Much of Litchfield spent the third season of "Orange Is the New Black" grappling with loneliness and loss of personal identity. No one better exemplified that strife than Black Cindy, whose requests for kosher meals began as a way to obtain tastier food and ended with a Jewish conversion that introduced what may be her first sense of purpose in life. Adrienne C. Moore is responsible for bringing that poignancy to life. Moore spent the show's first two seasons slowly building Black Cindy's fan-favorite status thanks to quippy one-liners ("I remember the Alamo, too, but that don't keep me from eating Mexican food"), a backstory as a young mother turned reckless TSA swindler and her role in Vee's cutthroat tribe. But she was promoted to series regular for Season 3, and with it came a meatier storyline and, as Moore exclaimed to The Huffington Post a few days ago, the joy of full-time employment.
Now that most "OITNB" fans have commenced with the marathon binge sessions, HuffPost caught up with Moore on the day after New York's Pride celebrations, where she and several other cast members paraded through the debauchery. ("Can I tell you how sore I am this morning?" she hooted on the phone.) We talked about Black Cindy's religious conversion, Crazy Eyes' "Time Hump Chronicles" and prancing around in smelly underwear in the name of the "big girls."
Did you see Drake post a clip of Black Cindy and Taystee on Instagram?
Yes, that was so crazy, wasn’t it? Yes, I did see it. Well, actually, we were on set working on Season 4 and [Danielle Brooks, who plays Taystee] came up to me and was like, “Did you see this?" She showed me the Instagram, and I was like, “We should re-Instagram it or something!” She was like, “No no no, play it cool, just play it cool.” A fellow fan re-Instragrammed it and I just liked hers. Like, let’s not get too crazy on this.
Did you know Black Cindy's Jewish-conversion storyline would end on such a poignant note? That scene with the rabbi in the finale is special because it's the furthest Cindy has drifted from her usual jovial self.
No, I didn’t. She’s always really good at masking her pain with humor, so I try not to spend too much time on the material when I get it because I just want to see what happens organically when I’m on set with the other actors. So I read it beforehand to understand what the scene is about and so forth. The day we were actually filming it, there were a few times in the first few takes when I did play with the tone and humor. And then literally at one point I was getting kind of frustrated with myself because the lines weren’t coming as they usually come to me, these chunky paragraphs that I have. And there I am thinking about my own personal experiences with Christianity and my own family, and literally I just started having these pictorial images of me going to church as a little girl with my family and going to Bible summer camp -- all these different images of myself as a kid. And the memories put me in an emotional place, so I just said, “Okay, well, if this is where it’s going to go, this is where it’s going to go.”
What does Cindy's conversion make you think about your own religious upbringing?
I did study religion at Northwestern and it was a very interesting time for me, because I think it was the beginning of my personal journey in this understanding of the purpose that religion serves in our culture and in our individual lives. It serves to ground us and be our moral compass. And then growing up, the evolution of that understanding became, well, there are so many different points that we can take to understand this bigger idea that there’s something out there bigger than me, whether you want to call it God or whether you want to call it Buddha or Krishna, or if it’s the representation of many gods or even no god. So taking that into thinking about what Black Cindy’s journey has become, she learned in a very real way that it’s in the act of doing whatever it is that you say that you believe in. It’s the act of doing that and not just saying that but believing it. It’s our job to continue to ask and understand and seek to know more.
It was really the first time we've seen Black Cindy look outside of herself to find a sense of purpose.
She certainly has learned to take care of herself because she’s seeing around her that everyone is about satisfying their own desires. She sees everyone with a bit of selfishness and as she talks about in Season 2, look at who the real criminals are –- you have these companies’ motivations. And in this season, you see them cutting costs and trying to slash labor by cutting guards out and cutting their pensions. These companies are finding ways around the system to quote-unquote meet their goals. She’s like, “Well, why can’t I?” But then with the whole religious aspect, we see that she came from this very religious background, and I think –- and I’ve seen a lot of this with people I’ve known -- when you grow up with a high expectation of religion being your central focus, sometimes people do tend to act out because they’re so tired of being like, “Everybody is looking at me and everybody is expecting me to do what’s right and what’s perfect, and I have my own issues and problems and desires that conflict with what’s morally right." Gaining control of that was a way for her to really break open how religion has really shaped what she has become.
