The Orange Is the New Black actor on how playing a therapist in the revived HBO drama helped her cope with the loss of her 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 my mind up to quit on Friday 14 September 2012,” she recalls, the date etched on her memory. “I was planning to call my agent on the 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.’”
Thank goodness they did, because the 40-year-old has since become a triple Emmy-winner. Born in Boston to Nigerian parents, Uzoamaka Aduba studied classical singing at university before becoming an actor. After a decade of acclaimed stage work and TV bit-parts, she eventually broke through to win multiple awards for the Netflix prison hit Orange Is the New Black. More followed last year for her turn as trailblazing US politician Shirley Chisholm in the Hulu/BBC series Mrs America.
