DISCLAIMER: SPOILER ALERT BELOW (just so you know before you start reading.)
The Netflix original series Orange Is The New Black took the world by storm and has everyone completely obsessed with the female felons we all know and love. When season 3 arrived, nobody was quite sure of what to expect, but CO Bennett’s sudden departure from the show was definitely NOT on the list of possibilities. After getting inmate Daya pregnant and “proposing” to her (with a ring made out of tin-foil), viewers world-wide thought these two had the ultimate prisoner-correctional officer love story that was going to last forever. Unfortunately, that was NOT the case and Daya is now left alone in prison with a baby who has been taken into child services due to Cesar’s poor decision making.
However, even Matt McGorry, the man who plays CO Bennett, is appalled by his character’s behavior. See what he had to say below!
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On the time he was given about Bennett leaving:
I knew going into the season that he was going to leave, but I didn’t know really how it would happen. We’re never really given any idea of our story arc beyond each episode. Part of me would have wished for death over the way that it happened. Because as someone who’s a fan of obviously the show itself and Daya’s relationship with Bennett, it was pretty heartbreaking to me how he ended up leaving. And then I never got the scripts for any future episodes. I’m slowly watching the series now – I just finished Episode 4 – so it’s interesting to not know how your character is talked about as well once he’s gone.
On watching the show as a fan:
I am. You know, it’s a mixed experience because of the way that his story line ended up. Because I see it and when I watch it, I feel terrible for Daya, and also getting the real, live response on social media via the fans, their take on Bennett as well. So it’s a little bit mixed for me right now, but I really do enjoy the fact that I don’t have any idea what’s happening aside from whispers I’ve heard here and there and that’s sort of really cool. … Also, strange, by the way, I realized that the sex of the kid got spoiled for me on Twitter. I was like, ‘Oh, that’s kind of weird.’ I didn’t know! I didn’t watch yet. I was like, ‘That’s kind of a weird funny thing, some random person’s tweet spoiled that for me.’ And obviously, it’s not my kid so I don’t have the same attachment to it, but its sort of a weird meta thing.
On Bennett’s actions:
As an actor, in order to play a role, you have to be able to find a place where the character comes from and be able to understand it and justify it, as hard as it seems. And it doesn’t mean that anything is necessarily excusable, but I think you still have to find out where that character comes from. For example, if I were to be cast as Hitler, I wouldn’t say, ‘Yeah, I get why I did the things I did.’ But you would try to find whatever insecurities he had, whatever anger that he had and try to at least thread that together into a pattern of thought that would allow it to seem genuine. But as far as Bennett goes, he’s not dead, as far as we know. We have yet to see where his story line really ends up. And there is part of me that has hope that he’s more the man that we kind of believed that he was the whole time and he really sort of pulls through and comes back. He always wants to be the hero and often is incapable of that in the way that he hopes to be. And he really couldn’t care for Daya and the child, particularly while working in the prison. So in my mind, I do have hope that he hatches some sort of plan that forces him to be the bad guy for a while, but ultimately is working towards a better future.
Source: TVGuide
