Uzo Aduba quit acting less an hour before she landed role in Orange Is The New Black
LESS than an hour before Uzo Aduba scored her career-defining role on OITNB she was on a train, crying, thinking ‘I don’t want to do this anymore’.
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FORTY-FIVE minutes before Uzo Aduba scored her career-defining role as Suzanne ‘Crazy Eyes’ Warren in the acclaimed television series Orange Is The New Black, she quit acting.
“I was sitting on the subway in New York, and I was crying, and I just thought, ‘I don’t want to do this anymore,’” says the charismatic Aduba, on a break between shooting scenes on the New York set of OITNB, which also stars Australian Ruby Rose.
“I was going on auditions and getting nothing, and I was tired of it. Not to mention you can’t pay rent in New York when you’re earning exactly nothing.”
Initially, Aduba had auditioned for the role of athletics star Janae (ultimately played by Vicky Jeudy), so when she got the call telling her she hadn’t got the part, she thought, same old story.
“They said I didn’t get that part, but that they’d like to offer me another part,” said Aduba.
“Then they told me about Crazy Eyes, and I thought ‘she is nothing like the part that I auditioned for’, but I was intrigued.”
She signed on for two episodes, but she so impressed with her turn as the erratic, vulnerable, child-like Warren, producers wanted her to stick around.
“When they said they wanted me to stay a bit longer, I just thought they meant a third episode.”
Aduba, of course, has been something of a breakout star of the show (she won an Emmy for her performance last year and is nominated again this year).
“When I started playing her, I didn’t want people to see her as just ‘crazy, crazy’, because she’s not,” Aduba says.
“I think that we as a society pre-judge those with mental health issues, but there’s a lot of stuff underneath there. And Suzanne just wants to be understood.”
Aduba says the public recognition is ‘intense’, but these days, she’s become a bit more used to it.
“It’s not like people are coming up to me saying they hate the show, and throwing pies in disgust,” she smiles.
“People really want to say thank you for making a show like this – for having this many women on screen. How can you not feel grateful?”
Having said that, she says that people on the street often find it difficult to separate her from her character.
“People are sometimes like, ‘Well, why are you in a dress?’ Well, because I wear dresses.’ I’m not wearing my prison outfit on the subway. But people are becoming more familiar with me.”
There is one thing, however, that bothers her in some discussions around the show.
“I find it so annoying when people bring up this idea that we all must hate each other because we’re a bunch of women working together,” she says pointedly.
“I sincerely believe that is one of the greatest myths of all time – that women can’t work together. It’s untrue. We legitimately enjoy each other’s company.”
Away from the show, Aduba is working out how she can get back to Australia after a brief visit earlier this year.
“My mother is a huge tennis fan, and I have family in Adelaide and Melbourne, so I really want to spend some more time in Australia and take her to the Australian Open,” she smiles (adding one of her best friends on the show is Aussie Yael Stone). “She keeps asking when we’re going [to Australia], so I better do something about it.”
ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK, SUNDAY, 7.30PM, SHOWCASE
Originally published as Uzo Aduba quit acting less an hour before she landed role in Orange Is The New Black
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