WHO’S TAT GIRL?
Aussie Model Ruby Rose joins ‘ Orange is the new black’ And blossoms in her Role
WHEN Ruby Rose received the e- mail with “Orange Is the New Black” in the subject line, she assumed someone was either having a laugh or perhaps wanted to book her for a theme party.
“I’d been unemployed for about a year and figured they wanted me to DJ at an unofficial ‘ Orange Is the New Black’ party at a club somewhere,” the stunning 29-year- old-Aussie, whose full name is Ruby Rose Langenheim, tells The Post.
Instead, it was from casting director Jen Euston’s office, wanting to knowif she’d like to audition for the show. Despite having enjoyed plenty of success up to that point— as an MTV VJ, magazine cover girl and Maybelline brand ambassador, aswell as a stint as a guest judge on “Australia’s Next Top Model” and a cameo role in the 2014 Australian movie “Around the Block” — Rose never dreamed she’d be asked to audition for a part on the popular Netflix series about life in a women’s prison.
This good- natured paranoia is something of a theme: When shewas offered the Maybelline job in 2010, she thought someone was playing an April Fools’ joke. She nowhas the company’s famous tag line “Maybe she’s born with it” inked onto her collarbone— one of more than 60 tattoos.
The newly released Season 3 of “Orange Is the New Black” (“OITNB,” to its fans) finds Rose strutting through the halls of Litchfield Penitentiary as Stella Carlin, an Australian inmate who will become part of a love triangle with girlfriends Piper Chapman ( Taylor Schilling) and Alex Vause ( Laura Prepon).
“She’s a charming, charismatic, boyish girl,” says Rose, herself a charming, charismatic, boyish girl. “She’s in Litchfield ruffling a few feathers. I think people will either love or hate it.”
Her opening scene, which takes place in the sixth episode, occurs as the inmates are sewing lingerie and Stella calls out Piper as the poor little “hot girl” who’s always feeling sorry for herself.
“It’s kind of like kids in primary school, hitting each other on the arm to express that they like each other,” says Rose. “She’s like, ‘ You’re so hot it’s disgusting, poor you.’ But the undercurrent is, ‘ I think you’re really sexy.’”
The scene also reveals Stella as gender fluid— someonewho identifies as both boy and girl, sometimes skewing more toward one gender than the other. Piper asks her if shewould identify herself as awoman, to which Stella replies, “Only because the options are limited.”
Growing up, Rose felt more like a boy than a girl. “It’s weird, some of the androgynous photos I have taken lately really make me wonder what I’d have looked like if I did a FTM[ female- to- male] transition like Iwanted to when Iwas younger,” she wrote on her Facebook account in 2014, adding that she’s perfectly happy with herself now. She’s wildly in love with her fiancée, Phoebe Dahl, granddaughter of children’s author Roald Dahl, and plans to get married sometime next year.
As a kid, though, shewas often bullied by classmates, and spent hours in the library, hiding and reading self- help and psychology books.
“At the beginning itwas stressful and chaotic: Why do Iwant towear lipstick one day and the next day dress like a boy?” recalls Rose, whose abusive father caused her and her mother tomove around frequently when shewas just 2 years old. Theywere eventually taken in by a church parish in North Melbourne.
Rose has embraced fame as a platform to speak to others about gender fluidity and bullying; she’s been equally outspoken about her battles with depression and bipolar disorder. A few months before her “OITNB” casting she made a video called “Break Free,” inwhich she challenges gender norms without saying aword: Rose cuts off her hair, wipes off her makeup, takes off a form- fitting dress and remakes herself with a short haircut, bandaged breasts and a shirt with blazer. The film was something she decided to make after a film director said she looked “too much like Justin Bieber” to play the “sexy girl” role in amajor film franchise. The video, which she produced on a whim, went viral.
As painful as her childhood was, she says she always knew things would eventually get better. “When Iwas suffering and locking myself in the library, thinking about people that inspired me— Angelina Jolie, Annie Lennox, Madonna— I felt like I had a higher power or spirituality that allowed me to believe that someone was taking care ofme and preparing me for something pretty awesome,” she says.
As for filming with the ladies of Litchfield, Rose says the experience was lifechanging. “Iwas a bit scared about being on a TV show that’s so successful, but I wasn’t scared about meeting the girls,” she says. “I thought they’d be welcoming, but I didn’t know they’d be a family. The first day I arrived, theywere knocking onmy trailer door. Now they’ll be inmy life forever.”
why do iwant to wear lipstick one day and the next dress like a boy?
— Ruby Rose on coping with gender fluidity