'Orange Is the New Black' Season 3 Release: How Different Is Piper Chapman From Her Real-Life Inspiration?
Taylor Schilling recently spoke on what makes her Orange Is the New Black character different from the real-life person she is based on.
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Schilling appeared with her co-stars as the TCA Summer Press Tour last week where she talked how Piper Chapman is different from Piper Kerman, the woman who wrote the Orange Is the New Black memoir.
"I think the short answer would be 'far.' I think that would be the short answer," Schilling said, when asked how far Piper Chapman was from Piper Kerman. "We started out really clear that Piper Chapman was very different than Piper Kerman. And Piper Chapman is a fictional character. Pretty much starting on the tail end of episode 1, the paths diverged from the book quite clearly."
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The series has diverted quite significantly from Kerman's memoir, which was essentially used as a springboard.
When Schilling was asked how similar she is to Piper Chapman, the actress took the opportunity to discuss Piper's evolution since season 1.
"I think that Piper is constantly peeling away parts that... She came into prison pretzeling herself, I think, a little bit into expectations of what she thought the world needed of her," Schilling said. "Those things are being, sort of, systematically ripped away, and all sorts of new things are emerging all the time, like just boiling up or, the other image of her, sort of, like, drilling down, like through the topsoil and through all the strata of being to what is real. That is the thing. Like how much is there to peel away, and what is the real experience? If you're not trying to be something for someone else, what's left?"
Piper turned into quite the crime boss in season 3, creating a panty business within the prison. It remains to be seen if she will continue her path with more bad behavior in season 4.
Orange Is the New Black is currently available to stream on Netflix.
