'Orange Is the New Black' star: My character 'scares me'

'Orange Is the New Black' leading character Alex 'scares me a little bit,' says Laura Prepon, best known for 'That 70's Show.' 'Orange Is the New Black' airs on Netflix.

|
Dan Hallman/Invision/AP
'Orange Is the New Black' stars Laura Prepon.

Laura Prepon felt intimidated by her role on the new Netflix series "Orange Is the New Black." But that turned out to be a good thing.

"When I read it, it was so good but I was like, 'Wow, (the character) Alex scares me a little bit,' which is exactly why I needed to do it and I'm so glad that I did," she said in a recent interview. "I feel like every actress is always looking to (push the envelope) because the minute you get complacent, hang it up."

"Orange Is the New Black" is the latest original series from Netflix, now available for viewers' binge-watching pleasure. It's about a woman named Piper Chapman (played by Taylor Schilling), who fell in love with Prepon's Alex in her early 20s and was persuaded to be a drug mule for her. She only did it one time, but was named 10 years later by Alex as a part of a drug ring.

Chapman, now engaged to marry a man and living in Brooklyn, N.Y., is sentenced to 15 months in prison. She is sent to the same facility where Alex is doing time.

"Orange Is the New Black" not only shows Chapman's fish-out-of-water experience in prison, but also the social dichotomies and hierarchy among women. It's based on a memoir with the same name by Piper Kerman, who spent one year in a women's correctional facility.

The hour-long series was green-lit for a second season before the first season was posted to Netflix. All 13 episodes are now available on the website.

"Anyone that sees the show they're like, 'Oh, there's nothing like this on TV.' Which there isn't and that's really cool," the 33-year-old Prepon said.

She said the rawness of the series also makes it special.

Creator Jenji Kohan "wanted it to be as raw and real as possible," she said. "We wear like literally the federal prison-issue wardrobe. We're not allowed to wear a lot of makeup. ... There's a story line where I actually barter to get black eyeliner, so every inmate has their own kind of thing that individualizes them."

Because the show is about a women's prison, Prepon is largely surrounded by women on the set.

"I grew up with guys. I'm not used to hanging out with a bunch of chicks," she laughed. "My friends were like, 'What are you gonna do with all those women around?' But they're amazing. There's not one diva. Everyone is so cool."

Prepon was a member of the cast of the long-running Fox sitcom "That '70s Show" that also starred Topher Grace, Ashton Kutcher, Danny Masterson, Mila Kunis and Wilmer Valderrama. They have all continued to work since the show went off the air in 2006.

"It's kind of rare that everybody on a cast moves on to awesome stuff. We're really fortunate and we all kind of keep each other in check. Like Danny (Masterson), I dated his brother for nine years. I'm like best friends with his mom, so Danny really is like my brother. It's a really tight group, it's great."

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to 'Orange Is the New Black' star: My character 'scares me'
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/TV/2013/0722/Orange-Is-the-New-Black-star-My-character-scares-me
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe