Orange is the New Black season two: the lesbian prison drama that became surprise hit

How did low-budget comedy drama Orange is the New Black, about the lives and loves of female prisoners, become one of television's most successful shows? As season two launches, Ruby Warrington meets its star Taylor Schilling and her fellow jailbirds to find out
From left: Dascha Polanco, Danielle Brooks, Taylor Schilling, Laura Prepon, Uzo Aduba, Natasha Lyonne, Taryn Manning
Ruby Warrington30 May 2014

Not since Girls has a female-led ensemble TV show smashed on to schedules with such cojones as Orange is the New Black, the Netflix original comedy drama that reimagines the true story of Piper Kerman, a glossy, New England blonde who became a drugs mule for her beautiful yet manipulative female lover. She was caught ten years later, having in the meantime gone straight and got engaged, and ended up serving time in a tough women’s prison, along with her estranged ex and a ramshackle bunch of disturbed felons. Kerman’s memoir was loosely adapted to create the show: on screen, Piper and her ex end up having sex behind bars, which never happened in reality; some characters are based on an amalgamation of real-life figures, others are imagined entirely; most scenarios are fictional, though many are inspired by real events.

Refreshingly for a show about women, written, directed, acted and in the main crewed by women, there have been no sensational internet tales of backstabbing and bitching. Quite the opposite: Taylor Schilling, 29, received a Best Actress in a TV drama Golden Globe nomination in January for her portrayal of Piper in the series (Robin Wright ended up winning the award for her role in Netflix’s other recent hit House of Cards), and to celebrate, Danielle Brooks, who plays fellow inmate Taystee, organised a dinner for the cast in her honour.

Taylor Schilling as Piper (front right) in season one of Orange is the New Black

The atmosphere on set today thrums with camaraderie; banter and in-jokes fly. And as the women appear in high-fashion finery for the shoot, Schilling says, ‘My jaw just drops... I mean, it’s nice to be reminded how good-looking everybody is.’ On set the actors have a uniformly gritty, unglamorous look. ‘But I actually love it that I go to work, put on my overalls and take my make-up off,’ Schilling says. ‘It’s one of the more liberating aspects of the show for all of us, because it feels like a bit of a shortcut to really get to the meat.’

The show hasn’t been entirely without controversy. When gossip got around that Laura Prepon, 34, who plays Piper’s ex Alex Vause, would not be renewing her contract for season two, the blogosphere went wild with accusations, based mainly on the idea that as one of the Hollywood Scientology set, and allegedly lined up to be Tom Cruise’s new bride, her departure was due to the show’s lesbian storylines. Loose lips were quickly silenced when it was announced that Prepon would be in season two. As for the Tom Cruise rumour, all she will say on the matter is that it is ‘unbelievable’.

From left: Taylor Schilling and Laura Prepon

But more absurd, she claims, was the talk that her Scientologist beliefs were at odds with the lesbian storylines. ‘I tend to hang out with mostly guys, and when I first got the show I was like: “How is it going to be with all these women?” ’ she told me. ‘But these women are amazing, and people feel it when they’re in our space. I also love that the demographic of the audience is so vast — from my 81-year-old grandmother to little kids who really shouldn’t be watching it — and that it’s also brought me a whole new fan base in the LGBT community. They’re the best.’ Alex’s real-life counterpart is Catherine Cleary Wolters, now writing her own memoirs, Out of Orange. In her first time talking to the press, she told Vanity Fair: ‘[Piper and I] did not have sex in prison. Not even a little bit.’ But who wouldn’t allow the show’s makers a bit of creative licence on this point?

Schilling spent one day at the prison where the real Piper served 13 months, with Kerman herself, who is now vice president at a Washington-based communications firm working with non-profit organisations and sits on the board of the Women’s Prison Association. ‘It was striking how much our set mirrors what it’s really like, including the dynamic between the women. People supporting each other, caring about each other’s stories, forming alliances…’ Kerman is thrilled with the fictionalisation of her memoir. She has said: ‘What I hoped to do with the book — and what made me really happy about the show when I first saw it — was to describe prison in a way different from what people were already assuming. “Who is in prison?” is an important question. People don’t think about women when they think about prisons and prisoners. I wanted to show that “who”, first of all in a broader and more multifaceted sense, and also “why?” What are the pathways, either chosen or imposed, that put people in the criminal justice system, and what really happens to them there? What really happens in the conditions of confinement?’

The first season of OITNB was an instant hit and is the most successful Netflix series to date, generating more views in its first week than House of Cards or Arrested Development and winning five gongs including a GLAAD Media Award, a People’s Choice Award, and a Webby. ‘Oh my God, that felt like such a rite of passage,’ Schilling says of its wild success. ‘Like, “This is for real now, people believe I can do this, and I believe I can do this.” ’

From left: Uzo Aduba and Natasha Lyonne

Schilling grew up in Boston where, after her parents divorced when she was 15, she divided her time between her father, a prosecutor, and her college administrator mother. She studied acting at Fordham University before completing two years of a Masters at New York University, but ultimately made the decision to drop out of college. ‘I had nothing lined up when I left, I just knew that NYU wasn’t making sense to me any more. I felt done... it was scary to leave, but it felt like following my gut, my intuition,’ she has said.

