Orange Is the New Black's Jessica Pimentel Reveals Which Season 4 Scene Made Her "Cry Like a Little B*tch"

POPSUGAR: How did you originally end up with the role of Maria?

Jessica Pimentel: There wasn’t anything really drawing me to Maria, in particular, because all the information I had when I went in for her was that her name was Maria and that she was pregnant in jail. That’s all we had. The breakdown was: Maria, very pregnant. We knew that the series was going to be in prison, and we knew who was behind it, who was casting it, and some of the people who were coming in. It was very vague. No full scripts, just a couple of scenes that may or may not end up in the show.

PS: This season, Maria not only gets a backstory, but she's really fleshed out as a character. We see her go from the background of Litchfield to the leader of the Dominican inmates in the prison. Did your personal heritage have an affect on how you approached playing her in season four?

JP: Absolutely. My parents came to the US in the late ‘60s, early ‘70s, as children themselves. My mom came here when she was 12, turning 13. Dominicans are very proud people, and I wouldn’t say that my personal story matches Maria’s in any way, but there is that same sense of national pride. When she says, “Everything tastes better over there” and that “It doesn’t taste the same here,” I find that my aunts and uncles all say that. Like the beer Presidente tastes better back home. So that was a really cool thing for me. Dominican pride is very strong in our culture.

PS: Was your character Dominican from the get-go, or did they add that into her story when they learned that you were, too?

JP: Maria was Latin, but we didn’t know too many details. I was like, “How old am I?” and they’d be like, “I don’t know, how old are you? Your age?” Then I’d ask them, “Am I Dominican? Puerto Rican?” I really didn’t know, until things were eventually fleshed out in the writers' room. There would come points where I would have to ask, “Am I Columbian? Am I Mexican? Am I half Mexican? Half black? Half white?” From [Maria]’s age to where she was from, it all kind of unfolded over time.

PS: You had a lot of incredible scenes this season, but if you had to narrow it down, which was your favorite as an actress?

JP: There’s so many! It’s hard to pick one, but I would say filming with Piscatella. Before filming that scene where it’s just the two of us, we had never worked together. We had kind of seen each other around, but we’d never spent any time together. So that scene in the office where I come in guns blazing and then leave just destroyed was an epic scene to shoot. It was just the two of us in a quiet place, and when 99 percent of the time there’s a bunch of other actors screaming or talking in the scene, or we're all outside in some hot conditions . . . this one was such an intimate scene between two people. What you don’t realize is that there were another 50 people in the room, working, sweating, tired, and it was the last scene of the day. We had done it so many different ways, and he was an excellent partner to work with. He just took me from feeling rage to being neutral, from anger to feeling calm, and then completely broken down, and he kept allowing me to change my reactions and roll right with me. He really made me cry like a little b*tch, basically.

PS: Was there anything about season four that really ended up surprising you in a way that past seasons hadn’t?

JP: There’s no clear line as to who is a good guy and who is a bad guy anymore, because you get to see every angle. You get to see the sympathetic side of the villain. There are times you’re hoping certain characters get violent. Someone might throw a punch and you’re like, “Yeah!” but then another character does the same thing, and you’re yelling, “How could you do that?!” I find that emotional struggle — as a character, an actor, and as a viewer — made for a surprising season.

PS: Speaking of characters blending the lines between good and bad, the mild-mannered, typically nice Guard Bayley ends up killing Poussey in episode 11 in the midst of a prison riot. What was the vibe like on set that day while shooting such an emotional scene?

JP: It was over the course of several days and probably one of our longest days shooting in the history of the show. One day was over 24 hours, and the other one was 18 or so. Every single person, pretty much, is in that shot, so you get to see multiple reactions from different people. The vibe was intense and exhausting and heartbreaking, of course. You have a room full of a hundred people, so there’s that discomfort, and there’s no place to really chill, so you can never really relax, just in case they need you for one setup or another. It was as if we were really in that situation, because we were all really emotional, and we were all extremely tired and broken down. We were exhausted, defeated, and just trapped. You can’t leave. You can’t cross the street to the cafe to grab an iced tea, or whatever. We were in that room for days, so the tension and emotions were pretty close to what you think it looked like.

PS: Have you had any interesting fan responses since the new season came out?

JP: I was honestly waiting for hate mail! I thought everyone who was Team Piper Chapman was going to get on me, but it’s been the opposite effect. Everyone has been, like, “Yes, I’m so sick of her! I used to like her, but now I like you!” It’s been really supportive and loving. People are not just seeing the character and her development — which was awesome as a lover of the show to see that this character evolves and kind of comes out of nowhere — but also as an actress to see that people appreciated the work that I did. They understand that I’m not Maria, and I’m totally different from her, and I had to do a lot of transformation in a very short amount of time. They appreciate it, and that means everything to me, that they see how hard we work. We’re really working for you, to entertain you and bring you a story that you’re going to take with you and think about and hopefully change your mind about things.

PS: On top of being an actress, it was really interesting to learn that you’re also the frontwoman for the metal band Alekhine’s Gun. How did you get into that?

JP: Well I’ve been a musician my whole life. I started playing classical violin when I was 2 years old, and that was going to be my life. I used to practice day and night, literally before school, in school, after school . . . all day. But then, somewhere around 13 or 14 years old, I started doing this a lot [shakes her hand back and forth]. I would wake up, and my hands were totally numb. I stopped playing violin, but then I got into metal through a friend of mine in junior high. He said, “I think you’d really like this; it reminds me of classical music,” and hands me this King Diamond album. It was the most amazing thing I’d ever heard! It was like classical music, the story was amazing, and the musicianship was excellent, but it was so scary. I was afraid in my closet for like a week! It was insane. The music was so powerful and energetic and rebellious and loud. It really spoke to me, because my life was so structured, so I had this music that was kind of screaming for me and free in a way that I couldn’t be. It wasn’t so prim and proper and perfect. It was messy and strong, which is how I feel.

PS: I imagine the metal scene might be dominated by a lot of men. What is it like being a woman in that kind of environment?

JP: As women, we’re always going to have those obstacles. People will judge you differently and expect you to not be as good. They hold you to a different standard than they do everyone else, but hopefully more girls will realize that they can do anything they want, and they don’t have to worry about guys' opinions, or anyone’s opinions, if they want to play. If women continue to just follow their hearts and say, “Yeah, I want to do that,” they can just go for it. If you’re scared, your dreams will never come true.