Dear Edward’s Taylor Schilling Breaks Down Exactly Why Her Characters Always Seem Destined For a ‘Downward Spiral’

During its seven seasons, Taylor Schilling made us feel all the emotions with her character of Piper in Orange is the New Black. From despair to laughter, we felt it all. In Schilling’s new show, Dear Edwardcoming to Apple TV+, we could say the same.

Talking to SheKnows’ Reshma Gopaldas, the actress talked about portraying these female characters who seem to always be on the brink of a breakdown. “I don’t know man, I don’t know,” she says about her role choices. “I’m very much an actor, material comes to me and I work with it and so there’s some like written-in-the-stars piece of this.”

“I do relate to a lot of transition and so I feel like that might be a part of why I’m always playing these people,” she continues, before agreeing that there’s definitely “a downward spiral theme to my work.”

In Dear Edward, Schilling plays Lacey, a woman who’s had to take in her nephew Edward (Colin O’Brien), after he becomes the sole survivor of a plane crash that took the life of her sister and Edward’s mother.

“Colin is awesome,” she says of working with the young actor. “It’s so interesting, he’s so mature and such a conscientious person and he cares so much about this part and about doing a good job so he was really game to get into it.”

Schilling continues, “I felt like both of those characters, the grief for both of them, for different reasons, is so deep and it gave both of us an opportunity to sort of dive in as much as we wanted to… so we had a good time.”

When Gopaldas adds that watching the show felt like “two best friends getting to know each other,” Schilling couldn’t agree more revealing their real-life dynamic, mirrored the on-screen relationship, “It’s kind of what it felt like,” she says. “I really like him, we spent a lot of time together and I learned a lot from him, he’s a really cool person.”

Also starring in the series is Connie Britton as Dee Dee, a widow and mom who’s lost her husband in the crash. “Dee Dee and Lacey couldn’t be more different, I was watching the show I was like ‘these are two different women,'” Schilling says.

As for how the two would to in a OITNB-style jail, outcomes would definitely differ. “I feel like Lacey would probably do pretty well in prison, Lacey would just be like ‘I’m rolling up my sleeves and figuring this s*** out,'” Schilling says. “I don’t know how Dee Dee would fare.”

Lastly, Gopaldas asked Schilling if the show’s given her a heightened fear of flying, something avid watchers of Lost, Manifest and Yellowjackets know a thing or two about. “I wish I had that,” she admits. “I have such a weird attitude towards anything like that, it doesn’t stress me out.”

She adds, “I don’t know what that says about me, probably a lot and we could probably get into it, but it doesn’t stress (me out). I’m like, ‘bring it on.’ When there’s turbulence, I’m like ‘Jesus take the wheel.'” Though we might not be feeling the same after watching Dear Edward, out Feb 3, we are looking forward to seeing Schilling command the screen again!

Before you go, click here to see the top 10 TV shows that don’t shy away from dealing with grief.