Sure, you’ve seen Netflix’s Orange Is The New Black, but what’s the real story behind the show? You have probably been wondering…is Piper real? The answer is more complicated than you realized. Piper Kerman, known to Orange is the New Black fans as Piper Chapman (Taylor Schilling), is the woman who the show is based on. Now, let’s get into what’s real about this drug crime, Piper’s prison time and what they left out…
Based On Piper’s Book
Basically, the series is based on Piper Kerman’s memoir Orange Is The New Black. In real life Piper Kerman was convicted of felony money-laundering charges. Thus, she did spend a year in prison. However, the show, Orange Is The New Black, brought to fans by creator Jenji Kohan of Weeds, is not a strictly nonfiction account or docuseries. So, what exactly comes from the real story? Is there a real former lover like Alex too?
Based On Piper’s Book
Her Crime
In real life, Piper Kerman fell for someone she calls Nora in her book and got caught up in…you guessed it, an international drug ring. On the show, this Nora character is called Alex (Laura Prepon). So, long story short she ended up smuggling $10,000 from Illinois to Belgium while with Nora. Fast forward ten years and it came back to haunt her. Reflecting on her mistakes in her early twenties, Piper Kerman told NPR, “It was a reckless and selfish time in my life.”
Her Crime
Larry
If you watch Orange Is The New Black, you know that Larry was Piper’s fiancé. In real life, Kerman was engaged to Larry Smith, a writer. During her whole incarceration he stayed by her side. On the show, Larry (Jason Biggs) wrote that article called “One Sentence, Two Prisoners.” Meanwhile, the actually Larry wrote a modern love piece called “A Life to Live, This Side of the Bars” in March 2010.
Larry
Happier Ending
Although Larry leaves her in the show, that’s far from the reality. In Larry Smith’s column, he wrote, “To say she was freaked out and wondering if I would stick around for the messes sure to come is an understatement. To say that it never once crossed my mind to bail on her is simply a statement of fact.” Then in her memoir, Kerman wrote in response to his column, “Even here, without him, I couldn’t imagine any sweeter Christmas present.” The two married in 2006 and are still together now. On the show, Larry left Piper Chapman for her best friend.
Happier Ending
Piper’s Ex
In her 2013 TED talk, Piper Kerman spoke of the prison system and her own experience. She went into the people from her life who inspired characters on the show. So, yes she spoke of her former lover. Apparently, confronting her ex in prison helped her confront her past, metaphorically and literally. The real life Alex (played by Laura Prepon on the show) is based on the heroin dealer, Catherine ‘Cleary’ Wolters. Clearly had been working for a Nigerian kingpin and then spent 65 months in prison.
Piper’s Ex
Letting Go
Piper Kerman went on in her TED talk to explain how coming face to face with Cleary helped her. Both women were staying in a six woman cell for a crime from over a decade ago. Kerman explained the most important lesson learned was to “to let go of blame for her or anyone else about where I was.” Then her ex-lover, Cleary got shipped out to do more time in prison while Piper was getting released. Actually, she felt overcome by emotions and cried after saying goodbye. According to Kerman, they had reached a point where she “recognized our shared fate and humanity.”
Letting Go
Solitary Confinement
Of course, there’s always going to be added elements in shows to hype up the drama. Thus, it’s not surprising to hear some of the most epic moments in Orange is the New Black are completely fictionalized. Remember in the second season when Piper (Taylor Schilling) gets sent to SHU for attacking Pennsatucky? Turns out, Piper Kerman never got sent to solitary confinement. However, she did testify in 2014 in front of Senate to eliminate solitary confinement as punishment.
Solitary Confinement
Furlough
Another huge plot point in Orange Is The New Black is Piper getting furlough when her grandmother is sick. Sadly, Piper Chapman missed her grandmother’s death, but at least she got to be home for a few days. Even more tragically, Kerman didn’t get furlough or a chance to say goodbye to her grandmother. Kerman told EW, “It’s devastating when you confront how selfish actions you’ve taken are preventing you from being there for the people who need you the most. That’s a terrible, terrible thing.”
Furlough
Prison Life
Some of the actual things Piper Kerman saw in prison were really graphic, intense and eye-opening. She wrote in her memoir, “I had learned a lot since arriving in prison five months ago: how to clean house using maxipads, how to wire a light fixture, how to discern whether a duo were best friends or girlfriends, when to curse someone in Spanish, knowing the difference between “feelin’ it” (good) and “feelin’ some kinda way” (bad), the fastest way to calculate someone’s good time, how to spot a commissary ho a mile away, and how to tell which guards were players and which guards were noth-in’ nice. I even mastered a recipe from the prison’s culinary canon: cheesecake.”
