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Kat Coiro directs six of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law’s nine episodes (Anu Valia helms episodes 5-7) and serves as executive producer on the Disney+ Marvel series starring Tatiana Maslany. Ahead of the show’s much-anticipated premiere, STARBURST had the pleasure of speaking with Coiro about finding the series’ comedic tone, controversies surrounding She-Hulk’s physicality and design, and what the hero’s journey has to say about women’s lived experiences.

STARBURST: She-Hulk is the MCU’s first outright comedy, and it’s also the first time an MCU character has broken the fourth wall. What can you tell us about creating the show’s tone and how it differs from the rest of the MCU?

Kat Coiro: Well, the scripts lean very heavily into comedy, and I always felt like my job was finding that balance between this very new, fresh, comedic world and also ensuring it fits into the MCU visually – that it has cinematic scope. In some ways, those two things are very different from an execution point of view because, for comedy to work, you need looseness, and you need to let actors play, improvise, explore, and go off-script.

But when you’re dealing with big action sequences and CGI characters, that requires a lot of preparation and some rigidity. And so, it was always about, where can we find these big cinematic moments? And where can we find these little, intimate moments of banter and character development?

An exciting aspect of Jennifer Walters’ transformation into She-Hulk is how she enjoys her sexual power in her new body. How did you ensure that her transformation and expression never played to the male gaze, which often defines her comic book portrayal?  

So much of She-Hulk’s journey is about how, unlike the Hulk, she maintains her self-consciousness, self-awareness, and a general sense of self and identity. But then you take this woman, who is very happy with her existence and lives a pretty rigid life, and suddenly she is perceived entirely differently by the outside world. There’s a moment we explored in the first episode – after she transforms inside Bruce’s machine and steps out – where she feels out this new body and this long hair and starts to enjoy the idea of being in a new form.

We questioned: what does it mean to retain your sense of identity while also being perceived in a wholly different way? Part of her journey is enjoying that, enjoying taking up space, enjoying turning all heads when she walks into a room and having people take notice of her in a way they never did when she was a regular woman.

And in your mind, what’s that saying about women at large?

I think it’s just an extreme version of what we all experience. If you put on a great outfit and do your hair, you feel very differently than you do wearing your sweatpants and having just rolled out of bed. Neither is good nor bad, but how you walk through the world is different. And so, Jen’s She-Hulk transformation is an extreme version of what we all experience on a daily basis.

There was one scene I think many women will enjoy, where a guy spends the night with She-Hulk, wakes up in the morning to Jennifer’s human form and goes, “who are you?”. Moments like that clearly telegraph women’s presence behind the camera.  

There were so many discussions about the female gaze versus the male gaze. We wanted her to be sexy and fun and to start to enjoy this liberty and this ability to live life differently. I always thought it was fascinating to see how She-Hulk affects Jennifer Walters, because you don’t need to be big and green and have long hair to feel that inner confidence and to feel like you can walk into a room and take charge. And so part of the conversation was also, how does this affect Jennifer?

In a similar vein, what would you say to people who have complained about She-Hulk being too small or not muscular enough in their eyes?

I would say it’s part of the systemic tearing apart of women’s bodies. I guarantee that if we had made her bulkier, we would have gotten complaints about that. We drew on real-life, strong women and Olympic athletes. Misty Copeland was someone we talked about a lot. We also had on our set a woman who is six-foot-seven, who was our body double and reference. We’re not used to seeing women who are that tall and take up that much space, and we wanted She-Hulk to feel like she fit into the real world.

The Hulk is a monster. He’s not on a human scale. However, She-Hulk had to exist on a human scale, and we talked a lot about strength versus aesthetics. It was never about making her this or making her that; it was about, how can she still go on dates at a restaurant, sit at a regular office chair, and live a very normal life despite being a superhero? And so, it’s damned if you do, damned if you don’t. I think it’s a window into how people feel the liberty to call women too fat, too skinny, too big, too tall, too short, and I hope they watch the show and all that goes out the window. Just enjoy the ride.

One can hope. We’ve talked a lot about the representation of women and women’s bodies and how She-Hulk breaks a lot of new ground. In your opinion, what’s the most exciting thing that the show and character are adding to the broader MCU?

My goodness, there are so many. There are so many themes that are really interesting and fascinating. I love the idea that this is a superhero coming-of-age story and that she starts completely resistant, because Jennifer is someone who doesn’t want ever to feel like things were handed to her or like she received something she didn’t deserve.

We talked a lot about the idea of imposter syndrome and how many women struggle with this idea that they don’t deserve the power they have or are not worthy of this power. Watching her come into her own and accept that this has happened to her and that it’s okay to take it to great heights and use her powers for good, that’s a journey I find fascinating. So many superheroes start raring to go while she is hesitant. That’s the kind of character development that I look forward to watching unfold.

She-Hulk: Attorney at Law is available to stream on Disney+ from August 18th, with episodes releasing weekly. 

Read our review here, and check out our interview with Tatiana Maslany’s co-star Ginger Gonzaga, who plays Jennifer/She-Hulk’s best friend and confidant, Nikki Ramos. 

