what happened to poussey orange is the new black
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[Warning: This story contains major spoilers from the entire fourth flavour of Orange Is the New Black.]
Orange Is the New Blackness's fourth flavor concluded in shocking fashion.
The Netflix prison dramedy from Jenji Kohan killed off fan-favoritePoussey Washington (Samira Wiley), who died during a prison-wide protest that turned fatal. The penultimate episode, "The Animals," was directed by Mad Men's Matthew Weiner and written by Wiley'south real-life girlfriend, LaurenMorelli. To hear Wiley tell information technology, the provocative episode — which featured parallels with the Blackness Lives Thing movement — called for the unabridged cast to exist present, making for an emotional day on the typically rowdy set.
"It was so amazing to have the back up of my unabridged cast on the day that this had to happen," Wiley, who has kept the storyline a underground for more than than a twelvemonth, toldThe Hollywood Reporter. "There were faces that I hadn't seen in a long time and information technology felt similar a real sendoff to take anybody in the aforementioned room together. A lot of them were doing their grieving on that mean solar day."
Although fans and the cast are left reeling in the wake of Poussey's death, Wiley understands why information technology had to be her. Poussey dies when an untrained guard accidentally suffocates her when pinning her downward with his knee. The storyline echoed the real-life death of Eric Garner and the subsequent "I Can't Breathe" and Black Lives Thing motility. In the flavour four finale, Poussey's body was left on the floor for an entire twenty-four hours as the prison struggled with how to handle the state of affairs before ultimately covering it up to the public. That resulted in a prison house-wide riot and finale cliffhanger as the inmates were on the verge of taking over the prison.
"At that place are people who are watching tv who might not have a personal relationship with Blackness Lives Matter, but they know Poussey," Wiley says of the smiley, good-hearted and hopeful Litchfield character. "What I've been reading online from people is only this profound sadness, something that they can't shake away. And that is exactly what Jenji is wanting people to feel, she wants people to not be able to milk shake this off."
THR caught up with Wiley to hash out saying goodbye to Poussey and Orangish Is the New Black, the moment she told her on-screen "sisters," including Danielle Brooks (Taystee), and the legacy she hopes to leave behind. Simply as Wiley warned fans before the premiere: "Get set — with your tissues."
What was your reaction to being killed off and how did you process it while keeping information technology a secret?
I've known for a petty over a year now. When I kickoff establish out, like anyone beingness a part of a show like this from the very beginning — everybody involved in information technology and the show itself had really become my family unit. So in receiving the news, it was definitely a stupor. In the get-go I was really surprised and dislocated, but then in talking with the writers and trying to understand the story they were trying to tell, my feelings apace changed to existence honored. I was honored to be able to be the vessel, to be able to tell this story through Poussey. And I'one thousand e'er someone who's up for a challenge so I call up after talking to them I was like, "OK, permit's do this and let's practice it proficient!" Throughout the months of me knowing and upward until now, it's not like my feelings stayed the same the entire time. Yous go through waves. It's profoundly sad sometimes; I've cried my eyes out. I've been happy and excited by the next affiliate of my life. I've gone through so many unlike stages with it.
How did you react when you lot found out that Lauren would exist the 1 writing the script for the episode that sees Poussey dice?
I didn't know that Lauren was writing it until it got shut to it. They don't get assigned to write it until right earlier because it is a real collaborative attempt in the room. They all come up with the stories together and and then 1 person is assigned to actually execute, so she didn't go assigned to write it until a few episodes before. Just I felt safety once I knew she was writing information technology. I knew that she would take and so much intendance, I knew that she understood the magnitude and the impact that we could have with the story we were trying to tell. Our human relationship started as a professional relationship and I admire Lauren'south work every bit a writer, I'thou such a fan of hers from the showtime. So I again felt so honored to exist able to take Lauren write the terminal episode of Poussey in prison.
It's a timely story of Black Lives Matter and racial injustice, given the news of the past year. It feels similar Jenji picked Poussey because she is so loved and she wanted it to accept the most bear upon. How was information technology explained to you?
