Taryn Manning went "fully method" to play Tiffany "Pennsatucky" Doggett on ‘Orange Is The New Black’.
The 40-year-old actor admitted she didn’t make any friends on set the first season she joined the Netflix show, because she really wanted to get into character as the "racist and homophobic" inmate.
She told The Hollywood Reporter: "Pennsatucky is racist, homophobic. Horrible. Everything that I’m not is what she was, so it was very tough. But in my mind I knew I made a mistake and thought I wouldn’t get hired. I gave myself a lot of pep talks: ‘Just muscle through this and you’re going to come out the other side. But if you’re going to do this, do it well.’ So, I didn’t make many friends that first season. I isolated myself. ‘She wouldn’t talk to them anyway, she doesn’t like them.’ As they all got along and had a great time, I was sitting over on the side in character like, ‘Screw them.’
"That’s when I saw that I was a little bit more method than I thought. I thought that I could snap in and out. But to go to that dark of a place and to own it, to convince people that this is truly how she is, it had to be fully method. Taryn went bye. It was all this girl that I created."
And Taryn admitted that it took its toll on her.
She said: "There’s a piece of me in her. I learned so much from that role, it changed my life. I became very, very religious. I grew up with one religion and I switched and I think that it was all meant to be. And I’ve said no to about six roles that I’ve been offered since [that are similar]. I definitely need to work, but I can’t continue to play awful people or stereotypes. It just doesn’t resonate with me. I can’t even fake it. I’ve been offered several roles with decent pay checks and I’ve said I can’t do it.
"I’m a good person and not this horrible person that people want to send me roles for; I don’t want to play it anymore. It’s exhausting and it hurts. So if I have to wait for years to play something good then so be it. I don’t know what to do. I’m a little bit disappointed."
Taryn Manning went ‘fully method’ for OITNB