Ginger Gonzaga is Nikki Ramos in Disney+’s latest Marvel series, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law. The actress and comedian plays opposite Tatiana Maslany as Jennifer Walters/She-Hulk’s best friend, colleague, and bona fide sidekick, bringing much of the laughter and warmth to an already hilarious series.  STARBURST spoke with Gonzaga ahead of the She-Hulk series premiere, discussing female friendships, making the character her own, and her place in the future of the MCU.

STARBURST: What most interested you about the role of Nikki?

Ginger Gonzaga: Well, a couple of things: I love that she has a genuine friendship with, and love for, her friend. I want to show genuine, female, adult friendships on camera, friends that feel like family and have ups and downs. But I also love that she was so much of the comedic relief, and I feel like there’s been a lot of male characters who have been allowed that reckless, fun role. I wanted to do that. That’s what’s fun for me. I wanted to put my flavour on what comedic relief can be.

Absolutely! And how did you feel about the fact that Nikki wasn’t based on a character from the comics? Was that perhaps a little disappointing, or did you find it freeing, being able to make her your own?

It ended up being an honour! When you audition for these Marvel shows, you don’t know what you’re auditioning for. You’re scouring the audition lines, like some paranoid person trying to get to the bottom of something or an insecure girlfriend deciphering her boyfriend’s texts [laughs]. So, I had these lines to read, but I also improvised a lot of my audition – and then because I did that, they kind of created Nikki for me. They wrote the role based on what I was doing, which was an honour. I remember hearing that – Kevin Feige told me when I met him for the first time, he was like, “so you’re Nikki! We made this for you”. And I just couldn’t believe that. I played her a little weirder and different, which was very special. I also get to infuse a lot of what I wanted her to be into the show. Marvel did give us a lot of freedom, so it was great.

It must have been great participating in the character’s creation, especially given your comedy background and Nikki’s role providing much of the comic relief.

Yeah! It was a character that Jessica Gao had written, but once I’d auditioned, they kept adjusting it to be more like that. And Jessica is so smart, and she gets people very quickly; she sees what they’re doing and knows how to write for them. It was so much fun.

You touched on it in the beginning, but it’s true that in the MCU, we rarely get to see female friendships – especially between a hero and a ‘civilian’ if you will. Can you tell me more about Nikki and Jennifer’s friendship?

[Laughs] Right, I know. What’s funny is that we started as civilian friends, and then it’s almost like all of a sudden, my friend became a celebrity, and I’m her plus one and getting all the benefits. It was really important to Tatiana and me to continue to show friends who really love each other and women who support each other, have flaws, make fun of one another, and have their own friendship love language. Nikki likes to make Jennifer laugh; my goal in every scene is to make Jennifer not so serious, for her to be free and a little more reckless. Then Jen is my friend who reminds me to, “yo, maybe obey some laws of the land!”. It’s a wonderful dynamic, and I always want to see really emotionally evolved women.

Nikki is funny and silly, but they’re both still respectful people who know how to have a conversation with each other and talk out their grievances. They’re friends to the point that they’re family – and work colleagues! I want to see women who work together! One minute it’s “let’s do this thing!” and the next, it’s “let’s joke about the weird attorney that we work with.” You know? Just silly stuff that friends would do. Their friendship is just supernatural, and I love it.

Speaking of silly stuff, we’ve seen what Tatiana has to wear on set when she’s She-Hulk. How did you go about filming those scenes and keeping a straight face?

We definitely would end up giggling a lot. Sometimes she’s in her – or what I call her – little motion capture jammies while I’m dressed all normal. And she has dots all over her face, and sometimes she wears a little green alien that’s hoisted above her head, and that’s who I have to talk to in those scenes. Other times she’d be on a riser. They’d build these long, tall risers so that she could walk through an entire scene, which meant that she had to follow the exact path or else fall off, but it meant I could actually look at her, and she’d be She-Hulk height.

We even did one with a moving treadmill, where Tatiana is walking on the treadmill, which someone is pushing. It works really well to show how small I am because I’m scurrying after her, trying to keep up. But it’s amazing, the second Tatiana becomes She-Hulk, her whole body changes, so it felt weirdly natural because I would feel like I was in the scene with She-Hulk. The MCU requires so much imagination, which is fun, but Tatiana made me believe that my friend was 6-foot-7. She’s just a really good actor.

And as the last question: should She-Hulk be renewed for a second season, where would you like to see Nikki’s character go?

Oh my god, I love when Nikki takes the initiative and gets into trouble and just mixes with every group possible. Nikki can be friends with anyone, whether they’re toxic or they’re good. And she can hang out with those toxic people in order to get secrets out of them! I would love for her to really take advantage of the fact that she likes to be in disguise sometimes, has dumb ideas, or she’s always doing things that are borderline illegal to get good intel. Jen would never want her to do it, but Nikki’s always willing. I love her will and her ability to blend with any group, human or superhuman. It’s really funny to me because she’s not afraid of anyone or anything. I’d love to see her buddying up with people to get information.

A spy arc for your character, then.

[Laughs] Yes, that’d be great!

She-Hulk: Attorney at Law is available to stream on Disney+ from August 18th, with episodes releasing weekly. Read our review here.