Nigerian actress in diaspora, Uzo Aduba has recounted how playing the role of a therapist in the revived HBO drama helped her cope with the loss of her late mother.
Nine years ago, Uzo Aduba had a Sliding Doors moment; she decided to give up acting, mere hours before landing her life-changing role.
“I made up my mind to quit on Friday 14 September 2012,” she recalls, the date etched on her memory.
“I was planning to call my agent on Monday and tell them ‘I’m done, I’m not doing this any more.’ But at 5.43pm that evening, I got the call to come and play Suzanne “Crazy Eyes” Warren in Orange Is the New Black. It was nuts. It always makes me think of that line from The Godfather Part III: ‘Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.’”
While talking about the effect of playing the role of Brooke who lost a parent and the effect it had on her after she lost her own mother Nonyem to cancer last November and how the grief affected her, Aduba said that she found the role very healing and therapeutic.
She said; “I actually found it very healing and therapeutic. My mom was the closest person I’ve ever lost, so I didn’t know how my grief would manifest. What I know now, with some distance, is that this project came into my life at the exact right time. I was able to find a place to put my pain, and work through it. I came out at the end of it feeling, well… I won’t say weightless, but certainly lighter.”
