An interview with Lorraine Toussaint, new star of Orange Is the New Black.
Now that we’ve had enough time to binge through Orange Is the New Black’s second season, we couldn’t wait to pick Toussaint’s brain on what makes Vee tick. What’s the story behind the year’s most chilling TV performance?
So…everyone is loving you on the Orange Is the New Black.
You sort of do the work in a vacuum, and then it’s kind of locked away for a while. Then suddenly it’s out! I feel a little like Sally Field. “They like me! They really like me!” And not Vee, but me. [Laughs]
How did this come about it? Who do we thank for you being cast as Vee?
I was in L.A. and my manager said that they were looking to add a new character. He put me on tape and we sent it off to New York. They responded very quickly, and liked it. It happened really, really quickly. Within a week, I was in New York. I had managed to pack up my life and was suddenly going to be in New York for six months. So it was really fast. So fast that Jenji Kohan, the amazing Jenji Kohan, we kept playing phone tag! Because I hadn’t really read a script, and the script that I read didn’t have a lot of Vee. I was getting it in bits and pieces. So I get to New York, long story short I get to set on the first day and I still haven’t talked to Jenji.
