Orange Is The New Black stars share complex view from inside

Orange Is The New Black stars Taylor Schilling and Uzo Aduba join guest host Piya Chattopadhyay to discuss the second season of the wildly popular show. Schilling, who plays protagonist Piper Chapman, and Aduba, who plays Suzanne "Crazy Eyes" Warren, peel back the layers of their misfit characters and the complex world inside a women's prison.

The actresses also reflect on the show's growing importance in the cultural lexicon, its skillful blend of humour and darkness, and its controversial approach to complicating racial stereotypes.

The person inside the jumpsuit

Both actresses also comment on the evolution of their characters. Aduba says that inhabiting the character of Suzanne is about much more than "playing crazy" -- whatever that means.

"For me, when I read it [the script] I was just seeing someone who was grossly misunderstood," she says. "This is someone who is in love, and that I could connect to. When you are lost in love, swept up in that story ... I don't know a person who hasn't done some things that someone from the outside might look at and say, 'that was crazy.'"

For Schilling's fish-out-of water protagonist, the key tension emerges from having to confront herself in a "bottoming-out" situation.

"As she's losing more, and having less and less to lose, she's discovering more and more who she really is. And there's a fearlessness and like a recklessness that's emerging as she no longer needs to be someone for the people on the outside, and I don't think she knows who that person is now," Schilling says of Piper.

To give you a sense of the tone of the second season, here's a teaser clip from Orange Is The New Black.