A year after Uzo Aduba won the Primetime Emmy award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series, she is nominated for another Emmy for the same role, but in the category for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama series.
Aduba, who plays Suzanne “Crazy Eyes” in Netflix’s “Orange Is the New Black,” sat down with TheWrap’s Itay Hod to talk about her emotional acceptance speech at last year’s event, and the primary reason for her sentimental speech was her mother.
“Firstly, I felt emotional, my mom came with me, and she’s sitting right next to me, and I just thought about everything that she has poured into not just me but all of her children,” Aduba said. “Just thinking that she put all of her energy, all of her sacrifice into us… She always believed in me and been my greatest champion, and I just felt that overwhelmingly take over for me.”
In the interview, Aduba also revealed that the day she got the role in “Orange Is the New Black,” she had quit acting and was working to become a lawyer: “I thought I could be a lawyer because I can talk a lot.”
Hearing her name being called by Morgan Freeman when she won the Emmy sent her over the edge.
“That was crazy, I was like, this is the voice of God from ‘Bruce Almighty!’ I was just feeling so grateful that Jenji [Kohan] had invited me to be part of the show and that I didn’t have to give up the thing that I loved so much. “
Aduba has also won a Critic’s Choice TV Award for Best Guest Performer in a Comedy Series and a SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series.
She has been on the show since its premiere in 2013, where her character initially develops a lesbian obsession with Piper Chapman (Taylor Schilling).