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OITNB’s Samira Wiley Tells Us About How Derek Jeter Almost Bought Her a Drink

You may best know Samira Wiley as the lovable, hooch-brewing Poussey in Orange Is the New Black, but for her latest project, Nerve, in theaters July 27, Wiley takes a completely different route, playing a super cool computer hacker in the film. The premise of the movie is about a crowd-fueled social media game where users pay players to complete (sometimes terrifying) dares, forcing the players to take risks they may not have before. An appropriate plotline, since Wiley herself is no stranger to taking risks.

“I was auditioning for Juilliard where I went to school, and you were supposed to come up with, prepare three different monologues for your audition,” she told us. “And I did my first two, and they’re like, ‘oh, that was great, do you have a third monologue?’ And I didn’t. But I said, ‘yes of course I have a third monologue. Who do you think I am?’ And I just made up this entire speech, which I’m one hundred percent positive that my professors know that it was nothing but gobbledy gook as of now. But, at the time, I thought I was really getting over. But they’re professors at Juilliard. They know like every play, I’m sure they knew I was not telling the truth.”

Still, a little improvising didn’t stop her from getting into school – nor did it keep her from building a successful – and growing – career. Watch the Suno-clad Wiley talk Nerve, Orange Is the New Black, Black Lives Matter, her fans, and more in this installment of “I Yahoo’d Myself.”

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