Prison Life
Race In Prison
During her NPR interview, Kerman went into how race played a huge factor in prison to organize people by groups. However, she emphasized that as time went on, these “tribal” organizations loosened up, adding, “While initially people might sort of gravitate toward the people who are the same color of them, I think that matters less and less the longer you’re there.”
Race In Prison
The Little Things
In his New York Times column, the real Larry spoke about the strict rules that viewers have seen in the show’s visitation scenes. Larry wrote, “No one else in my life knew the reality of our circumstances, like why buying your lady a Diet Coke from the vending machine in the visiting room (because our women weren’t allowed to touch money) was among the greatest acts of love you were capable of performing.”
The Little Things
Sophia’s Inspiration
Of course, many have celebrated the extremely diverse cast on Orange is the New Black. Sure, some of them have been totally invented, but others came from people Piper Kerman met in prison. Even though Orange is the New Black show writers came up with Sophia’s backstory, there was a trans woman who lived next to Kerman. On Orange is the New Black, Sophia is played by the fabulous Laverne Cox, and in the Orange is the New Black book, this trans woman is called Vanessa.
Sophia’s Inspiration
Real Life Red
As for Red, Piper Kerman actually dedicated her memoir to this character, but refers to her as Pop in the book. In one section of her book, she remembers Pop telling her, “Listen, honey, I know you just got here, so I know that you don’t understand what’s what. I’m gonna tell you this once. There’s something here called ‘inciting a riot,’ and that kind of shit you’re talking about…you can get in big trouble for that…so take a tip from me, and watch what you say.”
Real Life Red
Mother Figures
Besides the romantic relationships, there’s something else that Orange is the New Black carefully constructs between the women. As Kerman said in 2010, “A lot of folks sort of ask salacious questions about the romantic relationships between women but I think the dominant paradigm of women’s relationships in prison is the mother-daughter relationship.”
Mother Figures
Cleary Has Her Own Book
Hey, Kerman is not the only one with a memoir! Actually, Cleary wrote about her experiences in Out of Orange. If you’re interested in the real story and not just the fictional relationship on the show, her autobiography is worth a read. Cleary said, “There are hints of reality in the show, and maybe I’m just seeing them because I want to see them so much, but there are things that make me think ‘Is Piper consulting on this? Is she telling them things?'”
Cleary Has Her Own Book
Donna Playing Cleary
While speaking with HuffPost Live, Cleary said, I’m flattered that they picked me out in her [Piper’s] life as such an interesting, charismatic character that they had to make a whole backstory about me. I never imagined I’d be Donna from That ’70s Show. When I watch that part of the series, I watch it as a viewer. I don’t say ‘that’s my life.’…The glasses were a dead giveaway [that Alex is me], so I immediately recognized it in the commercial. Taylor Schilling does a great job of being Piper. Piper’s a little less deer in the headlights, though.”
Donna Playing Cleary
How Piper Met Her Alex
Wait, let’s rewind a bit and explain how Piper met her Alex, or Cleary in real life. So back in 1993, Piper Kerman was a recent Smith College graduate and at age 24, fell in love with a group she called, “clique of impossibly stylish and cool lesbians in their mid-30s.” One woman in the group she calls Nora Jansen in the book, but in real life is Catherine Cleary Wolters or Alex Vause on Orange is the New Black. Cleary was involved in a drug-trafficking ring, and before she knew it, Piper found herself smuggling drugs. Ten years later when the Feds came for her, she was living with her boyfriend Larry in New York. It took six more years for her to hear if she would go to prison or not.
How Piper Met Her Alex
Taking Liberties
Piper explained the accuracy of the series in her NBC interview, saying, ‘The Netflix series is an adaptation, and there are tremendous liberties. What that means is that when you watch the show, you will see moments of my life leap off the screen, such as Larry Bloom’s proposal to Piper Chapman, [which] is not so very different from the way my husband, Larry Smith, proposed to me. There are moments in the very first episode, like when Piper Chapman insults Red, who runs the kitchen with an iron fist — that is actually very closely derived from what’s in the book and from my own life. But there are other parts of the show which are tremendous departures and pure fiction.’
Taking Liberties
Charges Against Cleary
While Kerman got a 15 month sentence, her ex-lover Cleary faced bigger charges. She was charged with conspiracy to import heroin, thus, she served close to six years in a California prison. Then in 2008, she got parole. During her prison sentence, she wrote screenplays, fiction and poetry. However, her memoir Out of Orange was her first published work.
