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