Despite still being a teenager, Ariana Greenblatt has seen her star rise astronomically in recent years with roles in Barbie, Ahsoka, and Avengers: Infinity War already on her resume. Borderlands is set to be her biggest yet, with her taking on a leading role as the film's version of Tiny Tina, and she turned to none other than her Barbie co-star Margot Robbie when preparing for the character.
Greenblatt spoke with IGN about the upcoming game-to-film adaptation and what she did to become the youngest and craziest demolitions expert on all of Pandora. She admitted that while preparing for Borderlands, she looked at Robbie's time as Harley Quinn as a source of inspiration while preparing for the role of Tiny Tina.
“I read the sides and immediately thought of (Robbie’s Harley) and that's one of the first things I told her actually for the process of getting Barbie,” Greenblatt told IGN. “I watched how she prepared and she read the comic books and she did so much work to build Harley and watching her helped me build Tina.”
Robbie portrayed Harley in 2016's Suicide Squad, 2020's Birds of Prey, and 2021's The Suicide Squad, though the first two were the only ones released by the time Borderlands began filming. She also implied that her time as the character was done after The Suicide Squad and hinted at the character going in “new directions” within James Gunn's new DC Universe.
Along with Robbie's time as Harley, Greenblatt pointed to personal friends, YouTube, and the original voice of Tiny Tina herself, Ashly Burch, as key parts of her preparation for Borderlands.
“I needed to find a happy medium and a balance and some humanity with Tina because we see sides of Tina we've never seen before in this film, and I needed to find the middle ground and layers and arc to her because she doesn't feel emotions like a normal kid would and she doesn't have the same fears if she has any, which I don't think she has,” Greenblatt said.
Pandora's deadliest 13-year-old
Despite making her debut in Borderlands 2, Tiny Tina has become one of the most recognizable characters within Gearbox's popular looter-shooter franchise.
Players are first introduced to Tina by Roland as the demolitions expert that can help disrupt Handsome Jack's Vault and Eridium mining on Pandora. The then-13-year-old immediately became a fan-favorite due to her manic energy and humorous one-liners, with her also serving as a “coach” in Borderlands 2's Torgue DLC, the narrator in the Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep DLC, and then as an adult in Borderlands 3 to help combat the Calpysos.
She served as the narrator in Tiny Tina's Wonderlands, a spin-off game largely inspired by the Dragon Keep DLC.
She is set to be one of the principle vault hunters in 2024's Borderlands' film alongside Cate Blanchett's Lilith, Kevin Hart's Roland, Florian Munteanu's Krieg, Jamie Lee Curtis' Dr. Tannis, and Jack Black's Claptrap.
Borderlands is scheduled to release in theaters on August 9, 2024.
Follow Us
Subscribe