Last month, we got our first look at Lionsgate's Borderlands movie, an adaptation of the popular video game franchise of the same name from developer Gearbox Software. The trailer offered us our first look at the live-action movie which looks to be a faithful and promising adaptation of the source material.
The film follows Lillith, played by Cate Blanchett, as she returns to her home of Pandora on a mission to find the missing daughter of Atlas, the universe's most powerful S.O.B. On her journey, she forms an unexpected alliance with a ragtag team of misfits, including Tiny Tina, a fan favorite from the video games.
Tina Tina is played by Ariana Greenblatt and while we only got a few glimpses of her in the trailer, what we did see looked to be a perfect take on the chaotic teenage explosives expert. When speaking to IGN at CinemaCon last week, Greenblatt revealed what helped inspire her take on the character.
According to the now 16-year-old actress, Greenblatt's performance as Tiny Tina “was heavily inspired by Margot [Robbie]'s Harley Quinn rendition.”
“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, who had the role of Sasha in the 2023 blockbuster Barbie movie, said. “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."
Greenblatt drew inspiration from other sources as well, which helped her shape all the character's unique quirks. One inspiration was actually a personal friend at the time: “She fully just had this very carefree mindset and didn't care about embarrassing herself and would say and do weird voices and things and movements. And she is my best friend, and I'd watch her just move and I told her in the middle of filming, I was like, ‘I just want you to know, I'm acting just like you in this movie.’ And she was like, ‘Great, awesome.’"
For Tiny Tina's laugh and gestures, Greenblatt turned to a group of YouTubers called "4freakshow."
“At the time, it was 2021. I was watching these YouTubers with my friend group and we loved them and they had their own sense of humor that they created," she explained. "They're called the 4freakshow, and a lot of the laughs and hand motions I do for Tina is also inspired by them and the kids that were in that group.”
Tiny Tina is one of Borderlands' most iconic characters and one. In the games, she's voiced by Ashly Burch, and while Greenblatt did FaceTime with the original voice actor, she ultimately decided to take the approach of sounding like "a very cartoon character."
Greenblatt explained:
"...I thought about the people who might have never heard of Borderlands before and don't like video games and just want to watch for the cast or the director or whatever the reason would be. You don't want to sit through an hour and something movie listening to a crazy, insane voice and feral, horrifying kid.”
“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.”
Tiny Tina has been featured in Borderlands 2, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, and Borderlands 3. Her prominent role in the Borderlands 2 DLC, Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep, actually helped inspire the spin-off game Tiny Tina's Wonderlands, in which she GMs the Bunkers and Badasses game that frames the game's plot.
We'll get to see Greenblatt's take on Tiny Tina when the Borderlands movie hits theaters on August 9, 2024.