3. This season Dascha Polanco has “busted out” on Netflix’s Orange is the New Black,
and look out—this Dominican-born, Brooklyn-raised star will soon be repping her
Latin roots and curvaceous figure everywhere you look.
Photos: Dale May | Words: Brett Williams | Styling: Darius Baptist
Hair: Cynthia Alvarez | Make-Up: Camara Aunique | Manicure: Omary Gonell @NailFeen
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Within the first few minutes of sitting across from
Dascha Polanco, you know this isn’t going to
be your typical celebrity interview. She is bigger
and bolder than most of your “average” cover-
girls—and we mean that both figuratively and lit-
erally—and she will be the first to tell you, “Listen
dear, I’m not like the rest! I’m here to represent all
the girls who thought their weight and their, well,
middle class background meant they had limita-
tions on who and what they could be. Listen to
me, that is all bullshit!” Okay, so that should give
you an idea of how a Dascha interview plays out.
In 2013, Netflix debuted its original series
Orange is the New Black. The show is set within
the fictional Litchfield Penitentiary—a women’s
prison—which meant the producers had to cast
“inmates” that run the gamut of people who find
themselves on the other side of the bricks. They
needed diversity—that meant race, creed, color
and body type.
Of these talented women, definitely one of the
most notable is Dascha Polanco, whose star
has rapidly risen along with OITNB (and other
projects in which she’s appeared during the
show’s run). As inmate Daya Diaz, Dascha has
taken on a complicated role: she has arguably
the show’s most prominent romantic story arc
(which results in an unexpected pregnancy), a
complicated relationship with her fellow inmate
mother, and, to end the most recent season, a
cliffhanger that puts her in a dangerous position.
You’d think that such a tricky role would be
filled by a solid veteran presence, someone with
a proven track record of experience that goes
along with her talent. Dascha clearly has the
acting chops for the role—but her IMDb profile is
noticeably shorter than many in similar positions.
That’s mostly because, until only a few years
ago, Dascha wasn’t confident enough to pursue
her acting aspirations, worried that her body type
would keep her from landing the roles she felt
she had the talent to play.
“Growing up as a little girl, this is always what
I’ve wanted to do,” says Dascha. “I just have not
had maybe the support or the belief in myself
and maybe the security that I can reach this
dream of mine. So acting was my imagination. It
was never realistic to me.
“My insecurities came physically, like being fat.
So all my life I’m like ‘how can I be an actress
when on TV, I don’t see anybody that’s like
curvaceous or anybody that’s really fat or that
looks like me?’ I’m in the bathroom at the age
of fifth grade trying to hold my stomach saying
‘I wanna cut my stomach off, why can’t I be like
this person’ or, my uniform doesn’t fit the same
everybody else’s because my uniform was
shorter in the back. I didn’t realize that’s because
I’ve always had a bottom as opposed to my best
friend that was like a stick. So her uniform fit to
SEPTEMBER 2016 / 43
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her knees, not mine! Mine was the only one that
was up in the back and long in the front. The
idea of “uniform” I could never relate to because
I never looked the same as everybody else.”
So instead of pursuing her dream, Dascha
earned a degree in psychology at Hunter
College and then worked in hospital adminis-
tration. But she never let her imagination die.
Lucky for us, she beat her insecurities and got
back into performing. Success followed.
Presently, when it comes to credits, Dascha’s
are quality not quantity. After two small TV
appearances, she was cast in OITNB in 2012
and the indie film Gimme Shelter, which gave
her the opportunity to work with Hollywood
stalwarts James Earl Jones and Rosario
Dawson in her very first film role. Next came The
Cobbler, with big names Adam Sandler and
Dustin Hoffman. Then, in perhaps the biggest
role of her career, Dascha was cast in David O.
Russell’s Joy as Jackie, the best friend of the
title character, who was played by Oscar-winner
Jennifer Lawrence. The star-studded cast also
featured Bradley Cooper and the legendary
Robert De Niro.
