Uzo Aduba can’t switch off from role
Uzo Aduba finds it hard to switch off after a "hard" day’s filming.
The ‘Orange is the New Black’ actress – who plays Suzanne ‘Crazy Eyes’ Warren in the hit Netflix prison drama – has to do a "lot of work" to stop herself from taking home the "traumas" her character suffers behind bars in fictional prison Litchfield.
She told Vulture.com: "Sometimes it’s hard to. I would say if I have to do a lot of the work, physical work, journaling work, like cooling-down work, really, of leaving her there in Litchfield and not bringing her experiences, her world, her traumas home with me ’cause they are not mine."
And while her character was left devastated when her pal Poussey Washington (Samira Wiley) passed away at the end of season five, Uzo was also "selfishly" upset because she got on so well with her co-star.
She said: "It cut deep, I guess, would be the way I would describe it. It felt like a piece of a limb or something was being taken because she and I, if viewers remember, we have a sordid past.
"And to lose somebody who was really so caring and loving to Suzanne, it hurt. It really hurt. And on a personal level, it hurt selfishly because I was sad to lose my friend in real life."
She also explained how Samira’s departure had an impact on the dynamic between the stars – and how it helped portray the sense of loss.
She added: "Coming back to the show was somewhat bittersweet in the sense that in those early days, you could feel the sting of her not being there, particularly in the ghetto dorm because we’d worked together so tightly and so extensively, the five of us – myself, Samira, Danielle Brooks, Adrienne C. Moore, and Vicky Jeudy — we’re the ones who play together the most, and also Kimiko Glenn, too. We played together so much."
