watch Wong and Madisynn together for six seasons and a movie," Jessica joked. "Patty [Guggenheim] is one of the funniest actors out there. She's such a gifted improviser, like give Madisynn a Marvel show, please."</p></div><span> Marvel / Disney+</span>](https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/cpE9QyFGXzYCXtv57.zDnA--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTEyMDg-/https://media.zenfs.com/en/buzzfeed_articles_778/6f8875462fdf8aa4002c74097acd4b7d)
"I could watch Wong and Madisynn together for six seasons and a movie," Jessica joked. "Patty [Guggenheim] is one of the funniest actors out there. She's such a gifted improviser, like give Madisynn a Marvel show, please."
She-Hulk: Attorney At Law is streaming now on Disney+.
More on She-Hulk:
- Megan Thee Stallion in She Hulk
"She-Hulk" Creator Jessica Gao Says It Was The "Happiest Moment" When Megan Thee Stallion Agreed To Be On The ShowNora Dominick · Sept. 1, 2022
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- Tatiana Maslany as Jennifer Walters and She-Hulk
19 "She-Hulk" Details From Episode 1 That Are Small And Funny, But You Might've Missed Them The First TimeNora Dominick · Aug. 18, 2022
