Steven Prusakowski
When you find a memorable role like Suzanne “Crazy Eyes” Warren on Orange Is the New Black, there’s a chance all others will sit in the shadow of that character. That is not the case for Uzo Aduba, who, after six seasons of playing the iconic character that earned her two Emmy wins, went on to deliver other unforgettable performances. Roles in Mrs. America as Shirley Chisholm (earning her a third Emmy) and In Treatment as Dr. Brooke Taylor showcased her versatility, but it is her starring role as Detective Cordelia Cupp in Netflix’s Shondaland series The Residence which best proves she can unravel the mystery of captivating audiences.
Cordelia is a brilliant and quirky detective with a passion for birding who is brought in to navigate a murder mystery in a very unique setting, the White House. This character combines sharp intelligence, subtle humor, and a meticulous attention to detail, making her a standout in the television landscape. Her investigative style draws parallels to classic detectives like Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot, with his methodical precision, and modern sleuths like Benoit Blanc from the Knives Out films, who blend wit with keen observation, yet her birding hobby may be what sets her apart as a fresh addition to the genre in a deeply ingrained way.
Much of who Cordelia Cupp is comes from the script, crafted by showrunner and creator Paul William Davies. However, it is what Aduba brings to the performance that elevates the role to something truly robust and memorable. In a recent interview with TV Topics podcast, Aduba provided incredible insight into her preparation and her deep understanding of Cordelia, leaning into the character’s backstory and her birding passion. One aspect that stood out was the stillness associated with Cordelia’s investigative approach, inspired by her birding.
“That stillness was something that felt very clear to me. I think in terms of how she interrogates, it became really clear in, I think it’s episode two, when she’s interrogating my castmate Izzy, and he’s going out and coming back and she doesn’t say a word, you know, silence is golden,” explained Aduba. “This is what I think I wrote in that script, that silence is golden that day. In my acting notes for myself, “reminder, you’ll catch more flies with silence, not even honey, silence is golden here.” That sort of came alive and it felt like the right marriage, given the way that I was needing to speak and place, pitch her voice. It felt like that felt a great way to wed how she sort of exists.”
“Another place of inspiration for that was the birding, she’s a birder. That’s her hobby. I went birding. I had never been birding before. And so what I learned there was that birding is a patient man’s game. That is something where it’s stillness again, or you’re going to make the bird fly away. You kind of have to just sit, be still, wait, and you have to wait for the thing that you’re looking for to come to you, which is not unlike how she practices her detective work either. She’s got to wait, she’s waiting for the information to come to her,” said Aduba.
Uzo carries those birding traits into her sleuthing. Often silent and observant, she holds back her words and thoughts until precisely the right moment. Even in stillness, Aduba’s acting remains dynamic; you can see the gears silently, but rapidly churning behind her eyes, piecing together the puzzle of a winding, suspect-heavy mystery.
Her work on Orange Is the New Black was part of an exceptional ensemble, and the cast of The Residence rivals it, providing a colorful array of suspects like Giancarlo Esposito, Ken Marino, Susan Kelechi Watson, Molly Griggs. Bronson Pinchot, Jane Curtain, Mel Rodriguez and others. Then there’s Randall Park who plays Cordelia’s by-the-book FBI partner, and brings sharp humor as well as steadfast loyalty.
During the TV Topics discussion, Aduba explored her character in depth and she also revealed her deep love for television. More accurately, she couldn’t contain her enthusiasm for shows like The Wire, Scandal, The Sopranos, In Living Color and more. She doesn’t just contribute to the TV landscape; she consumes it, sometimes returning for multiple servings, as she mentioned recently completing her fourth viewing of The Sopranos (warning: the conversation does contain some spoilers for the series). It’s a fascinating conversation with an actress who not only loves TV but has delivered some of its most compelling performances in recent memory.
While Aduba is fully embracing playing Cordelia Cupp, she will never leave Suzanne “Crazy Eyes” behind. “Suzanne will always live with me. She was such a gift to my heart. She really cemented for me some ideas that I had in my own growings up that being yourself is enough, even as wild or different as that person might be, to hold firm to that,” shared Aduba. “That’s something that she affirmed for me and through her existence. So she lives with me, absolutely – she’s well, well, well alive in my mind. She’s out at this point and she’s finding her way through the world and being as pure, honest, authentic and creative as she’s always been.”
Listen to the full interview below—it was one of my favorites and offers profound insight into Aduba’s process and how television, past and present, has shaped her as an artist. Below are some highlighted clips from the conversation that explore her work on The Residence, but they are only a piece of the puzzle. Listening to the full interview truly captures the spirit, energy, and brilliance of her words – reading them is one thing, but hearing them conveys so much more.
The Residence and Cordelia Cupp are now patiently waiting for you to stream them on Netflix.
On how the role came to her:
“I got a call from Shondaland asking if I would like to come and meet and read the material and sit with the showrunners of the show, creator, (Paul William Davies) and the Shondaland family, which I did. And I read the first few scripts and was really captured by it, to be honest with you. I really enjoyed reading what I was reading. I thought her voice was really strong to me. I hadn’t read anything quite like it in terms of how the jokes that were inside the script and the stage directions, you know, it was really funny and very precise.”
On researching Cordelia’s detective work:
“What I was less familiar with was some of her idiosyncrasies and her unique style of detective work and what she used as sort of her strength to get her into solving cases, which is her hobbies and her attention to detail. Those were things that were unique and specific to her. So those were things that I had to lean more into and do more research work because I was not at all familiar with any of her hobbies. And, you know, she’s somebody who has a face that doesn’t give anything away, you know, and I have a face that does give everything away.”
On the White House set:
“That was a set that Francois, our production set designer built that was unbelievable. Between production design and our props who, and costumes too, were just unbelievable. They were just all amazing with their jobs. They really built something quite exceptional that we had something like, I want to say we were on maybe 14 stages. Rooms built to scale. It was to the point when we were walking in in the beginning, people didn’t even want to come in with their coffee. or, you know, anything to make a mess and not really sit on the furniture because it felt so real. It looked so real.
Answer to The Greatest Moment In TV History!!!…. according to Uzo Aduba:
“Greatest moment? Oh, well, okay. So now I’m throwing it back to my jam finale of Seinfeld. It started right as it began. I loved, for people like me, I mean, I was a super fan. All that, the testimonies, all those characters that you’d come to know who had just become so iconic. Watching them all come through. And then I loved just like that pull away in the cell and how it just started exactly how it began, which was a show about nothing. It was never about anything.”
Be sure to subscribe to TV Topics on you favorite podcast provider for dozens of amazing conversations from Uzo Aduba and Carrie Coon to Gary Oldman, Rose Byrne, Peyton List and more.
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