Piper Chapman | |
---|---|
Orange Is the New Black character | |
First appearance | "I Wasn't Ready" (2013) |
Last appearance | "Here's Where We Get Off" (2019) |
Portrayed by | Taylor Schilling Clare Foley (young) |
In-universe information | |
Nickname | Chapman Pipes Dandelion Gapman College Vanilla |
Occupation | Barista at Starbucks Assistant Accountant (former) Waitress (former) PoPi Co-owner (former) Public Relations Executive (former) Teaching Assistant (former) |
Family | Carol Chapman (mother) Bill Chapman (father) Cal Chapman (brother) Celeste Chapman (grandmother) |
Significant other | Alex Vause (wife) Larry Bloom (ex-fiancé) |
Nationality | American |
Education | Smith College (BA) |
Piper Elizabeth Chapman (played by Taylor Schilling) is the protagonist of the Netflix series Orange Is the New Black . The character is based on Piper Kerman, author of the non-fiction book Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison , upon which the series is based. [1] Schilling was nominated for awards in both comedy and drama categories for this role.
A Boston-born Smith College grad, Piper Chapman got involved in a relationship with an international drug smuggler, Catherine Cleary Wolters. [1] [2] Chapman's girlfriend in the series, Alex Vause, is based on Wolters, whom she met circa 1991 in Northampton, Massachusetts. [2] Eventually, 24-year-old Chapman flew a suitcase of money from the United States to Belgium for a West African drug lord and was named five years later as part of the drug ring. [1] As part of her plea bargain, she declared that she made three overseas trips on behalf of the drug ring. [3] After breaking up with Wolters, Kerman met Larry Smith and got engaged before being charged with felonious money laundering in 1998 and striking a deal. She spent 13 months in a Danbury, Connecticut women's prison, FCI Danbury. [2] Kerman actually had a six-year delay between being sentenced to prison and entering prison in 2004. The show is based on Kerman's 2010 book Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison about her year in a minimum security federal women's prison. [1] Chapman's fiancé, Larry Bloom, is based on Smith, Kerman's real life boyfriend and eventual husband. [4]
Series creator Jenji Kohan had initially considered casting Katie Holmes in the role, but decided against it as Holmes had too many commitments.[ citation needed ] Ultimately Kohan cast Taylor Schilling.
This section needs additional citations for verification .(June 2017) |
Chapman is a 31-year-old White Anglo-Saxon Protestant who is sentenced to 15 months in prison for carrying a bag of drug-money ($50,000) to Belgium for her girlfriend, Alex Vause. [5] Prior to prison, Chapman owned an artisanal bath soap business in Brooklyn. She comes from a wealthy family, and was a debutante as a teenager. [6] She is originally from Connecticut. Chapman is bisexual, and in college was in a relationship with Alex Vause (Laura Prepon), a drug smuggler. 10 years prior to the series' beginning, she carried drug money from Colombia to Belgium with Vause. Eventually, Chapman grew disenchanted with Vause's lifestyle and broke up with her. She then began dating Larry Bloom (Jason Biggs), to whom she got engaged.
Piper is one of very few emphatically atheist inmates on a television show that highlights the theme of issues around American religious freedom. [7] [8] For instance, in season 1 episode 12 she responds to a request that she be baptized by saying that she cannot pretend to believe in a god, saying that while it might make her happier if she believed in a religion, she "needs it to be true", and instead looks to science to explain the world. Earlier in that same episode, she had clarified that "Well, I've always thought agnostic was sort of a cop-out... If I had to label it I'd say that I'm a secular humanist which is not to say I'm not spiritual". [9]
In 2018, Schilling stated that while Walter White of Breaking Bad was written with having a rationale for each action, "Piper's behavior oftentimes feels groundless" and "the audience can't quite grab onto Piper's behavior. It seems like it's coming out of nowhere." [10]
This section needs additional citations for verification .(June 2017) |
Chapman is sentenced to 15 months in Litchfield Prison, for criminal conspiracy and money laundering; [11] Vause had been arrested and named Chapman as an accomplice in order to reduce her own sentence. On Chapman's first day, Chapman gets felt up by guard George "Pornstache" Mendez (Pablo Schreiber) and unintentionally offends prison matriarch Red (Kate Mulgrew), who runs the prison cafeteria. Red starves Chapman to make an example of her, and the other inmates are too intimidated to help except for Crazy Eyes (Uzo Aduba). Nonetheless, Chapman resists Crazy Eyes' subsequent advances and makes amends with Red by making her lotion to help her painful back. Chapman befriends Nicky Nichols (Natasha Lyonne), who becomes her confidante and protector. Chapman also discovers Vause has also been sentenced to Litchfield.