Four months later she got the lead role in the NBC medical drama Mercy, playing straight-talking nurse Veronica. The show was cancelled after just one season, but it didn’t take long for her to get her first big screen roles, playing Zac Efron’s love interest in 2012’s The Lucky One and Ben Affleck’s wife in the Oscar-winning Argo (2012). Schilling, who ‘really didn’t want to do television again,’ was then begged by her agent to read the OITNB script. ‘It was amazing,’ she’s said. ‘I read it with my grandmother and I was like, “This is really special.” ’

By creating and producing its own highly acclaimed programmes, Netflix has proved the first real challenger to US entertainment behemoths HBO and NBC. Netflix’s originals all feature compelling characters, and the women at the fictional Litchfield Federal Penitentiary are, as Schilling puts it, ‘fully rounded, fleshed- out human beings. I think one of the reasons we’ve been so well-received is that all of these women are portrayed in total.’

Suzanne, aka Crazy Eyes, played brilliantly by Broadway actress Uzo Aduba, 32, falls in love with Piper at first sight and declares her ‘my wife’, nicknaming her ‘Dandelion’ for her expensive blonde highlights. Aduba originally auditioned for a different part, but got called back to play Suzanne. ‘I was like, “What in my audition would make someone think I’d be right for a part called Crazy Eyes?” ’ she says. ‘The challenge with Crazy is allowing her to keep her dignity. I feel a responsibility to protect her in that way, but I do love the fact that I’m given the freedom with this character to just go big or go home.’

Uzo Aduba (centre) and Danielle Brooks (right) in season two of Orange is the New Black

Natasha Lyonne, 35, who bought her first apartment in NYC at 18, with the pay cheque from her role in Woody Allen’s Everyone Says I Love You, plays a recovering drug addict, the ‘junkie philosopher’ Nicky Nichols. You might recognise her as feisty Jessica, the one with all the hot sex tips for Jim and friends in the American Pie movies. Despite this being her second major lesbian role (she played the lead in cult coming-out film But I’m a Cheerleader), Lyonne has a boyfriend. She does share a history of drug addiction with her character, however, as in 2005 she was admitted to hospital with complications arising from heroin use. She’s now clean. She says of the back-to-basics styling of the show: ‘The irony is that you feel less self-conscious all stripped down, and there’s a lesson in there for women. The lie of our society is this idea that the more I can cover myself up and undo my natural state of being, the more confident I will feel and the more people will like me. But what our show proves is that, of course, the opposite is true. The deeper we can sink into ourselves, the closer we can get to the real deal, that’s actually when more people want to sleep with you, which is always the end goal.’

Dascha Polanco, a relative unknown before OITNB, plays Daya Diaz, the shyest inmate of all, who ended season one pregnant, following a steamy affair with one of the guards. ‘I’m pretty sure it doesn’t happen that often in real life,’ she says of her salacious storyline. ‘Filming series one I was pinching myself every day that I was going to work on a show like this. But I want to play a villain next, because Daya is just too sweet. I’d be the kind of villain who could control time and men, who when they kissed me, I’d suck the life out of them.’

The OITNB villain is God-botherer Tiffany ‘Pennsatucky’ Doggett, aka ‘the meth head’, played by Taryn Manning, 35, who has fake rot painted on to her teeth before every scene. Manning has had a varied acting career, starring alongside Britney Spears in Crossroads and playing a prostitute in the 2005 film Hustle & Flow. She’s also in a band and has a clothing label called Born Uniqorn. ‘I love fashion and make-up,’ she says. ‘I’m very girly, nothing like Tiffany. But she’s fun because she’s so different from me, and with the look they’ve given me I can lose myself in the character. Her brain is a little fried, which makes her not think clearly and gives her this false confidence. She’s driven by her ego, but it comes from a place of pain, so I see her as this sad little bird inside — even if she is still an asshole.’

From left: Dascha Polanco, Taryn Manning and Danielle Brooks

One of the most popular characters is Taystee Jefferson, the prison library worker who feels so comfortable with life in an institution that she reoffends almost as soon as she gets parole. Danielle Brooks brings Taystee wonderfully to life. Fresh out of The Juilliard School (notable alumni: Jessica Chastain), this is her first major role (she played a closet lesbian in rehab in an episode of Girls). She says: ‘We all just have a good time together and that plays on camera, I think. I love the cafeteria scenes. When you have that many women in a room being loud together, it’s very empowering. And behind the camera there are a lot of women on set, too, from the writer and the directors, even down to the grips, so the energy feels like, “We can do anything!” ’

The show is created and executive produced by Jenji Kohan, who was previously best known as the creator of Weeds, and there are plenty of strong women working behind the camera, too, including Jodie Foster, who directed an episode in the first series and will be back for season two. ‘It actually feels like kismet that we came together at this moment in time,’ says Schilling. ‘Like one of those moments where everyone is at their best.’ And with such a talented group of women making what could have been a clichéd bleak prison drama into something funny, uplifting and profound, the best is surely yet to come.

All 13 episodes of Orange is the New Black season two launch exclusively on Netflix on 6 June

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