Binge-watched the latest series of Netflix's Orange Is The New Black all too quickly and already missing the inmates of Litchfield Penitentiary? While you're counting down the days until Season Five arrives online (sometime in 2017... sigh), cast your (crazy) eyes over these surprising facts about your favourite show. You've got time, after all...
1. The show is based on the memoirs of Piper Kerman, titled 'Orange Is The New Black: My Year In A Women's Prison'
She served 15 months in Danbury federal prison in Conneticut.
2. The faces featured in the title sequence are those of real-life former inmates
There’s even a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it shot of Piper Kerman.
3. When filming the opening scenes, the inmates were asked to visualise one of three things, in order to get a range of emotions...
Either a peaceful place, someone that makes them laugh, or something they’d rather forget.
4. Dascha Polanco, who plays Daya, is only two years younger than her onscreen mother
Dascha was born in 1982, while Elizabeth Rodriguez, who plays her mother, was born in 1980.
5. Crazy Eyes was only meant to appear in the first three episodes of the show
However, the producers were so impressed by Uzo Aduba’s performance that she later became a recurring character. Nice work.
6. Uzo Aduba is the first actress to win two Emmy’s in consecutive years in two different categories
She won Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series in 2014, then Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 2015. Again, nice work.
7. Katie Holmes could’ve played Piper
Show creator Jenji Kohan revealed that she met with the Dawson’s Creek star about the part, but scheduling conflicts meant that Holmes couldn’t accept.
8. Uzo Aduba originally auditioned to play track-and-field star Janae
The role wouldn't have been too much a stretch for her, either - aside from the whole criminality thing - as Uzo was heavily into running as a student, and has run the Boston Marathon.
9. The title of each episode is mentioned by a character in the episode itself
Got that?
10. Beth Fowler, who plays Sister Ingalls, has plenty of experience pretending to be a nun
She starred in Sister Act and Sister Act 2. Old habits die hard…
11. The real Alex Vause was actually called Catherine Cleary Wolters
Piper Kerman was never in jail with her, although she did see her when she testified in Chicago.
12. Laura Prepon (Alex Vause) initially auditioned to play Piper
According to casting director Jen Euston, ‘it wasn’t right because she would never be scared to be in prison […] she was never going to be a Piper.’
13. Taylor Schilling (Piper) and Kate Mulgrew (Red) have worked together before
They played mother and daughter in medical drama Mercy (which also starred Gossip Girl’s Michelle Trachtenberg, fact fans!)
14. Laverne Cox (Sophia) has a twin brother, who played Sophia pre-transition
A musician named M. Lamar, he appears in the third episode of Season One, 'Lesbian Request Denied'...
15. This episode was directed by actress Jodie Foster
It marked her TV directorial debut.
16. Andrew McCarthy, who plays Molly Ringwald's crush in '80s classic Pretty In Pink, has directed nine episodes so far
He even appears briefly (OK, as a cardboard cut out) in one of these episodes. So, so meta.
17. Taryn Manning (Pennsatucky) starred in Crossroads with Britney Spears
She joins Britney and Zoe Saldana on the coming-of-age road trip * sways slowly to the sweet strains of 'I'm Not A Girl, Not Yet A Woman'... *
18. The show’s casting director deliberately cast relative unknowns in most roles
‘I never want someone in Litchfield who is recognizable. As soon as you do that, you cross the line and you’re not in prison any more’ casting director Jen Euston told Buzzfeed.
19. The theme tune was written especially for the show
Regina Spektor was sent a couple of unfinished episodes from the first season to provide her with some inspiration. The result was ‘Animals’ – which later received a Grammy nomination.
20. Jackie Ortiz, who plays Flaca, was in two episodes of Kardashian spin-off Kourney and Khloe Take Miami
Her most notable moment? Kissing Kourtney in a nightclub…
21. Taryn Manning was arrested just before being cast as Pennsatucky
‘I went to jail and a few days later I got the part. Nothing that I’m proud of, again a mistake […] It changed me and the show has changed me,’ she told the audience at OrangeCon in 2015
22. Each time Piper uses the prison phone, you can see the same inmate crying behind her
The girl clearly has a lot of feelings...
23. In real life, Piper and Larry are still together
In fact, Piper Kerman has been married to writer and editor Larry Smith for ten years.
24. IRL Larry did write an article about Piper, though
It was written as part of the New York Times' 'Modern Love' franchise, but came out just before Piper's book was released - rather than while she was in jail.
25. Larry wanted to be played by George Clooney
'I just was thinking, "I don’t want to be Ben Stiller,"' he told Forward.
26. Danielle Brooks (Taystee) and Samira Wiley (Poussey) both studied drama at the very prestigious Juilliard school in New York
The pair were only a year apart, and knew each other as students.
27. While her character is a serious Harry Potter fan, Danielle Brooks has never read the series
She has watched a couple of the films, though.
28. Kate Mulgrew (Red) played Captain Kathryn Janeway on Star Trek
The show includes a reference to her previous role, when Nichols makes a reference to the series which Red doesn't seem to understand.
29. Yael Stone, who plays Morello, is actually Australian
So that East Coast accent is all her own invention.
30. Pablo Schreiber, who plays the very, very creepy prison guard Mendez, is the half-brother of Spotlight actor Liev Schreiber...
Who is married to actress Naomi Watts. Small world, Hollywood.
31. And his character's infamous moustache? It's 100% fake.
Spoiler alert.
32. The inmate's costumes are purchased from actual prison suppliers
100% authentic.
33. Annie Golden, who plays the ever-silent Norma, was the lead singer of a band called The Shirts in the '70s and '80s
She also had a role in the film adaptation of iconic musical Hair, and appears in Madonna-vehicle Desperately Seeking Susan.
34. Parts of the show were filmed in Orangeburg, Orangetown, New York
Pretty appropriate, really.
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