Chapman is assigned to the prison's electrical workshop and accidentally pockets a screwdriver. Her cellmate, Miss Claudette (Michelle Hurst), helps her evade the guards' searches. In order to ingratiate herself with the other inmates, Chapman offers to review their appeal letters.
Although Bloom learns that Vause was the informant who gave Chapman up, he does not share this information with his fiancée. Chapman then rekindles her relationship with Vause. Meanwhile, Bloom, an aspiring writer, publishes a story about Chapman's incarceration that paints unflattering portraits of her fellow inmates and the prison staff. The article earns Chapman the ire of both the guards and the other prisoners, and severely strains on her already fading relationship with Bloom.
Chapman is elected to the prison council but finds that the only change she is able to make is to get the track reopened for Janae Watson (Vicky Jeudy), who was put in solitary confinement during the screwdriver incident. Chapman makes an enemy of Tiffany "Pennsatucky" Doggett (Taryn Manning), who wanted her spot on the council. Doggett tells the inmate counselor Sam Healy (Michael J. Harney) about Chapman and Vause's relationship; Healy punishes Chapman by putting her in solitary confinement and telling Bloom about the affair. Bloom gets back at Chapman by doing an interview on NPR that casts Litchfield in a harsh light, which makes her even more unpopular. During an angry phone call, Bloom reveals that Vause informed on her.
Vause asks Chapman to choose between her and Bloom. Chapman chooses Bloom, but Vause breaks them up and spurns Chapman. When Doggett attacks Chapman with a shiv, Chapman finally snaps and beats her to a pulp. [12] [13]
After spending a month in solitary confinement, Chapman is flown to Chicago to serve as a witness against the drug kingpin who had been Vause's boss. [14] There, she spends time in a maximum security prison with dangerous inmates who menace her
Chapman begins a business selling used panties to people outside of Litchfield, enlisting her brother Cal as her middleman. Chapman begins a romantic relationship with an Australian prisoner, Stella (Ruby Rose Langenheim). After Stella steals Chapman's money, she plants contraband in Stella's bunk and orchestrates her being sent to the maximum security unit in retaliation the day before Stella's release date.
Chapman continues her panty business but finds herself in competition with a group of Dominicans led by Maria Ruiz. When Chapman aligns herself with a gang of white supremacists and plants contraband in Maria's bunk, Maria retaliates by kidnapping her and having her branded with a swastika. [15]
Now out of prison, Piper struggles to adjust to her new lifestyle on the outside. [16]
According to Emily VanDerWerff of Vox Media's Vox.com Chapman was a character with "tricky contradictions and likability issues". [17] In reviewing season 1, Matthew Wolfson Slant Magazine describes Chapman as "a familiar vessel through which to comprehend prison's unfamiliar terrain". [18] Over the course of the first season, the show becomes less focused on Chapman, according to James Poniewozik of Time . [19] The Boston Globe describes Chapman's assimilation into prison as a display of "Martha Stewart-like efforts to survive". [6] At the time of the Golden Globe Award nomination, Entertainment Weekly described Chapman in prison as a woman who was "totally out of her element" and said that the role was dichotomous with demands to "vacillate between being sympathy-worthy and trying fans’ patience with Chapman's entitlement". [20] Tom Meltzer of The Guardian wrote "Chapman's romantic and rebellious re-awakening drives the show, but it is the ensemble that kept us coming back for more". [21]
By season 2, Piper remained a main character of an ensemble cast but not the central character according to IGN's Matt Fowler. [22] Liz Raftery of TV Guide says "There's a lot going on in Season 2 of Netflix's Orange Is the New Black, and very little of it has to do with Piper Chapman". [23] Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone considered that the show's ensemble focus has turned Piper into "dead weight" and "nobody would argue that an early parole for her would hurt the show". [24] As he reviewed season 2, The Huffington Post Canada entertainment editor Chris Jancelewicz, opined that "Schilling's deadpan expressions and snap comedic timing help us empathize and grow to love her" as her character became more understandable. [25] Alicia Lutes of MTV wrote that as of Season 2 the show is about Piper understanding herself and her capabilities better "even if those abilities put her further in the muck" and not about her possible reformation. [26]
Sarene Leeds of The Wall Street Journal stated that in Season 3 Piper changed from being "a gangsta wannabe into a dangerous villain that is not to be crossed" after planting contraband in girlfriend Stella's bed to get her sent to the maximum security unit in retaliation for Stella stealing from her; Leeds argued that the change "is a necessary plot device to keep things interesting" even though she did not like the new version of Piper. [27] Drew Millard of Vice wrote that Season 3 Piper went "completely off the deep end" and changed "into the most unlikable version of herself", making her "deadweight on a show that was at first strictly about her." [28] Kerman stated that even though she still found the series to be entertaining, she could no longer relate to Piper Chapman. [29] Sadie Gennis of TV Guide also suggested removing Chapman from the show. [30]