That is exactly how it was explained to me. There are people everyday who we lose. And especially, with the Blackness Lives Matter matter, there have been so many people who we've lost and there'south people in our country who don't accept any connection to that. They don't know a black person, or the just reference they have are people on Telly. And Poussey is this graphic symbol that, she simply has such a adept heart and not just that, she had so much potential. We see in season four how she really had her mind attack getting out of prison and existence able to start her life in a dissimilar manner. In a way where she could go an upstanding citizen of gild. And these people who are watching telly who might not have a personal human relationship with Black Lives Thing, they know Poussey. People watch this show hour later hour in their living rooms on their couches, sometimes in their underwear! They feel really connected. People on the streets come up to me and it's different than some of my friends who are movies stars. They experience and then connected to you because yous are in their homes, hour after hour after hour. And what I've been reading online from people is just this profound sadness, something that they can't milkshake away. And that is exactly what Jenji is wanting people to experience, she wants people to not be able to shake this off. It is goggle box, nosotros're making boob tube at the end of the mean solar day, it's all fume and mirrors and it's all fake, but it'southward not because it makes people actually feel things that are real.
Have me through filming that 24-hour interval: What was it similar to be on set with the unabridged cast – something we oasis't seen since the early on episodes. What was their reaction to the scene and how did you get through information technology?
It was the first fourth dimension nosotros'd all been on set up at the same fourth dimension, really, since season one. So that was really special. But I think in season one, when the girls were running for WAC Pack (Women's Advisory Council) and we were doing a rap battle, and so it was a very different mood the concluding time we were all on prepare together. We have then many people on our cast now, I call back nosotros couldn't even film information technology on a regular day. We had to do it on a weekend which we never usually practise, just to coordinate anybody'southward schedule. But it was so amazing to have the support of my unabridged cast on the day that this had to happen. There were faces that I hadn't seen in a long time and it felt similar a real sendoff to have everyone in the aforementioned room together. Our set is such a loud, boisterous, loving ready and everyone'southward always joking and in that location's always noise. But on that day, information technology was much more quiet.
When did most of the cast find out?
I'd known for so long but my castmates didn't know until maybe the week before or so, when they got the script. So they found out when they sabbatum there, and some people read the script fast and they found out fast and some people took a while to read the script and that'due south when they found out. Information technology wasn't some big announcement. They had much less time to process than I did and because of that, I think a lot of them were doing their grieving on that day of filming, whereas I had done my grieving months before. I had actually come to terms that this is my story and because of that, I think I had to practice a lot of making sure that everyone else was OK. I remember honestly, that day, the rest of the cast, information technology was much harder for them than information technology was for me.
Did you tell any of your Orange crew — Danielle Brooks, Uzo Aduba (Crazy Eyes), Vicky Jeudy (Janae), Adrienne C. Moore (Black Cindy) and Kimiko Glenn (Poussey'due south girlfriend Soso) — earlier? How did they handle the news?
Kimiko joined the cast in season two and Adrienne joined the cast peradventure two-thirds through the way of season one. Uzo and Danny, Danielle, had been with me since the first. I'd done a really, really good chore — I'd like to pat myself on the back — of keeping this a cloak-and-dagger from the cast. I didn't say a discussion to anyone. I remember calling up one of our executive producers and I said, "Wait, when does this script come up out?" Because I had been thinking about: "Oh god, if this happened to Danielle, if this happened to Uzo, and I sabbatum down and I read the script," I couldn't imagine having to find out that way. I'm all about protocol and not breaking the rules! So I asked her if it would exist OK if I told my sisters. Information technology was before the script came out, mayhap a calendar week or 2 before that, and I met Danielle and Uzo at one of their houses and I retrieve I got there and I was like, "Do you guys have a canteen of vino?" And they said no and I said, "OK, well I'm going to need a bottle of vino." Danielle and I went out and got a bottle of wine and came dorsum and we just sat there and we cried together and we drank together and we smiled together, nosotros reminisced. I'thou so grateful that I was able to take that night with them. It was really special to just exist able to sit down and talk to each other and permit them know some finality was coming ahead. Unfortunately, for Adrienne, Kimiko and Vicky, they did detect out past reading the script. But and then later on they read information technology, we had our own moments too. But that night that I told people in accelerate, it was just Uzo, me and Danny.
