Laura Prepon

TV Series Orange Is the New Black

One of the inmates in the scene was Prepon, as her Alex and Piper (Taylor Schilling) were taken by Piscatella while naked together in the shower. The storyline called for the pair to be wrapped in shower curtains as they joined the rest of their prison pals — Nicky (Natasha Lyonne), Boo (Lea Delaria) and Red's partner-in-crime Blanca (Laura Gomez) — to sit, bound by their hands and mouths with duct tape, and watch helplessly until they were ultimately rescued by the inmates hiding in Freida's (Dale Soules) bunker.

"I’m wrapped on the floor with my legs and arms bound and with duct tape over my mouth, and I’m having to be Alex, but I’m watching Brad give Piscatella’s monologue and I’m also directing him," Prepon tells The Hollywood Reporter of pulling double duty. "While I’m sitting on the floor bound and gagged, I’m also in my head thinking, 'In the next take I want him to do this.'"

It’s arguably one of the toughest episodes of the season and especially given your acting role in it, what were some of your conversations like with Kohan about its magnitude?

It was one of the toughest, material-wise. The interesting thing, too, was directing while my hands were tied behind my back, literally! And wrapped in a shower curtain. After I did that, I felt like I could probably direct anything! Being bound and gagged and having to direct is pretty funny.

You might be the first director to be bound and gagged on the job.

Seriously. I was directing in a shower curtain! But it was really tough subject matter. Having all the women in that environment with this man doing these things to them. You watch what’s going on in the janitor’s closet with the girls and how this man is totally debasing Red in front of her daughters, essentially, and just stripping her of all her power. And then having to go into the flashbacks and making you care about Piscatella was a really interesting and dynamic thing to play. It was wonderful as a director being able to work with these actors. You haven’t really seen Kate, as Red, in a position like that before, where she is so stripped of her dignity and the fact that this one man finds the right way to strip this woman of her dignity, and then to then go to his backstory and care for him with his relationship with the inmate. It was great material. It was one of the toughest episode in terms of what was happening with everybody, but as a director, I was very excited to be able to find all the nuances and to make an audience care about someone like Piscatella in those flashback scenes where you get a sense of why he is the way he is. That’s not an easy thing to do.

Can we go back to how you were directing while wearing the shower curtain?

Yes! I was wrapped in a shower curtain with my hands and ankles bound with duct tape, and duct tape over my mouth. I was like a dolphin without fins. They would wrap Taylor and I up and two stunt guys would have to lower us to the ground. It was crazy. We couldn’t move. They bound us up and our stunt guy would literally lower us to the ground and there were times where I needed two people to help me get down because we couldn't. Then every few takes someone would come in and pull the duct tape off my mouth so I could talk to people.

How many takes did you do of Piscatella cutting Red’s hair and scalp?

It’s tricky because everything takes time. So, to get one wig on it takes an hour and a half. You can’t actually put a knife that cuts on actress Kate Mulgrew’s head, so only specific cuts I can put on a stunt double, and then I have to come back with Kate. Figuring out how to shoot that was really fun because it was like a puzzle in terms of timing. At the end of the day, doing a show like Orange, one of the things is that there’s a lot of people to cover in the scene and they’re all very integral to it. Also, as an actor, I don’t want to wear anybody out and it was very emotional. Physically, we’re in these situations where we’re tied up on the floor. Taylor and I, as I said, are wrapped in shower curtains, bound and gagged. Kate is being debased. There’s a lot of physical fighting and movements and Brad's having to maneuver around the space. As a director, that’s wonderful, because you want all of these things going on, but on the technical side, it was a lot of scheduling and being highly efficient. First and foremost I wanted my actors to be comfortable and making sure they have enough time to get to where they need to get emotionally and be present. But when you have to deal with stunts and knives and people getting hit and punched — my arm also gets broken — it's all very delicate and just takes time with so many balls in the air.