She had previously appeared as the lead in the Atlas Shrugged movie, the Zac Efron picture The Lucky One, and someone (ironically) named Mendez in Argo (because Mendez is the name of this douchey prison guard in the show, ah forget it). So needless to say, I had been unfamiliar with Taylor Schilling’s work prior to Orange is the New Black. I’m now a big fan of her work, at least in this show.
When I say I find her adorable I don’t mean in the “aw, ain’t she cute” way, although she is able to draw that reaction with a blink of her eyes. I mean that you can’t help but adore her; she seems on the outside like someone you’d dismiss as privileged and probably self-serious and uninteresting and humorless, but this is the great conceit of her casting, because she reveals herself as the opposite of all these things.
I had read prior to watching that she was one of the weak parts of the show, and while I was persuaded by that view at first, she eventually won me over. Actually, she won me over for a little bit after that scene in the first episode that I mentioned earlier, but she continued to win me over over and over and over as she continued to handle all these difficult scenarios and tricky matters of tone with seeming effortlessness. I came to the conclusion that any irritation I had with her was a reaction to the character of Piper having some irritating qualities—you know, like a real person you might know. Schilling doesn’t make her into Randle McMurphy but instead exposes her flaws and makes her likeable and relatable in spite of, or enhanced by the realism of, those flaws. It’s impossible to determine whether the show matches the tone of her acting or vice versa, but either way, they are an ideal fit.
Continue reading on the next page…