Fans love Poussey and Taystee's human relationship. What was information technology like to get through this with Danielle, and to film the moment where she collapses to the footing next to Poussey's body?
It helped a lot that my eyes were airtight! Information technology was already really difficult. I call back in season 2, united states existence in a very similar position facing each other, we were laying on a bed and nosotros were kissing, though. I try to kiss her. I call back every take, we would but laugh and giggle and we were like, "This is ridiculous!" I've known Danielle since she was 17 and we are similar sisters. To buss each other was so weird and nosotros laughed. This fourth dimension, we were [choking upwards] definitely wiping each other's tears between the takes. It was not bad to exist able to do that with someone like Danielle who I do accept a long history with and I do love her like my sister and yeah, that was hard.
It'southward a testament to your chemistry that fans can feel the pain and sadness betwixt these two best friends. How volition Taystee survive this?
I actually have the privilege now of beingness able to not answer any questions nigh it anymore. And I say privilege considering now I become to sit back and sentinel it like everybody else! And I really am excited to come across what happens in season v because the manner season four ends — the anticipation that I have for flavour five after seeing the end is like, "Wow, where do yous go from hither?" I'g but excited to honestly be a viewer and experience it.
Matt Weiner directed your death scene. What was working with him similar?
I call back this was his first TV directing task that wasn't on Mad Men. We take a lot of repeat directors who come and we have such adept relationships with them, but to accept someone come up in from the outside with an outside eye is and then great. One of the first things he said to me before we started shooting the episode was: "This is another episode of television and that's exactly how we're going to shoot it and that's exactly how I want you to call back nearly it." It would accept been actually hard if he came to me and said, "This is going to exist the biggest episode: Don't f— it up."
Do y'all think Poussey would have whatever forgiveness for Bayley (Alan Aisenberg), the guard who inadvertently killed her?
I always said that Poussey is such a model person in a way that I often want to emulate her, or wish that I could. I do think that if it was someone else that Poussey would be the one to run across both sides. I exercise think she'd accept forgiveness in her middle for Bayley. I think that she would be able to meet the complexities of the situation. And that'southward what Jenji and her team of writers are trying to do with this. They're not making it black and white. How easy would it take been to accept had 1 of the others, one of the horrible guards that they take doing all these insufferable things in this season, how easy would it have been to have one of those guards be the person that committed this horrible tragedy? In episode xiii with Poussey's backstory, there's a indicate where she'due south walking downward the street and she happens to pass Bayley and that actually does bear witness that they were just two kids who end upwards in this decadent arrangement and finish up crossing paths. Who would know that in a few years, ane would end up killing the other? It'southward complicated and I do think that Poussey would be able to encounter that.
That flashback then ends with you looking straight at the camera, something we've never seen the show exercise.
I remember being on set up and we're filming the scene and, that's not on newspaper or anything. And then the concluding scene I'm sort of looking off and we do that a couple times and I think we're done. And so someone runs over and says, "Jenji wants you lot to look into the camera." I said, "This is Orange Is the New Blackness, nosotros don't look into the camera — that's crazy!" And of course it wasn't. It's very powerful and it seems to really be hit people.
This past Tv set season has been a deadly one for not only female person characters but lesbian characters in particular, as the "Coffin Your Gays" trope went mainstream. Did you and Jenji talk at all about the trope? Practise you think Poussey is an instance of Bury Your Gays?
I do know about it. Jenji and I didn't talk well-nigh, just I thought well-nigh it a lot. When they were first coming upwards with the season, I'm not sure how much already happened yet, with [it going mainstream]. But I practise know that the story that we are trying to tell, I believe, is something other than that. The story we are trying to tell is nearly marginalized people, black people, Black Lives Thing — people dying. And it existence pushed aside in a manner that some people aren't affected by it and people dying and it doesn't matter. We're trying to show people that it does affair. I was talking to someone who said their stomach hurt so much that they wanted to throw upwards. And to be able to affect people in that way, I think is a role of this season. In a roundabout way, showing that in Poussey'south decease, it's some other cry that: yep, these people are dying. People in real life are dying, that'due south exactly what we're maxim. This evidence is showing yous so much that hurts and information technology's not senseless. Information technology's not: "We're going to kill a character, let's but impale Poussey." We're choosing Poussey with a witting mind, it's not just to get rid of a blackness lesbian graphic symbol — there'due south lots of blackness lesbians on Orange Is the New Black! Then I honestly don't think it'south in that same category and I actually practise hope that people can see that and empathise the message that we are trying to tell and not lumping that in with Coffin Your Gays. I really promise they can see that because as a black gay adult female, I can encounter the divergence and I hope that everyone else does and doesn't exercise themselves a disservice and miss our message.
