Uzo Aduba Explains Why Orange Is The New Black Is So Appealing And She Nails It
By Uzo Aduba
Producer’s note: Someone on Quora asked: What is the appeal of “Orange is the New Black”? Here is one of the best answers that’s been pulled from the thread. Thank you to the team at Quora for making this happen!
I think that color exists in there.
I think there is a reason we are fascinated by monasteries and prisons. They are shut away, there are no windows in, you have to be a part of that “club” to go inside those walls. So I think there is a layer of that but greater to that, I think the reason people are interested in our show is because it’s different.
The stories that we are telling are different, the people telling those stories are different, and the authentic way in which the stories are being told are different.
We have a show that Jenji Kohan, our creator, has made that doesn’t reflect anything else on television right now or that we have seen on television.
The number of women that we have on our show is incredible and astounding. The way that the roles that those women are playing on television is so fascinating to me at least. This is what attracted me to it, I can’t speak for other people but this is what I thought was interesting.
The way that women are represented on television was incredible. The number of women or people of each group on a singular show was incredible. The range of diversity from the different races that we have to the size of these women to the sexual orientation of some of these women to the gender of these women all on a single show. I’ve never seen anything like that before. I would be hard pressed to think of a show that has that type of scope that is so female oriented.