Samira Wiley recently opened up to Variety about the significance of her character Poussey on Orange Is The Next Black, especially in this season that seems to have everyone talking.
If you’ve not watched the entire season yet, and aren’t looking for spoilers, we suggest you stop here.
This highly anticipated season of the Netflix original ends with Poussey Washington being murdered at Litchfield. While we’ll spare the specific, heart wrenching and jaw-dropping events leading up to the death, Samira says that the response from viewers has been kind of overwhelming for her:
“I knew that people were going to have a really big emotional reaction. I mean, it’s a devastating scene, so I think I was anticipating the sadness. But the way that some of these fans are so angry and mad, and just the things that they’re saying, is sort of shocking.”
While it’s a shocking twist in the OITNB storyline, the way in which her character’s death plays out is reminiscent of recent headlines surround police brutality and the Black Lives Matter movement—and that’s exactly what it was inspired by.
“This is not thoughtless. It is a senseless death, but it’s not a thoughtless decision on the part of the show,” Samira said. “It echoes so many deaths that have happened in the last year, even. Eric Garner. Mike Brown. This happens in real life, and people are so upset.”
Though many are sad to see one of their favorite characters in the series gone, Samira says she agrees with the way in which the story played out:
“I want them to be upset, this is a thing that happens in real life … The conversations on set were mirroring, I think, the conversations that are happening now by the viewers. The fact that people are talking about it, the fact that people are having big, huge, emotional responses to it, I think that that means we did our job well.”
