INSIDE OUTSIDER

SHE PLAYS THE INMATE WE LOVE TO HATE, BUT WHAT DOES TAYLOR SCHILLING HERSELF THINK OF PIPER CHAPMAN?

WORDS CARRIE LYELL

PHOTOS NETFLIX/JOJO WHILDEN

I’ve had an odd relationship with Taylor Schilling since she first burst into my front room in Jenji Kohan’s hit dramedy Orange Is The New Black. You see, I love Taylor, and try as I might, I can’t quite hate her character Piper Chapman, even though I know I’m supposed to.

Shortly after the first season dropped, Schilling was catapulted to household name status for her portrayal of a privileged white girl struggling to switch from a life of organic produce to orange jumpsuits in the Netflix adaptation of Piper Kerman’s memoir of her year spent behind bars for drug trafficking,

Unlike some of her co-stars, Schilling had had a fair amount of acting experience prior to her incarceration at Litchfield Penitentiary, playing nurse Veronica Flanagan Callahan in US medical drama Mercy, and alongside Zac Efron in The Lucky One, among other roles. And while she says she knew right away that there was “something special” about Orange, nothing could have really prepared her for how much the Netflix Original, which is up there as one of the streaming giant’s most-watched shows, would change her life.

Ship this: Taylor Schilling (right) and OITNB co-star Laura Prepon

PHOTO JESSICA GOW

“ ORANGE EXAMINES BOTH STRAIGHT AND GAY RELATIONSHIPS AND DOESN’T JUDGE THEM OR DIFFERENTIATE BETWEEN THEM”

That kind of overnight fame – and the demands that come with it – is something that the 31-year-old is still adjusting to as the show enters its fourth season. As the promo machine for Orange turns on and on, such an intense workload has taken a physical and emotional toll on the show’s wunderkind, and at a recent Cosmopolitan shoot, Schilling “broke down in tears” and left the set three hours early. No interview was done that day.