Taylor Schilling: Orange Is the New Black should address LGBT issues

Taylor Schilling says it is important for ‘Orange Is the New Black’ to address issues that affect the LGBT community.

The 31-year-old actress – who plays PR executive Piper Chapman in the Netflix series – loves how the US comedy drama shows women in "different ways".

She said: "It’s important that the series has been able to reflect issues that are vital to the LGBT community. As well as issues regarding prison life. Another thing that is very meaningful is that [Orange] allows women to be presented in different ways and shows so many different aspects of our nature."

However, when she’s acting her part she doesn’t think about any of the issues and focuses on making sure she does her character "justice".

She added: "But when I’m working on set, I’m not thinking about any of those things, really. I try to focus on Piper and do justice to the character above everything else."

And for Taylor, the programme is successful in showing that audiences are interested in women’s stories as much as male-driven stories.

She told Diva magazine: "Our series has shown that audiences are just as interested in women’s stories as in predominantly male-driven stories."

Meanwhile, Taylor previously admitted she finds it "very liberating" playing a character who wears little make-up.

She said: "I think it’s very liberating to [play a character who doesn’t wear makeup]. It knocks away one level of artifice, and I think that is what I appreciate most about acting. It’s trying to drill down to the truth of a character, or situation or a circumstance and in some cases, lots of makeup helps with that. In this situation, in the story of Piper Chapman, it really illuminates interesting parts of her that she doesn’t wear any makeup."