Movies

Watch The 'Orphan Black' Comic-Con Panel Moment That Made Tatiana Maslany Cry

Oprhan Black Comic-Con Panel
By Angie Han

It's easy to get jaded about Comic-Con. The food is terrible, the lines are long, and the panels can be hit-or-miss. But every year, there are a few moments that make you drop your cynicism and remember what makes it magical.

One of this year's unexpected highlights came during the Orphan Black Comic-Con panel, when a fan stepped up to share a very personal story about how the show had helped ease her coming-out to her family. The anecdote literally moved Tatiana Maslany to tears. Watch the touching moment after the jump.

But it was the next exchange that really got everyone choking back tears. The fan introduced herself as Taylor and then addressed Maslany and her co-star Jordan Gavaris.

First of all I want to thank you. Before I started watching the show I was really in the closet and I was totally ashamed of who I was. I hated myself. I started watching the show and seeing Cosima and seeing that everything is not about her sexuality and that she is more than her sexuality. My parents weren't okay with me being gay. I started watching the show with my mom and it's helped us start to rebuild our relationship. Because she sees Cosima and shees that it's okay and that people are more than their sexuality. I want to thank you for that.

Taylor then continued: "What's it like to have that effect on people's lives and know that you're changing people's lives and you're making people more comfortable with who they are and you're saving lives like you did for me? So I just wanted to know, what's that like?"

Maslany, who'd been wiping away tears, seemed at a loss for words. "That, I mean..." she began. "That's amazing. I mean, I have no words. That's incredible."

Luckily, Gavaris was able to offer a more eloquent response.

We like to be reductive in life sometimes. I don't know why. But it's a social construct, social trend, whatever you want to call it. We reduce people down to things like sexuality. Their diseases, like cancer or M.S. Or their race. Or their sex. Or their gender. Or whether or not they like Game of Thrones. But that is not who people are. People are complex, as we say in the show. People are diverse. There are much more interesting things to you than your sexuality. Thank you for what you said.

Watch the Q&A portion of the Orphan Black Comic-Con panel below (thanks to True Blood Fan Source for the video). The exchange described above begins around 1:45.

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