Actress Kate Mulgrew's strange childhood: I was born with teeth, kept in a cage

LOS ANGELES, June 10 (UPI) -- Actress Kate Mulgrew says a rare condition causing her to be born with teeth and the inability to feel pain led her parents to keep her in a cage until she was four years old.

According to the Orange is the New Black star, the condition was very dangerous, because she could have swallowed the "pearlescent," blue-colored teeth.

In addition to her teeth, which her parents later had removed for her safety, Mulgrew told the United Kingdom's ITV she was kept in a cage as a toddler as protection since she could not experience pain.

"[My parents] built me a little cage, because I had no sense of pain until I was 4 years old," the now 61-year-old celebrity said. "So I was born with teeth and had no sense of pain. Shakespeare would have had a field day. It's a witch! That's what a witch is."

Mulgrew plays Galina "Red" Reznikov in the popular Netflix series Orange Is The New Black and also starred in the 1990s series Star Trek: Voyager. She reportedly played the first female captain in the franchise.

The full fourth season of OINTB will premiere on Netflix June 17. Mulgrew appears on the program opposite Laura Prepon, Laverne Cox, Uzo Aduba, Danielle Brooks, Nick Shadow, Taylor Schilling and Jessica Pimentel.