Charges Against Cleary
Informants
On Orange is the New Black, the romance between Piper and Alex faces conflict over whether Alex named Piper as an informant. In real life, Cleary explains that everyone named people, saying, “They had picked the first round of us up two years prior to Piper’s somewhat congenial visit from the feds. So, yes, I named her, she named me, and we all named each other. Fact was, we all thought we were doing the right thing, confessing, getting protection, and saving ourselves from certain death at the hands of a Nigerian drug lord who we knew would soon find we had all been arrested.”
Informants
Pain Of Watching OTNB
While Cleary admires Piper for being able to share her story, she explained to Vanity Fair, “This story isn’t about a fun ride through some old familiar haunt, giving me little glimpses and peeks of some fond old stomping ground. Christ, it’s my nightmare, the one that wakes you gasping on your rubber legs that won’t run…This stress is real, it is unrelenting. I’ve had a heart attack, a five-way bypass, been judged, humbled, and hobbled, but I made it.”
Pain Of Watching OTNB
Can’t Resist
Despite having flashbacks to her experiences, she does love watching. Cleary continued, “But I watched, and of course I’ll watch the rest. I can’t help it. It’s a great show. The actors are incredible, the story line is interesting, and come on, who doesn’t want to see Donna from That ’70s Show have lesbian sex?”
Can’t Resist
Surprised By Cleary’s Comment
Piper Kerman then responded to Cleary’s comments, saying, “I’m glad Cleary is getting the chance to tell her story, because she is a charismatic and funny person. It should come as no surprise that we may have different points of view about the time we spent together. I think anyone would understand that my relationship with her was, and is, complicated. What I wrote about us in my book is true. If Cleary believes we were never girlfriends, that is startling news to me, though it’s certainly not the first time she has surprised me.”
Surprised By Cleary’s Comment
Taking Responsibility
In addition, Piper Kerman added, “Cleary did not force me to do anything, but rather made me seductive offers that I found very compelling back when I was 22 years old. I am exceptionally grateful that our odd chance meeting in Chicago happened, and I wish Cleary a very happy life moving forward.” The two only spent time locked up together during those five weeks at the detention center before testifying.
Taking Responsibility
Missing Character
However, there’s something big the show left out…that would be the actual person who introduced Piper Kerman to the drug smuggling world. In her memoir Orange Is the New Black, Kerman identified Cleary’s sister named Hester as that person. Strangely, they decided to leave that detail/character out of the television show.
Missing Character
Jenji Kohan Begged Piper For The Show
After Jenji Kohan, who created Weeds, read Kerman’s memoir, she was desperate to make the show, saying, “I’m always looking for those places where you can slam really disparate people up against one another, and they have to deal with each other. There are very few crossroads anymore. We talk about this country as this big melting pot, but it’s a mosaic. There’s all these pieces, they’re next to each other, they’re not necessarily mixing. And I’m looking for those spaces where people actually do mix—and prison just happens to be a terrific one.” Apparently, the competition was stiff and Kohan begged Kerman for the show and Piper Kerman was impressed with her devotion to sharing the story properly.
Jenji Kohan Begged Piper For The Show
Kerman Actively Gives Notes
Even though Orange Is the New Black has strayed from Kerman’s original story, Kohan still turns to her for advice. The showrunner explained of Kerman, “She gives notes, mostly about accuracy. You know, ‘I don’t think that would happen.’ And she comes to set for visits, which must be strange for her. But she’s really kind of trusted us with her baby and we really, completely took off from where she started.”
Kerman Actively Gives Notes
Real Former Prisoners
Something the fans cannot stop raving about is the opening credits. Yes, even the opening credits are emotional and raw. Apparently, Kohan hired real formerly incarcerated women for the sequence. During the shoot, these women were asked to imagine three different things. The first was “a peaceful place,” then a “person who makes you laugh,” and last, “something you want to forget.”
Real Former Prisoners
Location
Although the prison in the show Litchfield is fictional, it is really a town in upstate New York. However, Litchfield doesn’t have its own federal penitentiary. Thus, the show filmed in Rockland County, New York at an old Children’s Psychiatric Center.
Location
Piper Now
Now, the real Piper is out of prison and a full American citizen again. Besides enjoying her newfound fame from a top Netflix show, she works hard as a communications consultant for different nonprofits. Luckily for her, things turned out fine, but she’s always working hard to help those who are less fortunate.
Piper Now