‘Orange is the New Black’ Star Uzo Aduba Almost Quit Acting

Break-out Orange is the New Black star Uzo Aduba had vowed to give up acting just moments before she learned she had landed the role of Crazy Eyes in the hit show.

The Emmy Award nominee got lost on her way to an audition for cop drama Blue Bloods and arrived 20 minutes late – and she took that as a sign it was time to give up acting and find another job.

She tells Access Hollywood Live, “I’d been working in New York doing theater and I’d been spending the the summer trying to do film and television and it was hard. I was like, ‘Maybe I’m not supposed to be doing this…’

“I’d gotten these directions and I got completely lost in Brooklyn somewhere, and then I had my audition and I was like, ‘I think that went OK, but I bet you’re not gonna get it because you were 20 minutes late’. I was like, ‘That’s a sign, you’re not supposed to be doing this…’ and then when I got home… I got the phone call, that I got Orange.

“I had auditioned for Orange, like, the month before and I never heard anything about it and so I auditioned for Blue Bloods that Friday… and I got a phone call from my agents, they said, ‘We’ve got good news for you, you remember that audition you went on for Orange is the New Black… Well, you didn’t get it… They want to offer you another part.’

“I said, ‘Amazing, what’s the other part?’ And they said, ‘Crazy Eyes’. I was like, ‘What in my audition… made them think I had crazy eyes…? But I was really thankful.”

Ironically, Aduba did get the Blue Bloods role but had to turn it down due to her commitment to Orange.

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