Hunter Emery – Orange is the New Black

By: Jamie Steinberg

Q) What are the recent projects that you are working on?

A) I shot a pilot for NBC called “Gone” about a month or two ago. I recently shot an episode of “Turn” that should be airing fairly soon. Then, there are a lot of auditions now to try to keep it going.

Q) Was your role on “Orange is the New Black” an audition or was it pitched to you?

A) It was a regular audition. I got the phone call about the audition on a Wednesday and went in on Thursday. Then, I was on set by Monday.

Q) How was your character originally described to you?

A) They didn’t have too much on the break down about him. He was just kind of what I got from the scene that he was a little misogynistic. In the break down was “fratty.” So, it was kind of fun to go in there and do that. [laughs]

Q) What have you found challenging about your role?

A) I think the hardest part is the mental game of it. You book something like this on a really popular TV show that has a lot of extremely talented people that are working their ass off. I think kind of being mentally prepared and go in and be on set with people who are just pros – trying to convince myself I belonged there. I feel like I got better as the season went on. I got more confident and started to understand who my character was a bit more. I remember my first day I was so terrified. I had my first intro scene and then after that I worked with Brad William Henke. We became really good friends. My first day when we were just kind of talking between takes I was like, “I’m really nervous.” He asked how it was going and I said, “Well, you know, I’m just trying not to screw up too bad.” He was like, “Yeah, it’s really hard to be awesome when you’re just trying not to f-up.” [laughs] But after a few weeks you stop worrying about not messing. Every day I felt like I was auditioning to come back and at some point I let go of that. I was like, “Who is this guy? I’m just going to have fun.” So, things really changed for me after that.

Q) What were your initial thoughts when you learned the season took place over three days and you’d be in the midst of a giant riot?

A) It was interesting because I got all of my scenes in pieces. They weren’t giving me full scripts so I just had to piece together information like while we were shooting, which kind of benefited my character because I don’t know what is going on inside the prison. So, it really helped me out not knowing what was going on in there. I just kind of focused on what I was doing at the time and tried to keep it real during the day.

Q) What was it like working with your costar Brad William Henke?

A) I learned so much from Brad. He’s someone that has been working professionally for over twenty years and he is just a pro. I remember my first day there was this scene that I did with him where I was up in his car and we kind of walk into the vestibule of the prison. He did this thing that blew my mind at the time. It was a closeup on Brad and he turns around and I think his line to me is something like, “You don’t know them like I do.” On the shot, he knew without anyone telling him that he had to adjust his eye-line to not look at me but to kind of adjust it off camera so it looked like he was looking at me. I asked him, “How did you know to do that?” He said, “I don’t know. I’ve just been doing stuff on set.” He also told me to close my eyes so that when he turned around he wouldn’t make eye contact with me, which would throw off his eye-line. It was just a weird technical trick that blew my mind. I just continued after that to follow him around and hound him for advice. He was so mentor-ish. He really took me under his wing, taught me a lot and made me feel really welcome on that set.

Q) What were some of your most memorable moments from filming this season of “Orange?”

A) Watching him [Brad] and Kate Mulgrew work. They had a quick exchange and just by watching those two titans go at it was pretty incredible. Also when I got to work with Elizabeth Rodriguez later on in the season – she blew my mind! She is by far the most talented actor I’ve ever worked with in my life. She goes 110% on every take regardless of whether or not she is in the shot. She goes for it every single time! It was just watching a pro at work every single time. It was pretty astounding and made you think, “Oh, this is where the bar is” and you had to raise your game.

Q) Who haven’t you gotten to work with that you’d like to have some scenes with in the future?

A) Pretty much everyone! I didn’t get to work with many of the gals because I was outside of the prison, but I’d love to work with Uzo [Aduba], Taylor [Schilling], Laura [Prepon], Lea [DeLaria] or Adrienne [C. Moore]. I have really primarily had my scenes with Brad. I’m sad I won’t be doing more of those. Just getting inside and working with people who have been there since Day one who are mega talents would be amazing. We’ll see what happens.

Q) Have you heard from family and friends about the season?

A) Of course my family has been blowing up my Facebook and I’ve been getting lots of text messages from cousins and stuff. That’s been really awesome, rewarding and flattering. I got noticed for the first time on the street recently and that was kind of fun.

Q) What have you taken away from your time working on the show?

A) The biggest thing I guess as someone who is still aspiring to be at the level of some of these actors career-wise on the show is that there is no magic secret. You just show up and work. All of these people who you think are amazing are just people. That was kind of the biggest take away. It took away some of the mystery around making it. It’s just blue collar work. You show up, do your work and go home. There is something kind of comforting in that. Top to bottom it was the most rewarding experience of my life both professionally and my everyday life.

Q) Is there anything else you want to be sure our readers know about this season of “Orange is the New Black?”

A) The writers have such a challenging job and it’s really amazing what they have done. The talent level that they have and what has been the product they have been putting out over five seasons has been pretty remarkable. I think writers are the unsung heroes. The actors kind of get most of the accolades being on camera, but we’re nothing without the script.