Taryn Manning recalls going "fully method" on Orange Is the New Black to play her "racist, homophobic" and "horrible" character

The Hollywood Reporter

"I thought I'd be assassinated for this role. She's such a horrible person!" Manning said of initially playing Pennsatucky in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. She added: "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 realized that I was a little bit more method than I thought. (Laughs.) 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." Manning also looked back at the evolution of her character into someone "very nice" and "a little boring."

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