10. Kohan and the writing staff visited an actual California prison
via womeninandbeyond.org
Jenji Johan and the writing staff her Kerman’s memoir to go by, and they also had Kerman herself consulting on the show periodically, but it’s not always easy to authentically write a world that you’ve never been a part of. How do you remedy that? Well, Kohan and her writing staff visited Chino Prison in California to get a look inside a real penitentiary. Kohan spoke with the warden himself, and got a lesson in how social groups formed in women’s prison, what made them different from men’s prisons, etc. Sure, good writers can concoct incredible backstories, but it’s that constant underlying current of authenticity that really makes us love OITNB.
9. Nicky’s scar is real
via decider.com
On OITNB, Nicky’s past is no secret – the flashbacks constantly show her pre-prison drug using days, and the reckless decisions she was making – and we finally got an answer to where her scar came from when the show presented her in the hospital after an open heart surgery. According to the show, the surgery was necessary because of a bacterial infection Nicky had received as a result of her drug use. Turns out, sometimes fiction isn’t that far from fact – Nicky’s scar is real, and it’s because Natasha Lyonne actually had the same surgery for the same reasons Nicky did.
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