Samira Wiley is a confident person. “Extremely,” she says, with a grin that immediately grows into a full-throated laugh. In the depths of the National Theatre in London, in a meeting room so featureless and business-bland that a member of staff apologises for it, Wiley is a big, bright presence. She talks with her hands. When she listens, she leans back in her chair, arms hanging down at her sides, opening herself up, and when she really wants to make a point, she stretches forward and slaps her palms on the table, holding eye contact. “I am confident. Sometimes to a fault,” she says. “If I’m not totally sure about something, I’m like, I will bet you $500…” She laughs. “I can admit when I’m wrong, though.” She leaves it a beat, then, still grinning, sinks back into her chair. “Sometimes.”
At 35, Wiley is famous for two big TV roles. One, her first real acting job, was in the prison series Orange is the New Black. For four years, she played fan favourite Poussey Washington. After that, she played Moira, an activist turned handmaid turned activist again in the TV adaptation of The Handmaid’s Tale. But she trained as a theatre actor and is about to make her British stage debut in the National Theatre’s revival of Blues for an Alabama Sky. She plays Angel, a down-on-her-luck showgirl in Depression-hit 1930s Harlem.