Acting with such established co-stars brings
everything full circle for Dascha. “For me I think
it’s a moment of validation,” she says. “Being in
a scene with a presence like Robert De Niro,
Jennifer Lawrence or Bradley Cooper—you
know even Method Man—these were people
that I grew up watching, listening to, that I
never ever thought I would be next to. So in
that moment, although I suppress it, when I
go back to the room after I’m done working it’s
very emotional, it’s very intense, it’s very gratify-
ing. It’s that moment where I realize that this is
what I’m supposed to do. I think I get respect
from that, because when I speak to someone
like Mr. Robert De Niro, who’s very selective
and very exclusive and he approaches you and
he embraces you it’s because he understands
you’re there for the purpose of what you love
to do. And you respect him as a person, you
respect him as an actor, and what he has done,
and you’re just there to allow that to be a part of
your own personal experience.”
But her path to Joy wasn’t always a clear or
comfortable one. Even though her star was
already rising, old feelings were hard to put
completely aside. “I had to meet with him [direc-
tor David O. Russell] here in NYC,” she says,
thinking back to the final round of auditions.
“It was raining and I was in an Uber and I felt
so fat. I was thinking ‘oh my God these people
are gonna see me now! At least before I was
on camera and I could hide it and now they’re
gonna see me in person.’”
But this time wouldn’t be like the past. “I
was like, ‘you know what? I can’t do anything
about it now. It’s two of us down for the role….
and they need somebody from Brooklyn wit a
Brooklyn accent honey,” she says, breaking
effortlessly into the old neighborhood gab. “Go
out there and show ‘em what you got. And I
went and I did it. Now I’m his Gold Chicken
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Nugget, honey (the director’s nickname for her].
Now David O. Russell is my friend.”
Now, it’s difficult to imagine the powerhouse
actress as someone with any insecurities. She
speaks measuredly, to be sure—but there are the
authentic moments when she becomes excited
and the old Brooklyn in her comes tumbling out,
calling you ‘honey’ and spitting out words at a mile-
a-minute pace, alternately smiling and brash and
coquettish and quiet, almost holding back each
thing she says so you have to hang on every word.
Still, some of Dascha’s strong persona is actually
a careful calculation, yet another role she plays.
“People always say ‘you always seem so confident,’
she says. “This is a formula. When I’m in a place,
a social gathering, I never allow them to know that
I feel insecure. Whatever I’m wearing—that’s why I
love fashion. That’s my armor, my protection. You
may think I’m insecure darling, but you see I’m not.
And once I go home it’s like ‘oh my gawd,’ and I
gotta take everything I have off. Ah, gimme that
burger and that batta!”
After all is said and done, though, she realizes that
she acts for more than just herself. She needs to
rep, as much as possible, for the Latinas and bigger
girls who haven’t been confident enough to jump
for opportunities as she has. “I realized something
about weight and me: It’s very internal. Yes, you dis-
place it because you’re influenced by a lot of your
surroundings—obviously your environment has a
big big thing to do with it. But I realize the audience
that I have now, how much they need to view people
like me in front of a camera and in a photoshoot, on
the front of a magazine, and I realize that that’s what
I needed. Being able to have that influence, even
though I’m still growing and this is all a process
and I’m still learning myself—you know what, you
have a great personality, (so people say) and that
shines through everything. I’m 30 now, I’m not 10,
and some people are built some ways, some people
are not, you know this difference is your uniqueness
and this is taking you to where you’re at.
“I’m trying to do the same way you have a size
zero individual on Vogue looking fantastic. You
can have somebody that’s a regular size—cause
I’m not a plus size, so I don’t fit into the plus size, I
don’t fit into the petite, I’m right in the middle. I
range from eight to 12, this has been my life strug-
gle. I’m either the eight, when I’m the biggest, I’m
a 12. We too can be there, we too are talented, we
too can be sexy or whatever, we too can be ath-
letic. We too can be a CEO, we can be as equal as
anyone has been for years. That’s whole method of
working, of thinking.”
Maybe mainstream America (and media compa-
nies) are finally accepting the fact that not every-
one needs to look like the cookie-cutter Hollywood
type when it comes to casting leading men and
women. When you have the undisputed queen of
pop culture, Beyonce, serving as a mouthpiece
for women of color and pop/retrofunk R&B artist
Blood Orange opening one of the most talked
about records of the summer, Freetown Sound,
with an ode to women of all sizes and colors and
the statement “right now there are a million girls
just waiting to see someone who looks like them,”
it’s clear that the old standards are breaking down.
And now, after the preconceptions of others held
her out and even her own insecurities kept her in
the background, we have Dascha Polanco, step-
ping boldly into the limelight as a new icon. UI
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