Orange Is the New Black’s Kate Mulgrew Explains Why She Dislikes Red’s Ending

Orange Is the New Black’s Kate Mulgrew has expressed her dissatisfaction with her character’s ending, saying that she even told creator Jenji Kohan how much she dislikes it.

Mulgrew had portrayed Galina “Red” Reznikov for seven seasons. A fan-favorite (and sometimes insufferable) character, Red was established as a ruthless and fierce inmate of Litchfield, who made Piper Chapman’s (played by Taylor Schilling) earlier moments in the series as difficult as they already were.

Red, since Season 1, was a force to be reckoned with. It’s safe to assume that Red’s tough experiences both outside and inside the correctional facility made her the woman that she was. However, the show’s final episodes seemed to feature less of Red, who at the time was already exhibiting early-onset dementia.

Orange Is the New Black’s Kate Mulgrew ‘felt a little disappointed’ over Red’s ending

Most fans were also not pleased with how the show wrapped things up for Red. And if there’s someone who dislikes it the most, it’s probably the actress who played the character from 2013 to 2019. When a fan asked Mulgrew how she felt about Red’s fate during a Fan Expo Boston event (via Collider), the actress admitted that she never liked how things ended for her character.

“I dislike it. And I told Jenji I didn’t like it. No, I didn’t like it. Jenji knew that my mother died that way. I didn’t see it in Red. I have to be honest with you, I didn’t see it in her strength, her mettle, her courage, her sharpness, her acuity, her heart, her sensitivity, her strategic sense, I didn’t see it in her culinary gift. It wasn’t represented. Was she at any point represented as an eccentric personality? Not really,” said Mulgrew.

She continued, “So, I thought it was a little hurried … If you’re gonna go that way, then let me have a minute with the audience to play it, you know what I mean? I felt a little…disappointed, I suppose, but that’s fair, it’s alright. Acting is largely just working. You never get what you really want because you’re not the boss. Unless you’re, you know, George Clooney.”

The actress then explained why Orange Is the New Black has featured less of Red as the series progresses.

“Red always was central, she never lost her centrality, she never lost her critical presence. [It] was naturally diminished over time. But I had three great seasons and, as you know, it was a game changer,” Mulgrew explained.

All seven seasons of Orange is the New Black are available to stream on Netflix. The official synopsis reads:

“A crime she committed in her youthful past sends Piper Chapman to a women’s prison, where she trades her comfortable New York life for one of unexpected camaraderie and conflict in an eccentric group of fellow inmates.”