Schilling has been nominated for awards in both comedy and drama categories: Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series at the 66th Primetime Emmy Awards and Best Actress – Television Series Drama at the 71st Golden Globe Awards and won Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy at the 18th Satellite Awards for her season 1 performance. [31] [32] [33] Her season 2 performance earned a 72nd Golden Globe Awards nomination for Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy, [34] and a 19th Satellite Awards nomination for Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy. [35] Her season 3 performance won Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy at the 20th Satellite Awards. [36]
Laura Prepon is an American actress and television director. She rose to fame with her role as Donna Pinciotti in the Fox sitcom That '70s Show (1998–2006). She is also known for portraying Alex Vause in the Netflix comedy-drama series Orange Is the New Black (2013–2019). Prepon made her film debut in 2001 with the independent drama Southlander. Her other films include the romantic drama Come Early Morning (2006), the comedy Lay the Favorite (2012), the thriller The Girl on the Train (2016), and the drama The Hero (2017).
The Federal Correctional Institution, Danbury is a low-security United States federal prison for male and female inmates in Danbury, Connecticut. It is operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a division of the United States Department of Justice. The facility also has an adjacent satellite prison camp that houses minimum-security female offenders.
Taylor Jane Schilling is an American actress. She is best known for her role as Piper Chapman on the Netflix original comedy-drama series Orange Is the New Black (2013–2019), for which she received a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series and two Golden Globe Award nominations for Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy and Best Actress – Television Series Drama. She made her film debut in the 2007 drama Dark Matter. She also starred as Nurse Veronica Flanagan Callahan in the short-lived NBC medical drama Mercy (2009–2010). Her other films include Atlas Shrugged: Part I (2011), the romantic drama The Lucky One (2012), the comedy Take Me (2017), and the science-fiction thriller The Titan (2018).
Piper Eressea Kerman is an American author. She was indicted in 1998 on charges of felonious money-laundering activities, and sentenced to 15 months' detention in a federal correctional facility, of which she eventually served 13 months. Her memoir of her prison experiences, Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison (2010), was adapted into the critically-acclaimed Netflix comedy-drama series Orange Is the New Black (2013). Since leaving prison, Kerman has spoken widely about women in prison and problems with the federal prison system. She now works as a communication strategist for non-profit organizations.
Orange Is the New Black is an American comedy-drama television series created by Jenji Kohan for Netflix. The series is based on Piper Kerman's memoir Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison (2010), about her experiences at FCI Danbury, a minimum security federal prison. Produced by Tilted Productions in association with Lionsgate Television, Orange Is the New Black premiered on Netflix on July 11, 2013. Its seventh and final season was released on July 26, 2019.
The second season of the American comedy-drama television series Orange Is the New Black premiered on Netflix on June 6, 2014, at 12:00 am PST in multiple countries. It consists of thirteen episodes, each between 51 and 60 minutes, with a 90-minute finale. The series is based on Piper Kerman's memoir, Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison (2010), about her experiences at FCI Danbury, a minimum-security federal prison. The series is created and adapted for television by Jenji Kohan.
Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison is a 2010 memoir by American author Piper Kerman, which tells the story of her money laundering and drug trafficking conviction and subsequent year spent in a federal women's prison.
The first season of the American comedy-drama television series Orange Is the New Black premiered on Netflix on July 11, 2013, at 12:00 am PST in multiple countries. It consists of thirteen episodes, each between 51–60 minutes. The series is based on Piper Kerman's memoir, Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison (2010), about her experiences at FCI Danbury, a minimum-security federal prison. Created and adapted for television by Jenji Kohan. In July 2011, Netflix was in negotiations with Lionsgate for a 13-episode TV adaptation of Kerman's memoirs. The series began filming in the old Rockland Children's Psychiatric Center in Rockland County, New York, on March 7, 2013. The title sequence features photos of real former female prisoners including Kerman herself.
Suzanne "Crazy Eyes" Warren is a fictional character played by Uzo Aduba on the Netflix series Orange Is the New Black. Warren is portrayed as intelligent, but lacking in social skills, and prone to spiral into emotional outbursts and delusions when agitated due to mental illness. She is a recurring character in season one and a regular character beginning with season two.
