'Orange Is the New Black' 2015: Jenji Kohan Dismisses Award Labeling Between Comedy & Drama, 'It's Fraud'
Despite Orange Is the New Black's award success, the show's creator is not a fan of the pageantry.
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Jenji Kohan, the creator and show runner of Orange Is the New Black, is very outspoken about the show's award classification. The prison series was nominated in comedy categories last year at the Emmys but they were forced to switch to drama this year due to the Television Academy's new rules.
Orange Is the New Black clearly straddles the line between comedy and drama, but Kohan finds herself frustrated by the whole awards process.
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"The whole label thing is frustrating - just people's needs to define us. OK, you know, whatever you want to call us, fine," Kohan said, via The Associated Press. "Are we a comedy? Are we a drama? ...Are we doing good work or not? Do you like us or not? As you can hear, I have issues with the whole, you know, beauty contest thing. It's fraud."
Whether or not Kohan's show has success with awards bodies does not weigh heavily on her belief in the show's success.
"It's complicated because ... I can't base my self-worth or the show's self-worth on how other people award us or nominate us or feel about us because when we don't win we can't say, 'Oh, then we weren't good,' or when we do win, 'We were better' - because I'm just proud of the work we do," Kohan explained. "It's really nice to have outside validation, but ultimately it's sort of a dog and pony tale, and it can be subjective. And if I can't be all in when we lose, I can't be all in when we win either, so I have to be careful with that, just to protect myself."
The prison dramedy is nominated for four awards at this year's Emmys, including Best Drama Series and Best Drama Supporting Actress for Uzo Aduba (Suzanne "Crazy Eyes" Warren). The Emmys air live on Sunday, Sept. 20 at 8/7c on Fox.
Orange Is the New Black returns for season 4 next summer on Netflix. The first three seasons are currently available to stream.
