‘Orange Is The New Black’ Star Talks Being A ‘Bodyguard’ For Her Character

When actors play a certain character for an extended amount of time, it’s hard not to get attached. This is especially difficult when you portray someone as fragile as Suzanne on Orange is the New Black.

Uzo Aduba, who has won two Emmy Awards for her performance as Suzanne, has played the character for five years now. While other roles have come and gone, the actress has recently revealed that she and her character are getting even closer as time goes on.

During an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Aduba opened up about the newest season of OITNB, and how she’s become somewhat of a ‘bodyguard’ for the fictional Suzanne.

Just a heads up, there are MAJOR spoilers ahead for Orange is the New Black.

Aduba was asked about which scenes in the season had the most impact when she read them, and she revealed that there were a few that stood out to her.

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“I guess there were two scenes. Definitely the white face scene. From a social issue and Uzo, I could relate to the demoralizing feeling of having something like that done by someone on another human being and I was glad to see that come to life. I hope that it might impact our society and have people think twice or start the conversation about colorism, which is something that is very real and also goes wildly undiscussed. It’s something that I’m passionate about as far as the issues happening in our society in regards to cultural appropriation. I’m familiar with that story and to wear something like that, the act of having that put on, is so conscious. It felt heavy and it felt very ugly. I did not enjoy it, at all.”

The actress went on to describe just how difficult all those takes were to film, and how connected she now feels to Suzanne.

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“Not only did I have to wear it for those takes, but I had to look at myself in the mirror. It’s very conscious, so this idea of accidentally putting something on? I don’t know if that’s possible because the strokes that it takes to make something like that happen is very specific. And to look at one’s self in the mirror also felt very specific. As Uzo, I am her bodyguard at this point. She is very real to me. I just felt like I wanted to protect her through that because of what she had to say about herself and her feelings was pretty intense. I know that there are many people on this planet who have the same feeling. So that’s where the person and the character sort of rubbed up against one another in a really intense way.”

You can watch Aduba’s performance as Suzanne on Netflix, where all five seasons of Orange is the New Black are currently streaming.