Breaking out:
Orange Is The New Black actress Uzo Aduba (below) takes on a very different role for the series In Treatment. Kerry Harvey reports.
From Orange Is The New Black to the therapist’s chair.
After seven years of playing ‘crazy’ on Orange Is The New Black, Nigerian-American actor Uzo Aduba has moved into the therapist’s chair in the long-awaited fourth season of In Treatment. “This is easily one of the hardest jobs I’ve ever had in my life,” says the 40-year-old actor who played Suzanne ‘Crazy Eyes’ Warren in all seven seasons of the hit prison drama. “However, I cannot make that statement without also saying that it is also one of the most satisfying, fulfilling experiences I’ve also ever had.” Aduba is stepping into the shoes left vacant by actor Gabriel Byrne, who played New York therapist Paul Weston in the drama’s first three seasons from 2008 to 2010. This 2021 reimagining of the series – now set in Los Angeles – has new therapist Dr Brooke Taylor (Aduba) wrestling with her own issues as she sees three challenging patients in her home after the Covid-19 pandemic forces the closure of her office. Those patients are Eladio (Anthony Ramos), a care worker for the son of a wealthy family, Colin (Benjamin Hickey, Jessica Jones), a millionaire white-collar criminal recently released from prison, and Lalla (Quintessa Swindell, Euphoria), a teen client with an overbearing family. Joel Kinnaman (The Killing) also appears as Adam, who is Brooke’s boyfriend. Brooke is a very different kind of therapist from her predecessor who was a compassionate but flawed man who experienced a malpractice lawsuit and troubles with his family over the course of the drama’s first three seasons. “This project came into my life at a time that was needed and has brought an excitement and
an energy – there’s a thrill,” says Aduba, who, in 2015, became the first actress to win Emmy Awards in both the drama and comedy categories for her role in Orange Is The New Black.
She won a third Emmy in 2020 when she took home the best supporting actress award for her portrayal of feminist Shirley Chisholm in the mini-series Mrs America.
Brooke is so different from ‘Crazy Eyes’ Suzanne.
She is beautifully dressed and eerily calm as she sits – at the appropriate social distance – listening to the clients who visit her Hollywood Hills home seeking help with some modern-day problems.
The show doesn’t shy away from issues such as toxic masculinity, racism and addiction.
Through it all, Brooke remains almost expressionless.
“There’s a face that therapists wear when they’re treating – a sort of a mask that protects from judgment – and any sort of feeling that the patient might interpret from them so that they feel like they’re getting a compassionate, open ear,” Aduba says.
Each episode features just one of her three clients and the actress says in many ways she feels like she has a front-row seat at a theatre performance.
“Without question, the actors in this show are absolutely incredible. They’re fierce. They’re dynamic. They are nuanced. They are strong. They just shine brilliantly,” she says.
“And you do feel like you get the opportunity to sit in the front row to watch them just be impressive, quite frankly, in a variety of ways – not only with their acting, but also with the level of preparation that they bring to their performance and the different dynamics that they bring into their very long speeches that they have to prepare.
“It’s amazing. It’s my favourite part because they do it with such fire.
“They kill it every time, period, point blank. It’s really, really great.”
Brooke herself is, initially at least, an unknown quantity. She exhibits a certain sadness as well as a staggering degree of professionalism. She might be working from home but her standards are as high as ever.
“Even in this pandemic, as you hear her say in the show, she shows up for her patients. She shows up for them no matter what,” Aduba says.
“Even during quarantine, during lockdown, she shows up dressed, ready to be of service to them.
“I think that also extends as far as her opening them up to her own experiences to help invite them to come closer to the things that they’re looking to confront.
“That being said, I think what’s also been interesting in doing this show is that you also get to watch how that type of therapy and treatment is exercised from patient to patient and session to session.”
“There’s a face that therapists wear when they’re treating – a sort of a mask that protects from judgment.”
– Uzo Aduba