Actor Danielle Brooks is ready to conquer the world – and she’s taking no prisoners
Last week Danielle Brooks’s father, a church deacon in the small town in South Carolina where Brooks was raised, called his daughter in New York. “He said, ‘Danielle, you won’t believe what just happened. I get out of the car and see this couple walking their dog, and they just stop in front of the house. He calls over and says, ‘Excuse me sir, are you Taystee’s father?’” The unexpected visitors were fans of Orange Is the New Black, and particularly Brooks’s character, one of its few truly likable inmates. “That’s crazy,” whistles Brooks, a little unsure of whether to be impressed or alarmed.
I’m due to meet Brooks in a Chinese tearoom in midtown Manhattan in the middle of a sweltering summer day. I arrive half an hour early to cool down, but Brooks is already there, all in black, tucked away in the corner, as low-key as Tasha “Taystee” Jefferson is forthright. When she gets going, Brooks, 28, is a hoot. She has a deep, throaty giggle so contagious it should come with a health warning, though she’s as quick to well up, too, when she talks about the crippling self-doubt that followed her Broadway debut in The Color Purple. It’s easy to see why OITNB cast her as the emotional heart of the show. She’s passionate and warm; if you had to choose a cellmate, she’d be high on the list.
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