Do you think this enlightenment will be a turning point for her relationship with her daughter and mother? That's always been a sensitive part of Cindy's life.
I certainly wonder that because I think in general Cindy does need to grow up. She does need to take on responsibility. It’s not for me to judge, but part of her journey and understanding about why she made the choices that landed her in jail will require her to take a hard look at herself and how she sometimes doesn’t own up to things she needs to own up to. I’m eager to see how that will play out with her relationship to her daughter and her relationship to her mother and even her relationships in the prison because she seems to be sort of willy-nilly at Litchfield and there’s a part of me that’s like, “Come on, Cindy, you're older than Taystee and you're taking orders from her."
How do you feel aboue Taystee becoming the den mother?
I certainly noticed that. It was something that made my ears rise. I was having a conversation with one of the writers who was visiting at that moment and I said, “I don’t know if Cindy would be taking directions from Taystee.” So when I was reading it, I started getting a little stank face, a little side eye, like, “Damn Taystee, she’s telling me what to do.” So we’ll see how that takes shape in the upcoming season.
The lake scene in the finale is such a powerful moment, except you don't get to frolic with the rest of the cast. How special is it to have your own moment like that when you're normally part of big ensemble scenes?
What’s interesting in general about this season is they did break up some of the stronger group dynamics even within the quote-unquote dorm families, as we call them. I love being with my ghetto dorm girls because I think there’s a great dynamic since we all are friends and we trust each other. But I think for Black Cindy she needed to experience this journey on her own, especially because this is going to be a turning point for her to start growing up and taking some responsibility. At some point, we have to move away from the pack to take certain journeys on our own. But I always love it when I’m with my girls.
Whose crime are you still dying to know about?
Well, okay, I’m gonna answer this in two parts because technically you still don’t know what landed Black Cindy in jail. You know she steals, but it wasn't shown in that scene.
Do you know?
No! I wish! But I’d probably say Crazy Eyes. I’m really hoping the writers will knock it out of the park like they always do. It has to be a strong reveal.
Did you get to read all of "The Time Hump Chronicles?" I imagine that dialogue about Rodcocker and Edwina was hard to memorize.
I can’t really speak a lot about "The Time Hump Chronicles." There were a few times that I said somebody did somethin’ somethin’ and that was kind of it. The other girls had bigger lines that spoke about it more. But actually, the paper that Crazy Eyes carried around did have the full story written out. Someone in props or whatever wrote a pretty lengthy story out of it.
How were you pitched the underwear plot?
I think I got the script first and then a conversation with one of our producers on the show, who said, "Are you comfortable doing this?" And I said, "Let me really, really think about it. Let me go to sleep and wake up and then give you my answer," which is what I did. I went home and thought about it. First I thought about my mom and dad and I said, “Okay, they’re going to see this. What are they going to think?” I mean, I’m a girl from the South, so I was raised with morals -- you know, your family’s first. Then I started thinking about my family and my parents and how these past couple of years have been tough for them health-wise, and how they’re always telling me, “Don’t wait as long as we did, be healthy now. You want to live a healthier and happier life when you get to be our age and not to have to go through what we’re going through." That led me to think about how actually going back to Season 2, the airport scene, the guy that I feel up is Jerry Ford, and we reconnected months after filming that because we have a mutual friend. Jerry is a trainer, so Jerry started training me around that same time. He made it fun. I’m scared of the gym -- I see all these machines and I’m like, “What is that? What am I supposed to do?” And I’m like reading the little things or watching the pictures to figure out what the machine is telling me to do, but he made it fun and the next thing I know I’m starting to lose weight and yada yada yada. So then I said, "You know what, I’ll do it in my underwear because I’m celebrating all the hard work that I’ve put in." It’s about loving and celebrating life and being healthy. And yes, I’m not the average of what you see. We don’t always see the big girls and I wanted to put the big girls out there.
Are you a series regular in Season 4, too?
Yes. I am!
Where are you guys on the new season?
We are in the beginning. We are reunioning right now. Everyone is starting to show up to work and we’re happy.
Before You Go