What practice you want fans to call up most her and to take abroad from her death?
I want people to remember her grinning, laugh, optimism, humor her soft parts and how she was a lover and not a fighter. I want people to retrieve how much joy she gave them and — gosh, expect at me I'm starting to cry! I've read some things about people proverb that, "I've never felt anything like that from television before." And I want people to think that. I want people to recall how it felt when they saw her torso laying on the ground non beingness moved in episode 13, how no one even referred to her by her name anymore, they just chosen it "the torso." I want people to remember that and retrieve that there are people out here dying everyday and this happens every day: they are nameless, faceless people sometimes, merely if y'all have this one moment y'all tin call back, even if it'southward only class TV, that's what we want. We want you lot to remember that. [Choking up]
Tin can you share a favorite moment ever from the series?
It was all then new in season one and everything was the nearly exciting thing I've e'er done, but I retrieve in episode ten, the Scared Straight episode, ["Bora Bora Bora"], it was one of the first episodes that Poussey got a existent, like, featured moment. And she's trying to go scare the daughter in the wheelchair and she doesn't really know what to say. That was [laughs], she's trying to be respectful merely also scare her at the same time, that was pretty fun. And I got to practise a little chip of advertising-libbing in that scene merely it was super fun. As well, the Amanda and Mackenzie "white people" voices with Poussey and Taystee talking back and along, that's always for me going to be classic.
Yous should exercise a web serial spinoff – the uncovered secret jail cell phone adventures of Amanda and Mackenzie.
That is so good, I should mention that to Danielle.
Nosotros also loved watching Poussey discover love this flavor. Yous see the massive hole Poussey left as Norma cradles Soso in her artillery, singing to her. How much did you savour playing out the Soso relationship?
It was so great. People would make fun of me on set all the fourth dimension, Danielle mainly, because I would come off ready or when they were changing the camera setup or any, and I would have my arm effectually Kimiko and she would have her arm effectually me and I would be like, "Yeah, this is my girlfriend." And Danielle would be like, "You are so happy to have a girlfriend this season — we get information technology, nosotros get it." It was only fun, I feel like Poussey from the very beginning has had this capacity for beloved and she simply needed someone to give it to. And I've had so much fun existence able to play with Kimiko this season, it was a really cute way to go out: to take something she'south always wanted. And I think it makes her death impact even more than, because she's just starting to receive the things that she couldn't accept and then in an instant, it'south all taken away.
The MCC said Poussey got picked up with possession and intent to sell with half an ounce and was sentenced to six years. Do we know how much time she had left?
In my mind, I would probably say around two years or and so. But information technology'south not dated, clearly.
To end on what yous're doing next, THR broke that you landed a role on You're the Worst. How did you volume this role?
Stephen Falk, the creator of You're the Worst, he wrote on Orangish season two and is really the writer who wrote Poussey's backstory. It's awesome, It feels a lilliputian total circle or serendipitous that it's happening in this way. He's a great guy and I'thou so excited to be able to work for him
How does the character compare to Poussey?
Totally different, which is everything I desire to practise now. Orange and Poussey take given me my life equally an role player, and where I am in my career right now. Merely I am an actor at the end of the day and I desire to make sure I can bear witness the earth different parts of myself. Poussey is not all that I am and as an actor, I desire to be able to play roles that are wildly different from the final role that I've played. In terms of roles that I'one thousand seeking now and movies that I'k doing, that's the goal. To exercise things that are on the other terminate of the spectrum from Poussey.
Season four of Orange Is the New Black is streaming at present on Netflix. Follow all of THR's OITNB coverage, including more interviews with the cast, hither.
Source: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/orange-is-new-black-season-four-spoilers-poussey-dies-samira-wiley-interview-904495/
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