You might have heard (unless you've been living under a rock, or say, in a prison) that Orange is the New Black Season 3 has landed on Netflix. We're loving it so far, but it has made us wonder; what do the ladies of Litchfield look like when you strip away the orange jumpsuits, inmate attitude and give them a bottle of deep conditioner? Well, now it's time to find out and see them in all their orange carpet glory, because last week the OITNB stars broke out of their prison bars and rocked it in the Big Apple for #OrangeCon. OrangeCon is the official party and screening for OITNB super fans, btw. So obviously heat's editor-in-chief, Lucie Cave, got all the goss...
By far the biggest cheer on the orange carpet went to Laverne Cox whose arrival one fan compared to being like: "The Beatles have entered the building!" Laverne told heat that her character Sophia would welcome us into her Litchfield hair salon. "I love what you've done to your locks darling!" she cooed before confessing that this series of OITNB was one of her most intense yet and in one episode (she wouldn't say which as didn't want to give away any spoilers): "It was like I had an out of body experience and the character just took over." Taylor Schilling said she was still in shock at how far she and the show had come since its inception: "When I came in to see you at heat before Series One, we never knew how huge it would be and now its overwhelming in the most brilliant way!"
Natasha Lyonne who plays Nicky kept joking that there were so many people it was giving her the sweats and was in a particularly cheeky mood, saying she couldn't wait to mingle with the fans inside the party. She also told us one of her top tips for survival in prison would be to "make friends with the chef!" Fellow inmate and co-star Yael Stone, who plays Morello, told heat she thought the prison life hacks featured in the show were some of the most inventive: "Who knew what you could do with sanitary products? We've had slippers and also curlers made out of them!" she laughed.
heat got to mingle with the whole cast which was quite something and it was heartwarming to see how affectionate and warm they all were with each other when off set - "We're always laughing and joking once the cameras stop rolling" said Nick Sandow, who plays Caputo, one of the few male characters.
Inside the party, heat got to hang out with the fans and pretend we were in actual prison as the whole event was built like a replica of Litchfield, complete with prison food and cells you could attempt to sleep in (although we noticed the props like screwdrivers and glasses were all glued down to stop over-eager fans like us tea-leafing them). We were also served prison food (which thankfully hadn't been tampered with by Red) before an exclusive Q&A with the cast and getting to watch the first two episodes of Season 3. Not caught up on it yet? Watch* OITNB* Season 3 on Netflix now.
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Prison essentials: the top 10 items we'd smuggle into OITNB's Litchfield Penitentiary