Taylor Schilling, Uzo Aduba talk friendship on 'OITNB' set

NEW YORK, June 12 (UPI) -- Taylor Schilling and Uzo Aduba are friends on and off-set of Orange is the New Black.

The 30-year-old actress and her 33-year-old co-star discussed their dynamic in an interview with Us Weekly published Thursday. Schilling and Aduba portray Piper Chapman and Suzanne "Crazy Eyes" Warren on the Netflix series, respectively.

"Taylor's funny and she's up for anything. And she's just my friend!" Aduba told the magazine before Schilling added, "Uzo's wonderful. [In our scenes] the intensity of it is shared; it's not one performaing and one receiving."

"We do a lot of gabbing, catching up and singing," Aduba said of on-set time with their castmates. "We sing gospel songs or Whitney [Houston] songs, Mariah [Carey] songs. And the [production assistants] will be like, 'We're ready to shoot!' and we're like, 'Oh, okay. Right after that hymn!'"

Orange is the New Black season 3 premiered early on Thursday. The series features several other actresses, including Laura Prepon and Taryn Manning, but the stars told Rolling Stone they are all able to get along.

"We are not going to be the example of how women don't work together," Aduba said before Selenis Leyva, who plays Gloria Mendoza, confirmed, "[Series creator] Jenji [Kohan] said from the beginning, 'I don't want any [expletive]holes on my show.'"

Orange is the New Black debuted in 2013, and will return for a fourth season in 2016. The comedy-drama is based on the Piper Kerman memoir of the same name, and follows the fictionalized Piper after she is sentenced to 15 months in a women's federal prison.