Uzo Aduba knows a thing or two about mysteries. As bird-watching detective Cordelia Cupp on the Netflix series “The Residence,” she expertly gathers evidence to solve a murder in the White House.
But how exactly did she develop her singularly dynamic acting skills that have won her Emmy and SAG Awards? Here, Aduba walks us through some of her most memorable roles to help crack the case.
Big risks on “Orange Is the New Black”
TV audiences first met Aduba in her breakout role on the Netflix prison drama in 2013. The role of inmate Suzanne Warren, derisively dubbed “Crazy Eyes,” made the actor a pop-culture sensation.
Intensely obsessive and prone to outbursts, Aduba’s character desperately wants to belong. Suzanne’s struggles with mental illness, however, mark her as an outsider among outsiders. The actor swings for the fences with her performance. Her volatility and perpetually bewildered expression belie a core of sweetness.
Aduba credits series creator Jenji Kohan and writer-producer Sian Heder with encouraging her to attempt “my wacky little thing” on set. “That part taught me to try anything,” she says. “You’re taught in school [that] there are no bad choices. But to have the confidence to try is a different matter altogether.”
Credit: JoJo Whilden/Netflix
No limits on “Steven Universe”
Fans of Rebecca Sugar’s Cartoon Network series are particularly fond of Aduba’s performance as Bismuth, a boisterous weaponsmith hiding her wartime trauma. Aduba calls the intergalactic comedy a reminder of the infinite possibilities of storytelling.
“The limited, boxed-in ways that stories in the animation space had existed [in] widened,” she says. “It allowed a show like that to exist—and be funny and smart and have clever moments and wit; [it] created room for invention for everybody to participate.”
Channeling history on “Mrs. America”
Aduba’s Emmy-winning turn as trailblazer Shirley Chisholm on Dahvi Waller’s 2020 FX miniseries came down to one word: essence. “When it comes to portraying a real person, it’s not about impersonation,” she says of playing Chisholm, the first Black woman elected to Congress, and, later, the first to seek a presidential nomination from a major political party.
Aduba searched for anchor points to portray the person, not the historical figure. She found illuminating footage of the moment Chisholm, visibly emotional, gave up her presidential delegates at the 1972 Democratic National Convention. “When you’re playing a real person, it’s not so much the forward-facing person that I want to pay attention to,” the actor says. “It’s the person who accidentally—or maybe sometimes on purpose—lets down their mask. If you can tap into that and infuse it with the public person, that might actually help us get to know them.”
While watching a documentary, she even got to see Chisholm dancing. “I remember feeling like she had such a buoyancy about her that I never had seen captured in any of her portraits,” she says.
Courtesy FX
Simple choices on “In Treatment”
On the fourth season of Rodrigo García’s HBO drama, Aduba sat in the therapist’s chair vacated by actor Gabriel Byrne, who had led the series for its first three installments. Aduba’s Dr. Brooke Taylor is an empathetic but firm professional whose personal struggles start to bleed into her work.
Playing to the reserved nature of a character whose job is to listen, Aduba learned that smaller can be better. The role demanded her to pay attention to instinct. “You don’t have to try so hard sometimes,” she says. “Sometimes the simple choice is the choice.”
Credit: Suzanne Tenner/HBO
Exploring character in “Clyde’s”
Aduba received a Tony nomination for her performance as the titular truck stop sandwich shop owner in Lynn Nottage’s 2021 Broadway play. Clyde is a devilish figure, wielding her power over her kitchen staff with relish. Aduba found the key to accessing Clyde’s vulnerable side in her flamboyant wardrobe. “She must have the makeup. She must have nails. She must have the wig. This is somebody who feels unseen, and yet does everything in her power to hide,” she says.
The actor delighted in the pace of developing a show for the stage, which allowed plenty of time to examine Clyde. “I love rehearsal,” she says. “That’s my favorite part of acting. I love digging in, trying stuff, seeing what works, what doesn’t, pulling it out, more digging, digging, digging.”
Credit: Suzanne Tenner/HBO
Stillness on “The Residence”
Somewhere between the big swings of Suzanne Warren and the understatement of Brooke Taylor lies the eccentricity of Cordelia Cupp on Paul William Davies’ 2025 whodunit. The biggest insight to understanding this sleuth came, fittingly, from observation.
“I discovered really early in reading the scripts how Cordelia speaks,” Aduba explains. “The cadence felt very clear on the page to me. She was able to pull a lot of information out of a very small clue, and that told me how smart she is, and how quickly she processes information.”
Aduba talks a lot in real life—but not as quickly as Cordelia. She tapped into breath work, pitching her speaking voice down to maintain stamina. “It required keeping my mouth in a single place and doing more from the tongue,” she explains.
The role became an exercise in stillness. During interrogation scenes, Aduba stays motionless; the great detective would never betray what she’s thinking. Bird-watching, Aduba recognized, was actually more than a hobby for Cordelia: “She is a bird—truly a bird—watching and listening and looking for the slightest flutters.”
