'Orange Is the New Black' Season 5 News: Adrienne C. Moore Talks Episode 12 Death Criticism [VIDEO]
It wasn't easy seeing what happened in the penultimate episode of season 4 of Netflix's Orange Is the New Black, but this was very intentional.
***Spoilers through the final episode of Orange Is the New Black season 4 ahead***
Poussey's (Samira Wiley) death was the biggest talking point of season 4 of Orange Is the New Black. Of course, the development was not without controversy, as some criticized the show as "trauma porn" for white people, especially amid this Black Lives Matter movement.
Adrienne C. Moore, who plays Black Cindy on the prison dramedy, spoke with Jezebel recently about the incident and why it was so important to depict on the series.
"What I feel the power that television, film, and even stage brings is how we can take a circumstantial situation and not only be entertained by it, but hopefully learn something by it," Moore explained. "Like comedy-it allows people to talk about difficult subjects, and sometimes laughing makes them a little bit easier to discuss. I think that's what storytelling does. Obviously, Poussey's death is a dramatized version of what we have possibly seen in the news with Eric Garner and other individuals who have been murdered. But I think it allows people to at least have the same powerful conversation that needs to be had."
Moore described how she doesn't "really see a difference" between what's being dramatized and what's happening in real life, considering the realism of what they are depicting.
"What will be done about it, and who will be responsible for that person's life? [Moreover,] now that person has become a legacy and not someone who still has a story and a journey that's unfolding. It's another situation where, okay, we can argue semantics about whether or not it's possible or whether or not it's appropriate to showcase that, or we can deal with the fact that this is something that's happening whether or not it's on a television screen in a dramatic version, or on a television screen because this was the nightly news. It doesn't change the reality of the situation. It happened. It's happening."
Orange Is the New Black is available to stream now on Netflix.
