Actress Samira Wiley has opened up about falling in love with her wife, screenwriter Lauren Morelli, on the set of Orange Is The New Black.
In an interview with BUST magazine, Wiley said: “I was really attracted to Lauren’s mind first before I met Lauren the person. I got her script and I was like: ‘This person’s really talented, I can’t wait to meet this person'.”
She continued: “It was the first script that my [character’s] name was actually in, where she says her name is Poussey. It’s the ‘accent à droite’ script."
“But then there was this rap battle in it and I was like: ‘Who is this writer? They just wrote a whole rap battle.’ I just assumed that they were going to be a person of colour."
“They were not. Let’s just say – shout out – my wife can write raps.”
Wiley admits that watching Morelli work in her element was part of what first attracted her to the screenwriter and producer.
“I just remember her coming to set and me being able to watch her be a boss from afar, telling whatever people to go this way, answering this question,” said the actress.
“Just seeing her literally be the person in charge was really attractive to me.”
However, things weren't necessarily smooth sailing, with Morelli married to a man at the time.
“I remember those first months with her, trying to figure out her journey with her own sexuality,” Wiley recalled.
“Feeling like she picked me as the person she was going to talk to about all of it. And it wasn’t sexual, it was just like a friend. There was something deeply intimate about that, whether there was sexual tension there or not,” she continued.
“The deep intimacy of being two people talking about the core of who we are. Talking about our journeys."
“Not even necessarily flirting on set, but on the phone, thousands of miles apart, talking about ‘Who are we? And does this make me a different person? Does this actually make me who I am now?’"
“That’s how we fell in love,” Wiley concluded.
Wiley and Morelli dated for three years before Morelli popped the question.
“She was very clear she’d wait for me to be ready, so to give her something I knew she wanted so much was incredible," Morelli said.
"It was the most magical day of my life.”
Samira Wiley is currently starring in season two of The Handmaid's Tale, which will be airing on SBS and SBS On Demand from Thursday, April 26. Watch the trailer below.