Lorna Morello is a fictional character from the Netflix dramedy series Orange Is the New Black, played by Yael Stone. Stone was initially contracted for one episode, but was quickly promoted to series regular. Morello is based on two real-life inmates featured in Piper Kerman's 2010 memoir Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison. Morello is Italian-American, and is portrayed as being a positive, bold, opinionated person and "a hopeless romantic". She has a distinctive accent, which is a mix of Brooklyn and Boston. Morello made her first screen appearance during the season one premiere episode "I Wasn't Ready".
The third season of the American comedy-drama television series Orange Is the New Black premiered on Netflix on June 11, 2015, at 12:00 am PST in multiple countries. It consists of thirteen episodes, each between 53–60 minutes, with a 90-minute finale. The series is based on Piper Kerman's memoir, Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison (2010), about her experiences at FCI Danbury, a minimum-security federal prison. The series is created and adapted for television by Jenji Kohan.
Alex Vause is a fictional character played by Laura Prepon on the Netflix series Orange Is the New Black. The character is loosely based on the real ex-girlfriend of Piper Kerman, author of Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison. Before her arrest, Vause worked for an international drug cartel and was in a relationship with protagonist Piper Chapman, who once transported drug money for her during their travels. Vause is portrayed as the catalyst for Chapman's indictment. She is reunited with her ex-lover in federal prison, nearly a decade after the events that led to their breakup. Her relationship with Chapman is reignited, as they carry out a tumultuous love affair in prison. Vause is noted for her pragmatism, forthrightness, wit and veiled vulnerability. She is a main character in seasons one, three, four, five, six, and seven and a recurring character in season two.
Tiffany "Pennsatucky" Doggett is a fictional character in the Netflix series Orange Is the New Black, portrayed by Taryn Manning. Manning was offered the role without needing to audition. The character of Doggett is based on a real-life prisoner, a "young woman from western Pennsylvania who proudly called herself a redneck". She is from Waynesboro, Virginia. Prior to her imprisonment, she is shown to be exchanging sexual favors for soda or money. Doggett is also known to have had five abortions. She is charged with shooting a nurse at the abortion clinic who disrespected her, and decides to hire a Christian lawyer; the ensuing support she receives from Christian groups leads to Doggett becoming a born-again Christian.
Nicole Nichols is a fictional character played by Natasha Lyonne on the Netflix series Orange Is the New Black. She is a recurring character in season one and a main character from season two onwards. Lyonne received an Emmy nomination in 2014 for the role.
The fifth season of the American comedy-drama television series Orange Is the New Black premiered on Netflix on June 9, 2017, at 12:00 am PST in multiple countries. It consists of thirteen episodes, each between 51 and 60 minutes. The series is based on Piper Kerman's memoir, Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison (2010), about her experiences at FCI Danbury, a minimum-security federal prison. The series is created and adapted for television by Jenji Kohan.
The sixth season of the American comedy-drama television series Orange Is the New Black premiered on Netflix on July 27, 2018, at 12:00 am PDT in multiple countries. It consists of thirteen episodes, each between 50 and 84 minutes. The series is based on Piper Kerman's memoir, Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison (2010), about her experiences at FCI Danbury, a minimum-security federal prison. The series is created and adapted for television by Jenji Kohan.
The seventh and final season of the American comedy-drama television series Orange Is the New Black premiered on Netflix on July 26, 2019, at 12:00 am PDT in multiple countries. It consists of thirteen episodes, each between 55 and 89 minutes. The series is based on Piper Kerman's memoir, Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison (2010), about her experiences at FCI Danbury, a minimum-security federal prison. The series was created and adapted for television by Jenji Kohan.
The fourth season of the American comedy-drama television series Orange Is the New Black premiered on Netflix on June 17, 2016, at 12:00 am PST in multiple countries. It consists of thirteen episodes, each between 54–60 minutes, with a 77-minute finale. The series is based on Piper Kerman's memoir, Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison (2010), about her experiences at FCI Danbury, a minimum-security federal prison. The series is created and adapted for television by Jenji Kohan.
"Lesbian Request Denied" is the third episode of the first season of the American comedy-drama series Orange Is the New Black (OITNB), based on Piper Kerman's memoir, Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison (2010), regarding her time at FCI Danbury, a minimum-security federal prison. The episode was released on Netflix on July 11, 2013, along with the rest of the first season. It was written by Sian Heder, and is one of two OITNB episodes directed by actress and director Jodie Foster.
How do you picture their future after the screen fades to orange? Well, Alex and Piper end up together.